Thursday, October 22, 2009

My HIgh School Burned


October 21, 2009 between 3PM-4PM I was busy calibrating the PC monitor because the colors seemed off when our home phone rang. It was my mom bringing bad news - my high school (just a few blocks away), was on fire. I don’t really know if it was indifference or because I though that there was nothing I could do right then, but it didn’t make me leave what I was doing. I immediately sent a tweet to a fellow alumni and went on calibrating while the noise of fire engines’ sirens became louder

After a few minutes, I received text messages, twitter messages and a phone call from my cousin all telling me that the school was totally destroyed. It was just then that I decided (reluctantly) to have a look for myself.

The high school is inside a small compound which it shares with the elementary school and is adjacent to the church we go to. When I got there, the fire was already under control although there was still thick smoke coming from one portion of the compound. Fire engines and onlookers were in the street.





From the gate, I saw that the structure of the school was still standing but the walls of the rooms on the 2nd floor were blackened and the roof appeared to have partially collapsed.



It was only when I got a closer look that I saw that although you couldn’t say the school was burned to the ground, the fire had almost totally damaged it and it looks as if it has to be torn down instead of being repaired before it can be used again.




What was I supposed to feel in a moment like this? Of course I definitely didn’t feel good, but I wasn’t shocked or uneasy. I had been a student here for 4 years, 10 if you include elementary years. On a positive note, no one was harmed (as far as I know) and finally the long overdue plans to renovate the school structures could start, whether planned or not.
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