House Fire

February 8, 2013

I had a great blog for January. It included a soccer tournament, some low points for my kids, some awesome progress with the kids, the new Streethearts house,  our women’s bible study, the blan church we started that turned into a church for Haitians, etc.

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On Monday at approximately 2:30am, I heard what sounded like a glass break in the kitchen.  I assumed that either Ryan or Dieceul had woken up to get a glass of water and dropped it. Annoyed, I rolled over and attempted to fall back asleep. I then started to smell smoke. Neither Ryan or Dieceul smoke, so I didn’t understand what was going on. Temper raised (both Ryan and I had extremely early days that morning) I threw open my door prepared to yell when a wall of black smoke hit me. The most intense fear shot through my entire body as I hit the ground, choking on smoke. I then heard the fire, and could see flames everywhere. I thought I was going to die, and instantly said to God…this is how it’s going to happen? I let out a blood-curtling scream, and crawled towards Ryan and Dieceul’s room. Screaming and gasping for air, I started banging on Dieceul’s room. The door was locked. Ryan awoke to my scream, opened his door and same thing. Black smoke hit him like a wall. He got down, we grabbed arms and started banging at Dieceul’s door. We didn’t have much time, and we had to make a fast crawl to get out. I didn’t want to leave Dieceul but we had no choice. We couldn’t see, couldn’t breath and felt an intense heat all around us. There were two fires on either side of the room. We crawled through both, and got the door open. 

 

We ran into the street, screaming and banging on doors as loud as we could. I was literally losing my mind. In shock, and panicking thinking my little brother, who I love as a family member, is burning to death in the apartment and I couldn’t help him. I was screaming at Ryan to go back in! He attempted to enter the house, but the fire at that point had taken over the entire floor. We kept screaming for someone to please help Dieceul. We felt utterly helpless and Ryan and I watched in shock, as we both thought surely, Dieceul would die. 20 minutes later, firemen showed up. As they are trying to get our information…I’m SCREAMING at them that there is still someone in the house. They attempted to put the fire out, but…the fire truck had no water. In the mean time, very brave neighbors and friends filled large buckets and entered the house. They saved what was left of our house. When Dieceul walked out of the house in one piece, both Ryan and I were in total shock. I wanted to faint. The amount of pain ripping through me at the thought that I couldn’t save him was something I will never forget. I still can’t get it out of mind, and have trouble sleeping.

After the fact, Ryan told me his account. He also heard the glass and figured the same thing. Someone woke up to get a glass of water. He started to smell the smoke, but thought a neighbor was cooking next door (his window faces the back of the house) and went back to bed. He awoke to my scream – and can still hear it.

Dieceul’s bedroom has no windows. All of our doors are fire proof/somewhat sound proof. So, he could not hear us. What saved his life was that his room had no windows, so the smoke could not get in. When he finally realized what was going on, he ran into my room thinking that both Ryan and I got trapped, because we had windows! After I hugged him as hard as I could, I realized how hard he was breathing and crying. In complete shock.

 

Ryan had a minor foot problem, but otherwise we all escaped unharmed. IT IS A MIRACLE! A TRUE MIRACLE. I still cannot believe no one got burned. We literally crawled between two huge fires. We were covered head to toe in black soot.

We were both disappointed to find out that Ryan was robbed by the firemen. Wallet, money, identification. Thank goodness we all had our passports locked up. He filed a police report, but…it is Haiti. Can you believe in a crisis situation, people take that as an opportunity?!

I am still shook up. Afterwards…when we entered the house, I wanted to throw up. Everything destroyed. The house looked scary and distorted. All my work on my laptop gone – including so many personal journals.

It was amazing to see, within a few hours, how many people showed up to clean up. It was truly a family effort. No one said a word when the street kids showed up to help. (They aren’t supposed to come to my house). Everyone chipped in and worked hard – from about 6:30am until 6pm. The kids didn’t even mention when the project house would open (which they ask about on an hourly basis). One, John Ceasar, gave me his silver bracelet in an attempt to cheer me up. I hadn’t slept and I was going through phases of bawling crying – just overwhelmed spiritually and emotionally by it all. 

It was the same thing this morning, round 2. Even though I got some sleep – I just looked at all the damage and thought – how can I possibly handle all of this? Again, friends showed up – pitched in. Finally, after lots of prayer, I said to myself – just start with one thing. The damage is so vast, that it seems like no matter how hard you work – it’s still black. Everywhere. Little by little, it started becoming clearer. I started to see a glimpse, of what I call my home. So funny how attached you become to things. I think it’s because money is so precious, that art and certain items you buy – mean something. BUT AGAIN – it’s all just stuff. Everyone survived – praise God.  At times you do think – what did I do wrong that I got punished like this? I caused this! I could have killed 2 people! The devil is crafty…isn’t he?

 

The cause of the fire was due to a power surge (faulty wiring) that set my laptop on fire – which was charging on the couch. The paint in the house, was oil based and highly flammable. We are still unclear as to what caught the TV on fire (opposite side of the room) since the outlet there did not explode. It must have been from the spread of the fire along the wall.

 

I also cried because this could not have happened at a worse time. I so badly wanted to open the safe house this Saturday, as planned. BUT – who’s plan was that?! Not God’s. I’m still praying through that but again, everything must be centered around Him. I’m working hard through the disappointment, and still crying…obviously! Hahaha. A delegate for the neighborhood came by this evening to ask for our house to be decorated for Karnival. The entire neighborhood looks beautiful. I then felt guilty all over again – our house is hideous and it’s going to ruin their beautiful plans. They explained to me that it will be fine, and that it is still a part of the neighborhood and it will look wonderful with all the little paper flowers. Kids in the neighborhood are leading the project.

I have to admit…that cheered me up. I’m excited that in the midst of my cleaning, kids will be working hard with their artwork to “spruce it up” for Martelly! 

God is AMAZING. I LOVE HIM.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers as we work hard to get the house back together (of course, that involves stress with the landlord, lawyers, insurance, money we don’t have, etc.) and continue to build out the project house as well.

I firmly believe that the reason we all survived was from all the prayers from our supporters around the world. I am crying as I write this…I’m still in shock.

I will be following up with a blog encompassing January efforts and updates in the next 2 weeks.

Thanks again for your patience.  

Written by Nou pou lari a Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with Cap-Haitien, Fire, Haiti, Kanaval, Karnival, kids, streets