It was around midnight when sirens woke me up from my relatively early sleep. It wasn't very unusual to hear firetrucks passing our dormitory since it is beside C. P. Garcia, but I did notice that it was an especially loud wailing, as if the firetrucks were passing right in front of our dorm. I was really tired and I must have gone back to sleep when the door opened and I heard my roommate and a friend (both my colleagues in the Institute) talking in panicked voices. My roommate was talking about his thesis being lost and I assumed that maybe he lost his laptop. I was about to close my eyes for the second time when my fone vibrated and when I looked at it and saw that Vice Chancellor Grace Gregorio was calling me, I was completely lost. I wasn't able to answer it so I slowly got out of bed instead, trying to rouse myself when a student texted me and told me that the Chem building was on fire.
The next thing I knew I was running down the corridor, trying to find my colleagues. Some of them were already on their way to Chem to see what they can do. I wasn't properly dressed so I went back to my room, changed, and rushed out of the dorm and joined my colleagues who were about to leave. It was impossible to ride a jeepney at that hour so we just walked while I tried to absorb what was happening. I tried to remember the valuables I left in my cubicle. Tried to check whether they are replaceable or not. Tried to imagine the faculty room where I stayed for 6 years now, being licked up by flames...
Oh, I just can't write properly anymore...
I was just there outside our burning building, trying to see what was happening. Amazed at the number of firetrucks. Amazed at how the firemen seem to be in control yet wary of the possible explosions from the various chemicals stored in the burning rooms. We were milling about the NSRI parking lot. Instructors, RA's, professors. Exclaiming about the damage and personal properties lost. Wondering how to handle classes. Worrying about expensive equipment, setups, reagents, documents, and theses gone...
Yet despite that, we were okay. Because we knew that worrying will not solve a thing. Because we were ready to rebuild.
***
Walking back to the dorm, I looked down on my rubber shoes and smiled ruefully at myself. I wore them because I thought that when I got to our burning building, I will be able to help. That my shoes will help me move faster to carry this or that. But I was just another set of eyes-and-ears there. Just a spectator, not being able to change anything.
***
It is funny, you know, that even if there is a small chance that my belongings will be safe, it still hurts a bit to realize that Pav 2 2nd floor is no more. It was just a building, I know. Stone and wood and lab stuff but I still feel that a part of my body was damaged.
And it hurts. I will not deny it.
And I am sure I am not the only one feeling this way.
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