#UCTFIRE, my 2021 reflection.

Classes started and everything was pretty good, I guess. A few weeks went by and… The #UCTFIRE broke out, it was just a normal day, I woke up at like 9 a.m. I looked out my window and it was smoky, and wet outside and I saw one of those helicopters with the water bomb and I figured it was just passing by off to extinguish some runway fire in the bushes it is Cape Town.

I checked my twitter for any fire news, and yes, I know I treat twitter like my daily newspaper*chuckles*, and I was right there was a veld fire. I went back to bed and got up again 2 hours later at 11 a.m. I went upstairs to take a bath and I looked outside the window and wow it was getting very smoky how big was this fire anyway? 2 minutes into the bathroom we get a message from the intercom, “There’s a fire outside, make sure you close the windows and doors and stay in your rooms I repeat there’s a fire outside stay inside your rooms and close all windows and doors”. Okay, that’s weird but girl I must go get my lunch from the dining hall I’m hungry. I mind my own business, run the bath and a few seconds later the fire alarm goes off. What the hell, I go back to my room look out the window and our warden is outside yelling to get us out of the residence, the girl on the intercom goes off again, “Attention, there’s a fire outside grab all your necessities and turn towards the nearest exit”, grab my necessities, what are my necessities everything I have with me is my necessity. Do I take my entire bag with all my clothes? Decide girl, decide, I grabbed my backpack and packed my toiletries, underwear a jersey and a dress, also my laptop and charger. I went upstairs and knocked on my flat-mates’ door a couple of times, but she wasn’t answering I figured she left early in the morning perhaps. I grabbed my bags and went out our flat to the exit. I got outside and holy crap it was so hot out it felt like I stepped into hell. It was scorching hot outside I could barely breathe. We walked down the memoriam stairs and two fire brigades with a couple firemen directed us towards the sports fields. We walked across the fields and the trees were literally on fire and we had to walk in between them. We walked to middle campus down to Rondebosch main road near Pick n Pay, most students were already gathered there so we stood there waiting as more students were showing up with their bags, everyone was calling their parents keeping them up to date with everything that’s happening and so was I. The entire sky was filled with smoke it was a bit dark, the helicopters were up in the sky trying to extinguish the fire, sirens were going off, it was like something out of an apocalypse scene in a movie.