13 Feb 2016

Our CNY

On New Year's day, Grandma C had to attend a funeral in the morning, and when she returned just after noon on a 42°C day, she told me there was a large column of black smoke near our house.

I popped out to the street to have a look, and thought it was from the building site nearby for a new Coles supermarket.
So, armed with my camera, we went out to have a stickybeak.

Turned out, it wasn't the Coles building site, but a house.

About 2 years ago, we had stood on the same spot watching a giant crane put a pre-fab granny flat into the backyard of this house.

A "granny flat" for my overseas friends, is a little complete house built in the backyard, most often for elderly parents to live in.

Now it is this granny flat that is on fire.
  These guys were standing around when we arrived.
After about 10 minutes, someone said "Are there people inside?".  And this guy strolled over to knock on the doors and find out.

Another 10 minutes passed, and the fire engines (3) finally came.   That large wrapped up box you can see in the picture below is their caravan.

The firemen got into the house and rescued an elderly couple.  They were taken to some shade under a neighbour's tree.
The fire hydrant was just across the road.
Finally, Western Power arrived, and this guy with a long garden pruner proceeded to cut off electricity to the house.
It was sad for us to have witnessed the exciting delivery of a brand new granny flat, only to have it destroyed after a few years.
It would appear that part of the main house has also been affected by the fire, and the caravan I mentioned earlier is now in use to house the residents.


13 comments:

  1. Amazing that no one thought of checking whether or not there were people inside initially ...

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    1. I must confess I didn't either.

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  2. I like the sequence of your pictures...it unfolds the story with anticipation and fortunately all's well that ends well. The granny flat does look rather sprawling...the compound of the main house must be quite large.

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    1. It's the tale of the shrinking block. In the 50's the average block of land was about a quarter of an acre. This area was developed in the 70's, by which time the block size was reduced to about 800 sq metres. Nowadays, it's about 450 sq m.

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  3. 42 C must be really hot. We rarely get above 38 C in SG (usually at most 35). Of course, it's the high humidity (90% or more) that makes it unbearable. What's the humidity in Perth?

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    1. From memory, I think the humidity on that day was about 15%. I find this heat much more tolerable that Singapore's high humidity.

      We do get humid days, especially when there are cyclones in the far north-west. Early mornings can also be humid, but once the sun gets going, this quickly dissipates.

      You've given me an idea for a blog post about the type of "air-conditioning" we can use here because of the low humidity. Watch this space.

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  4. Luke Tan3:16 pm

    It's a relief to find the couple were fine. They could have been burnt to death.

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    1. Yes, that is something everyone should be grateful for.

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  5. Was that the couple staying there? Thank goodness they were ok. The guys just stood there, nobody tried to put out the fire? Probably it was too big already, out of control. They could have moved the car some place further away from the fire. The couple was still inside the whole time? Scary, and yes, so sad. Nice neighbourhood, I must say, looks so peaceful and very clean.

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    1. By the time we arrived, the fire was already big. The granny flat was totally destroyed and part of the main house was affected. I think the couple were in the main house, I actually missed seeing the bit when the firemen took them out. Yes, our neighbourhood is very quiet and peaceful.

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  6. Happy CNY to you and family!

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  7. Oh, btw I'm Fiona (yew kee's daughter) 😁

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    1. I'm glad you told me that, as I was wondering who tynnie was! Happy CNY to you too! Always glad to hear from you. Best wishes to you and family.

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