Fire Night

Last night we were at a friends house for a little party (birthday and St Patrick's day), when we left, there was a bank of smoke moving over the mountain towards the city. We all still speculated about it being a fire and not fog or cloud. At around 03:00am this morning I woke up feeling like I was choking to death. I felt like I was sitting in an ashtray. My eyes were burning, my lungs were burning, my throat was closed. I felt horrible. I soon realised it was because of a pending fire somewhere very close. Tristan asked me if I heard them evacuating people out of their houses, or if he had dreamt that. I didn't hear it so I thought he had dreamt it, but my father phoned me around 06:00am to ask if we were ok and if we had been evacuated as most people in Walmer Estate (our suburb) had been evacuated. I then realise Tristan had not dreamt it. This morning there is black soot all over our house, the mountain is singed, and the park where we walk our dogs is completely burned down. The fire came really close to our hood, and it was scary waking up in that smoke. This morning everything smells like smoke and I feel very sick from the smoke.

The Cape Town fire season goes on.