Three weeks ago my neighbor's shack caught fire in the middle of the night and the whole village came to watch it burn during a rainstorm.
🔥 Fire On The Mountain ⛰️
Strangely enough this incident occurred in the wee hours of the morning while I was falling asleep at my desk. I had just agreed with myself to stop posting from my blog and focus more on keeping a clean house, preparing school lunches for the girls, getting enough sleep, and being an active dad until I could get life in better order. Life's strange poetry landed a frantic knock on our door with much shouting, and I rushed to the door thinking it would be Mey-Yii crying because her Grandma had hit her, locked her out, or both.
Luckily or unluckily this wasn't the case, it was our slightly nearer neighbor telling us of the drama unfolding. I got as dressed as possible and then jogged up the highway thinking I would be part of a hopeless attempt to put out the fire. By the time I got there it was already engulfed, the pregnant mother had gotten all of the children out after a faulty electric plug caught fire.
⛽ Adding Fuel To The Fire 🔥
The husband was berating the wife because he felt she could've put out the fire or tossed the wire out of the house and prevented this disaster. The shack wasn't important, but it did serve as their house because it was conveniently located next to the road and the wife sold snacks and fuel from the place. The family had already relocated to their other house, a two-story massive wooden structure that's partially finished.
We have no running water in the village, at least most homes don't, and even though the river is only a few meters from the shack, it's a whitewater torrent and a steep drop, so not a good source of water to try and put out a fire. All this was going on during a rainstorm to make things even stranger, the very thing needed to put out the flames was falling from the sky.
Document It 📸
I walked back home to get my phone for pics once I realized it was now just a show for all to watch, and we donated a few some blankets and other things to help out for a rough night's sleep. The owner of this place had just recently gone into gambling debt and sold the piece of land behind our house, site of the natural swimming pool. He also sold some other things, a motorbike if I remember correctly, so giving money isn't exactly a good idea in a village with gambling problems.
Several of us watched the fire and chatted with the owner, even got to hear some propane tanks explode, very similar to a Hollywood action movie. Despite the shack being of little value, the contents were commercial refrigerators, gas bottles, various products for sale and stock, personal items, and many other things, most of it lost in the fire.
A Very Hot Spirit House 🛕
I noticed the traditional mini spirit house was facing the fire, and had to take a picture of this strange coincidence. It was terribly beautiful in a way.
After some time I realized in only a few hours I would have to take the kids to school, and I was soaked from the rain, so I decided to call it a night and sleep for about 45 minutes.
Just as I prepared to walk back home, the fire raged again after something ignited and gave everyone a light show. Just a normal day in Cambodia, standing in a rainstorm in the middle of a night between the shoulder of a highway and a guardrail at bottom of a blind downhill corner while watching gas bottles explode, complete with umbrellas.
Village Drama 🎭
I will never understand how Khmers spend their days watching drama shows when there is already so much drama in daily life, but I guess the drama onscreen is basically harmless, usually really rich people with whiter skin than mine arguing with each other while perfectly dressed and in perfect houses. If the dramas on tv reflected the real situations affecting Cambodian households, I might actually watch tv now and then.
Fast forward a few hours and these are the results after I dropped the kids off here after school. Three weeks have passed since I took these pics, but no need to worry, the family is already putting the finishing touches on the massive two-story house, are living there, and may or may not rebuild the roadside shack again.
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Return from 🔥 Late Night House Fire in Our Village, Total Loss 🛖 Steung Kach, Cambodia to Justin Parke's Web3 Blog
