It was around 4pm, and everything was quiet as normal around the house and the neighbourhood. I was checking something on the internet, when all of a sudden a very strange beeping sound started coming out of nowhere. You know those sounds that are so irritating that you can't do anything else, but find the source and make it stop. This was one of those sounds.
I got up from my chair to start looking for the source, when my fiance came from the other room, with the same idea in mind. We had to find it and make it stop. It was a sort of fast beep, beep, beep sound and it was definately not coming from inside our apartment. So we opened the window to listen outside. Yep. Definately from outside. But where we live there's possibly 30 apartments it could come from. Then we realised that it sounds pretty much like a fire alarm, but we couldn't see or smell any smoke, or not yet anyway.
A fire alarm was very problematic for 2 main reasons. One is that most people were away on holiday and their apartments where locked, and two, the fire alarm was very close to our apartment, and we weren't planning to move any time soon. My fiance got on the phone and called the fire brigade. You know, just to come and check it out. Just to be sure. It wasn't 5 mintues later when 2 massive red trucks came storming up the road with these long ladders on top. The one stopped right outside our apartment in the street. We live on the 3rd floor and we shouted at them that we thought the sound was coming from across the road. Problem was that when Mr. Fireman had his truck on, it was so loud, I could hardly here myself think, never mind the beep, beep, beep. But he looked like a bright guy, and seemed to have a plan. The ladder only works when the truck is on. So Mr. Fireman gets on the end of his ladder in that little cage like contraption, and zooms it out all the way to the far window of the building across from us. He then has to switch the truck off, which he could luckily do from his little cage, to listen for the beep, beep, beep. I didn't know he could switch the truck off from where he was, and I had visions of him having to climb up and down the ladder to switch the truck on and off, while listening for the beep, beep, beep in between.
But be that as it may, the truck is now off, and he proceeds to press his ear against the window to listens for the beep, beep, beep. Nothing. So he starts the truck again. Moves the ladder to the next window. Switches off the truck. Presses his ear to the window for the beep, beep, beep. Nothing. Starts the truck again. Moves to the next window and listens for the beep, beep, beep. I think you know where he's going with this. I mean there's only 30 odd windows to go and a fire alarm that's been going beep, beep, beep for the last 20 odd minutes. Apparently he didn't think it was quite as serious as all the people hanging out the windows on our side of the road did.
By this time it seemed as if the whole town was coming to see what was going on, or perhaps they all came to help him listen to the beep, beep, beep. The funniest was when he got to an open window on the opposite side and knocked on it. I mean can you imagine the surprise on the people's faces inside the room, seeing a man outside their 3rd story window, asking them if they can hear the beep, beep, beep?
But in the end, having found the right window, there was nothing. No flames and no inferno, and they came just as fast as they went, with the beep, beep, beep along with them. It was exciting to see Gothenburg's finest doing their thing. I just hope one day when i'm screaming from our burning building, Mr. Fireman doesn't start by helping people at window number one, because I live at window number twenty three.
Here they come again
As I wrote above, it was very exciting having two fire trucks outside our window, with ladders and the fireman in their "space suits" and all. In the end it was not too serious, especially after the beep, beep, beep finally stopped. What I didn't know was how it would affect me in the future. Especially this holiday, on a warm sunny day when I was relaxing and reading a book. It starts with these sirens off in the distance. I don't pay that much attention to them, because you know they're not close to our apartment, so I carry on reading. But you know know the firetruck siren is the loudest of them all, and hard to ignore. I mean they're going where people are possibly burning to death. Not a pretty sight, so it needs to sound serious and be extremely loud.
It's with this that I put my book down and listen to the siren coming closer and closer. And closer and closer. I think by myself, "Not again, lightning doesn't hit the same spot twice". The sirens are so close now that I find myself hanging out of our window, and that's when I see them turn into our road. The first thing I do is to look for smoke coming from one of our buildings. I can't see our own roof, but the one across the road seems OK. So I panic a little, cause I can't see our roof. What if I've been merrily reading my book, while our roof was on fire? Then they drive past with the sirens still wailing. Lucky for me it's not our apartment, but not so for some other guy who's still reading his book, and listening to these sirens off in the distance, coming closer and closer.
