Not Cooking with Gas

Not the best photo but you can see the homestead that caught on fire on Saturday is still smouldering. The photo is taken from my patio towards the left and the river. On Sunday when leaving to take Matthew home, I noticed another large fire towards the tree line on the horizon. The black smoke looked like another homestead was on fire. Today I found out that there are a couples of houses from where the smoke was originating from and the likelihood it was another home going up in smoke.

Thankfully, the traumatic weekend is over and Abie and his family are busy picking up the pieces of what little is left.

Another thing happened which I didn’t mention in my post about the fire because it was insignificant compared to the rest of the evening but I think I should now as Abie has now given me more information.

While the fire was still small and after we abandoned the car to its fate, Matthew mentioned what about any gas in the kitchen as most homesteads in this area have gas in the kitchen. I asked Abie if he had any gas bottles in or near the kitchen as these can explode and without a care or thought, Abie rushed off back into the smoke filled house.

It probably wasn’t but it felt like a long time that Abie was away, and I was upset at myself for not stopping him going back in and I didn’t want to go into a house that was filling with thick toxic smoke while not knowing the layout or which direction Abie went. As I was psyching myself up and preparing to wrap my jacket around my head, Gerhardus started calling for Abie to get out of the house.

Next thing Abie emerged dragging behind him two small blue 4.5kg gas bottles with one still attached to a skottle. What, did he just risk his life for those small things, there I was thinking of something bigger than 9kgs. Anyway Abie bumped the bottles on the grass where we were standing and we sternly warned him not to go back into the house.

So why am I telling you this? Well this evening Abie was telling me that the gas bottles were stolen on the night of the fire. WHAT? Now because the main electricity distribution board was near the garage which was burnt down, they have no electricity, along with no water, and now no gas to cook with.