Fire accidents are not very common. But when they take place they cause great alarm and destruction and sometimes loss of life.
After taking our food in the night, my father made fire to heat milk. When the milk had been heated, we drank it in another room.
Then my father told me to put out the fire with water on the half burnt pieces of wood. Then thinking that the wood would not catch fire again in the oven, I put it aside in a corner. Unfortunately there was a huge pile of wood for fuel in that room.
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I went away to my father’s room. The beds were ready and we slept. It was 9 o’clock in the night. My father was reading a newspaper.
Suddenly he saw smoke entering our room. He wondered from where it was coming from. He went out in the courtyard. The smoke was coming out of kitchen. The door had caught fire.. He opened the door and cried, ‘Fire, Fire’.
Father was crying loudly to neighbours for help. He began to take out costly things. The neighbours came quickly.
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Some helped us in bringing out the things from the house, while others ran to a well nearby for water. There were only three buckets in the house.
They cried for more buckets. Some brought four more. Others only cried. My father was nervous and he lost presence of mind.
He did not know what to save and what to leave behind. There was more noise and less work. People were running over the roof and pouring water with buckets. There was a young boy. Pappu.
He worked very hard to put out fire. He ran with the buckets over the roof of the kitchen. Suddenly the roof fell down and he fell over the head of burning wood.
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We saw him in the flames. We were helpless. We could not save him. Pappu was lost forever. He was our neighbour.
His parents wept bitterly. The mother became unconscious. The people stopped bringing water. The fire had done its work.
We had lost everything except a few boxes. Our loss was very great. The costliest thing devoured by fire was Pappu. A little mistake may bring a great disaster.