Baby, You Light My Fire
First of all I want to thank all the women in my life who gave me a public holiday today! I appreciate it!! :-D
The public holiday was not pleasant for everyone, however. This morning, shortly before daybreak, there was a fire at one of the male residencies here at Stellenbosch. The roof of Eendrag caught fire and when it collapsed, the entire third floor was destroyed. The second and first floors sustained less damage, but no-one is moving back there again soon. There were no fatalities: only one person sustained serious neck injuries when he had to jump from the third floor to escape the flames (he slept through the fire alarm). A couple of other people also had minor injuries apart from those who where treated for smoke inhalation and shock.
The cause of the fire has not yet been officially determined, but preliminary evidence (and popular suspicion) is that the fire was caused by the negligence of one of the residents in his drunken state (because today is a public holiday, celebrations last night were wild). The blame for the extent of the devastation also lies with certain residents, as pulling the fire alarm as a prank was a common occurrence for years. Subsequently, the fire department (which is ironically extremely close to Eendrag), refused to respond to the fire alarm unless campus security confirmed an emergency.
I hope that the lessons learned today will stay with the other people in residencies for a very long time: fire alarms are not toys and pranks calls should be ground for expulsion, in my humble opinion (placement in residencies are highly sought after and being accepted is a privilege, not a right). But, the future is not now: now Stellenbosch has more than 200 people without a home. I suspect most people can go home and the ones I know certainly have other accommodation, but they still lost most things: text books, class notes, electronic equipment, clothes and other personal objects. The destruction is really phenomenal. I have not yet had a look around inside myself, but the entire ordeal is reminiscent of the time Aurora's residence burned down not long before we move away. Fire is a very powerful force.
The public holiday was not pleasant for everyone, however. This morning, shortly before daybreak, there was a fire at one of the male residencies here at Stellenbosch. The roof of Eendrag caught fire and when it collapsed, the entire third floor was destroyed. The second and first floors sustained less damage, but no-one is moving back there again soon. There were no fatalities: only one person sustained serious neck injuries when he had to jump from the third floor to escape the flames (he slept through the fire alarm). A couple of other people also had minor injuries apart from those who where treated for smoke inhalation and shock.
The cause of the fire has not yet been officially determined, but preliminary evidence (and popular suspicion) is that the fire was caused by the negligence of one of the residents in his drunken state (because today is a public holiday, celebrations last night were wild). The blame for the extent of the devastation also lies with certain residents, as pulling the fire alarm as a prank was a common occurrence for years. Subsequently, the fire department (which is ironically extremely close to Eendrag), refused to respond to the fire alarm unless campus security confirmed an emergency.
I hope that the lessons learned today will stay with the other people in residencies for a very long time: fire alarms are not toys and pranks calls should be ground for expulsion, in my humble opinion (placement in residencies are highly sought after and being accepted is a privilege, not a right). But, the future is not now: now Stellenbosch has more than 200 people without a home. I suspect most people can go home and the ones I know certainly have other accommodation, but they still lost most things: text books, class notes, electronic equipment, clothes and other personal objects. The destruction is really phenomenal. I have not yet had a look around inside myself, but the entire ordeal is reminiscent of the time Aurora's residence burned down not long before we move away. Fire is a very powerful force.
posted by phantom-99w at 02:46
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