Sunday, March 27, 2005

14 hours later we're back at David's flat (this time with the keys) so we can see for ourselves how bad the damage is. David goes in first and I give him a few minutes to see what the fire has done to the last 11 years of his life. It turns out that it's bad... but not that bad. As I walked into the flat the first thing I noticed was the stench of thick black smoke.

The main living area (where the fire started) was blackened and some of the plaster had fallen from the walls. A large area had been cleared by the firemen as they chucked smoldering debris out of the windows into the yard below. Anything in the room above waist height was pretty much a write off - the TV looked like a deflated balloon; books and pictures were blackened and the light fittings had completely disappeared. Things at floor level seemed to survive much better including a bunch of willow twigs that (very surprisingly) didn't burst into flames.

The kitchen's windows were smashed and the whole room was grey with smoke. By the looks of it some stuff in the kitchen will be okay after some serious cleaning although a lot of it won't be. The final room seemed to escape any real damage apart from the stench of smoke.

It's very lucky that no one was in the flat at the time and that no one got hurt. It's also lucky that David is a strong believer in contents insurance so that he can replace most of the stuff that was destroyed by the fire.

Posted by Antz at 10:54 PM | Permalink | | |

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