Hi people!

So: my apartment nearly burnt down yesterday.

Yes, there was a fire over here yesterday and it really scared the living hell out of me.
I live in an old building, though my apartment is basically new since it had a lot of work done before I moved in and stuff. Still, ~old building~ and old buildings sometimes mean old plumbing systems (thankfully not my case) and old electrical systems (sadly my case).
Long story short, there was a pretty nasty short-circuit over here and, at some point, I got stuck inside the apartment with flames right outside my front door.
Not nice guys, not nice.



We've been having issues with electricity for a while now, sometimes the light in the whole building goes out - for hours - sometimes brand new light bulbs die for no apparent reason. We've called EDP (Energias de Portugal, the corporation responsible for light and energy in Portugal basically) a thousand times already and every single time they've come over and had a look at the extremely old and moldy cables they dismissed them as not being much of a problem, and of course didn't do much in order to fix them. And so, yesterday, the cables that go outside the building, right above one my living room windows, caught fire and since my apartment's located in a really narrow street (think European medieval narrow) the cables in the building right beside mine, a pharmacy, caught fire too. Yay.

I actually had my best friend over yesterday, a fellow Arashi fan, and we were having this silly little 'Are you happy?' listening party which of course was canceled, meaning I haven't listened to the new album or even seen the full PV yet and probably won't until next Friday - fuck my life. We were just having lunch when the lights and pretty much all my home appliances start going crazy (think 'Poltergeist' crazy) and then we hear the neighbors from the upper floor screaming something about the cables being on fire and to turn everything off + a series of loud blasts and something similar to fireworks going off outside.

You can imagine how scared we were at this point, running everywhere around the house to turn the lights and appliances off and also looking for my cat, who decided it was a good time to play hide and seek. The first thing I did was call my mom, who works a 2min walk away from the apartment, to explain what was happening and to ask her how to go about the circuit breaker/switchboard to prevent an inside short-circuit. I must have been speaking so fast and stumbled over my words so much though (or it could've just been the shitty signal) because the next thing I know she's hanging up the call and rushing over. All I could think about was how we were going to lose everything we had and how my cat might die and how it would be my fault if something happened to my friend because I chose to invite her over that day, so y'know a panic attack strikes, how convenient.

Anyways, my mom gets home and calls 112 (our emergency number), because I was way too out of it to even remember to do that, and tried to calm both of us down. The phone network/signal sucks balls in some parts of the apartment though so it took ages for her to even manage to explain the situation, which resulted in the firefighters taking a lot longer to get here. While she's making the call the flames spread to the cables above the front door and so we couldn't get out, we were stuck inside the building. I don't think I was ever that scared before in my life + I realized just how much my mom, my friend and my cat mean to me and also how attached I am to my belongings.

The blasts were so loud I thought the whole building was crumbling down, it wasn't but that's what it sounded like. Oh, and before I forget, my friend called her mom too and she basically ran barefoot (she usually wears heels to work) all the way from the store where she works to my house, knowing her daughter was stuck inside and there was nothing she could do to help. I can't even begin to imagine what she must have been feeling but I felt guilty as hell at the time, even with my friend saying it wasn't my fault and that it could have happened to anyone.

In the end, the firefighters got a hold of the situation and the fire didn't actually get inside the apartment, still, it was an extremely scary situation - 10/10 would not recommend.
Good news is EDP was finally forced to change the cables, the outside of the building wasn't too damaged and by late afternoon everyone knew about what had happened, news spread quickly in a small city like my own.

Warning: fake sympathy from people you don't even know, who are really just trying to get the latest juicy gossip out of you, might make you want to punch their lights out.

It's stupid to think about the 'what ifs' when everything has already been dealt with, but the thing is, if I hadn't been with my friend yesterday I would've most likely been napping (it's a habit of mine) and I might even have not heard my neighbor's screams, I also wouldn't have turned the lights/appliances off as quickly and I sure as hell wouldn't have been as cold-headed as my mother was at dealing with the situation. I'm not saying I could have died or anything like that but I'm sure the outcome wouldn't have been as nice and it's really scary to think about that. It makes me realize how much I panic in such situation and how I really lack a proper reaction to them. I hope this serves as a future reference at least.

Okay, so that was my amazing tale of woe of the year.
Sorry for making such a long post out of this, I really needed to get it out of my chest, and thanks for sticking with me 'til the end in case you bothered to read all of it ^^

Kisses xx