Oak Towers: Candle to blaze.

Candle to Blaze.

The Chaos in the calm. The smoke curled around her like dragon's breath. Drifting in and out of consciousness, she gazed around her out of red rimmed, bleary eyes. The sheer destruction was terrifying; half the flat, her home, was in flames. That simple fact stung her and itched inside her brain. She should move, try to escape but all she could think was, how did this happen?

* * *

Brr Brr... Brr...Brr... The alarm screamed insistently. I woke up heavily. For a moment, I thought I was having yet another bad dream. Ever since that nightmare evening when Oak Towers had caught ablaze, I had sometimes had trouble sleeping. I was haunted, still, after all these years, by the trauma of that childhood fire. It is so stupid, I thought.

I shook my head to clear it, as if to brush away the cobwebs of the past. The alarm was real. I was needed. I was needed now!

Getting up, I rushed quickly to the station changing room and shoved my fire suit on. Running now, I dashed over and slid down the pole. The rest of my watch were scrambling too. The room was filled with anticipation.

It had been a good winter season up until now. The only fire we had to deal with was a small kitchen fire at a local school. No one was hurt. Easy really.

I jumped into the appliance and buckled up as we roared out of the station; siren blaring, lights flashing urgently.

Sitting in the front with Mike at the wheel; I couldn't stop my thoughts from drifting back to Oak Towers all those years ago. I lived that dreadful day over and over again.

It had shaped my entire life; made me what I was today, a fire fighter who was still trying to save Lucy. I could still picture the chaos, the panic, the shouting. It was the worst day of my life. It was the day that my best friend, the girl next door, had burn't to death.

"Where are we going?" I asked suddenly realising that I had not been listening to the instructions.

"Oak Towers" Mike shouted back over the sound of the siren.

Its was then that I realised that I was going to have to face my demons all over again...

* * *

"Yes!" Alana shouted ecstatically. Even though she was twelve old, she still enjoyed winning Monopoly. With a satisfied smile, she looked at the candles around the room, the flames dancing and flickering, and thought again to herself what fun the evening had been.

Earth hour was important. All around the world, people switched off their electronic devices so that, for an hour at least, they would reduce their demands on the planet's limited resources.

"We've got to do this next year as well," she declared to her family. They smiled and nodded in agreement. Her little brother grinned and nodded in agreement and reached clumsily for his drink.

In that one brief moment, everything changed. Her brother's hand caught the candle and knocked it flying off the table onto the floor. The thick, patterned rug caught alight almost instantaneously.