Let it burn... or a night to remember: Feb. 19, 2008

10 days ago, while I was at work, Devi gave me an unexpected call around midnight: our basement was in flames and she could not get out of the appartment because of the thickness of the smoke in the stairs of our building.

It was a shock but even before I had arrived home (less than 5 minutes after Devi's call), the fire had been extinguished and all I could witness - and that was enough indeed - was Devi and Gabriel escaping the smoke in our appartment through the window with the help of a fireman standing on a ladder.

Two hours later almost everyone could go back to bed with a strong smoky smell "dancing in the air" of everybody's appartment. It took a few days until Devi and I could get on with our daily life again, but I'll never forget Gabriel's reaction when we reentered our appartment in the same night: Gabriel went back to the living room which he had left 2 hours ago... and was now asking us to play that wonderful game again with the ladder and the fireman!

If you'd like to know which window he was pointing at, just look at the picture above. Our living room is on the bright side of the building, right on the corner of the street, 4th window from below. If it looks a little orange or reddish, well you've found the right one!