Fire!

 You can just see the bonnet of my car - the fire engine was pretty close!

 The Silks warehouse is below the window with lights on

Tom, Caroline, Sheridan, Sarah, Tess and Sophie at McDonalds

Last Wednesday Tom wasn't feeling well so instead of doing swimming he decided to go with the girls and watch them do their Aerial Silks class.  As the lesson started I received a call from Robert so headed outside to sit in the car where it was a bit quieter.  As I sat in the car I noticed a big plume of smoke coming from a building just behind the warehouse where the girls do Silks.  I was engrossed in my conversation but when I next looked up I noticed a fire engine parked on the wrong side of the road about 50 metres away from me.  I watched as a couple of fire fighters ran towards the building with the smoke, come back again and put on respirators, run back into the building with the smoke, then come back again and carry some equipment (but not a hose) towards the fire.  I began to idly wonder if anyone knew there were 20 girls doing Silks in the warehouse next to the one with the smoke.  I realised that there were now 6 fire engines and 2 police cars in the street surrounding me so I ended my call with Robert and got out of the car to find out what was going on.  The first policeman I spoke to had just arrived on the scene and said he needed to speak to the firies.  Whilst he did that a policewoman came scurrying past and I mentioned to her the 20 girls in the warehouse behind the fire.  "Well you need to evacuate them" she snapped so we both ran towards the warehouse and I checked the toilets whilst she hustled everyone out of the building.  There are 2 other girls I know who do Aerial Silks so I got hold of one of their mums and we agreed to meet in a nearby McDonald's car park.  By this stage it was very dark, smoke was still streaming out of the building and there were flashing lights everywhere.  My car was completely surrounded by fire engines and police cars and I needed to get permission before I could safely back it out.  The kids were transfixed and didn't want to leave the scene as there was so much to look at.  In the car on the way to McDonald's it was agreed that everyone needed a small french fries to help with the excitement!  We found out later that the fire started in a mechanics warehouse.  When I read that I realised how lucky we were that there weren't any explosions and that we all got away unscathed.  At the time we were all caught up in the excitement of the moment but it actually could have been a lot more serious.