KDurant7 blog adventures

Surviving an apartment fire in Caracas Venezuela

For five months Regina and I with our four little children lived in the crowded busy city of Caracas, Venezuela in a small apartment 10 stories high. We lived on the fourth floor. One afternoon we could smell something burning, something like paint and rubber. Then it got stronger and stronger.  We thought we would go down to check it out but when we opened the door black smoke poured in and we could not even see 2 doors down the hallway! It was our apartment that was burning and we could not go down to get out! We immediately got some towels wet and put them on the bottom door seal. I was looking out the window planning how to throw my kids out the window so they land on the tin roof of the parking lot below. I reasoned within myself… it would be better to have my kids live with some broken bones than to just die in a fire! Thankfully the 5 firetrucks below got the fire out after a nerve-racking 20 minutes. Someone had firebombed a car in the parking lot basement below and the firemen got the fire out before it would have burnt the other nearby twenty cars down there! Had the other cars caught fire, they later explained, the building would have collapsed from the heat! You mean we all almost died?! We thanked God that his angels protected us and that our prayers had been answered to give us a way out of that life and death situation. When your only option out of a situation is God, one can be very relieved and thankful that He comes through!