This morning I was woken up by a noise that sounded like people shouting, I thought I had left my TV on and grabbed my remote control and pointed it at the TV and repeatedly pressed the ‘off’ button but the noise kept on going. I sat up and looked at the TV in a confused state and realised that it was not on, that was when I realised the shouting was coming from outside the flat. I looked at my clock and it said 4:27am – whoever was making this noise had better have a good reason!

I got dressed and looked out of my back door and saw black smoke billowing out off the block of flats opposite (where I used to live). I went outside to see what the problem was and if I could help. Someone had started a fire in the entrance way and it had spread up the stairs.

Fearing that people might be in danger; a couple of us ran to the entrance on the other side of the block and started knocking on doors near the fire to try and get people out. By the time the police and fire brigade had turned up we had got a lot of people out of their flats, but one man told us to fuck off, the police smashed his door in and frogmarched him out.

Thankfully although an ambulance turned up it only needed to treat a couple of people for shock, it could have been a lot worse. When the blaze had been put out they pulled out a burnt out motor bike, some idiot(s) had set it on fire – probably while under the influence of drugs.

It is scary to think what might have happened if we had not been quicker to get people out of their homes, the lift area on the ground floor was completely burnt out and the areas on the floors above were completely black from smoke damage.

I was not too shocked to discover that a similar fire happened at around the same time the day before in Whitechapel; again a motorbike was set on fire in a ground floor lobby. What kind of idiot does this kind of thing and puts other people’s lives at risk?

Later on in the day the nosy cow from two doors down accused ME of setting the fire! I was taking my rubbish out and she said “is your motorbike still in the shed? Or was it you who started that fire?” I did not correct her that it was a mobility scooter in the shed, I simply told her to fuck off. This is the same woman who comes into people’s houses to have a look around without being invited.

Photo by Petter Rydeng Ellingsaeter from FreeImages