The Burning Question
Mia woke up coughing. Sleepily, she looked over at her phone, which was charging on her bedside. It was 11.45pm, less than thirty minutes after she had gone to bed. So why was she awake so soon? And what was that smell? It smelt like a bonfire… fire! The moment the word popped into her head, she jumped out of her bed, completely alert. She opened her bedroom door and a wave of heat hit her so hard it spun her around. ‘Stupid!’ she thought to herself – she had not even checked if the door handle was hot before touching it! Being in the line of work she was, she should have known better.
There was definitely a large fire raging downstairs, she could hear it now. It was uncomfortable, but she had to push through the heat to get to the stairs to see if she could get out of the house. When she got to the top of her stairs, she was dismayed to see that her entire downstairs hallway was engulfed in flames, from the wooden floor to the walls on either side of it. The heat here was even more intense, her eyes burned from the smoke and she began to cough uncontrollably. She retreated to her bathroom, closed the door behind her and quickly ran a bath cloth under the sink tap, then covered her mouth with it. How could this be happening? Where had the fire started? How had it spread so fast and why didn’t she wake up sooner? These were questions she had no time to consider right now. She had to push all these questions aside and push all her thoughts towards what she should do next to save herself.
Pushing through the fire downstairs to get out the front door seemed like a bad option. It was likely she would suffer at least some burns, and she risked passing out from inhaling too much of the thick smoke. Her next thought was to go to one of the bedrooms and simply jump out of a window. But in doing so she would almost certainly break a bone or two. Not very appealing. In the movies people always tied bed sheets together and lowered themselves down, but she had no idea how to do that quickly. She could, she supposed, just hide under a blanket on her bed and wait for the fire brigade to arrive. But then she realised she had not yet called the fire brigade. No time for that now, every second might count. If she was lucky, someone else might have seen the fire and called. One last idea occurred to her. She could go up to her attic. It was further away from the fire and smoke, so doing this might buy her some time, but if the upstairs hallway caught fire she would be trapped up there. What was the right choice? How would she save herself?
What is Mia’s job and how might her job skills help her here?
What will she decide to do next?
Did anyone call the fire brigade? If so, how long until they arrive?