How was your morning? Good?
I wish I could say the same.
I woke up when I heard a man call out 'hello?' INSIDE the apartment. Then he closed the door. I didn't know if he was still in here or not, and listened for sounds, but instead I heard a firealarm. Yes, that must have been a fireman, I thought.
I get out of bed, look out the window and see all the neighbors gathered about 100 meters away. Now the panic start. I open the door to find nothing but the smell of a fire. I panic. Yeah, not the beautiful movie-panic, but the real thing. As if I'll die if I'm not out really fast.
I get the laptop, my VISA-card and not much more (I hope this doesn't reflect my personality too much).
Most of my panic comes from being left behind in a building that's burning down. They think nobody's left inside. They didn't see me.
So I pack up really fast, get dressed, and then run downstairs (can't take the elevator when there's a fire). I come outside in a hurry, to find a group of policemen and firemen, surprised to see someone still inside. So I come out with my handbag and the computer-bag. They seem too relaxed (since I must have been close to burning up, or something).
I walk up to them, and ask what's going on.
A policeman smiles at me, says someone burned the breakfast.
I must have looked surprised.
He goes on to tell me that everything is taken care of, and I can go wherever I need to be. I tell him that I was sleeping, not on my way at all, just that I thought I was gonna go up in flames if I didn't get out.
My heart was beating, I had hurried down not to die, I was puzzled and confused.
And they treated me like I was overreacting.
I am confused. I thought firemen actually SEARCHED for people when they go from apartment to apartment. Do they expect people to stand by the door, ready to be saved?
Guess it's like life in general: You gotta save yourself - nobody else will.
Not even firemen.
I am very upset.
This is not acceptable.
Firemen who take the privilege to open your front door with a key and then call 'hello', should have a responsibility to look in the BED to see if someone is there. They didn't even wait for me to answer. The only thing they accomplished was to make me think that I was left behind to die. Honestly, I have never had that much fear for my life (without a physical person putting the fear in me). And the police and firemen were so nonchalant. How the hell was I supposed to know someone burned their breakfast?? To me, the house was going down. I didn't think firemen had the right to unlock your door (and leave - thinking nobody is in there - the door still unlocked) for the sake of someones burned eggs or something.
When I commented on that, the police just said I could go back up to my apartment.
So, woke up thinking I was gonna be trapped by flames, turned out it was just a fireman who came to say hello. The fire alarm, the evacuation of everybody else but me... Now I know what will happen if there really is a big fire - they will leave one to die.
To add to this, I have to tell you that my apartment is 19 square meters. Very easy to search.
So sleep with one eye open, don't expect firemen to rescue you if you are sleeping. At least not if you live close to Katarina Firehouse in Stockholm.
