Fire nearby!

Today when I took the kids to barnehage ~9:30am, the head teacher asked me if I could work at all this day because many of the teachers were home sick. Of course, just now we have a lot more rules about who must stay home when because of H1N1 and all that, so it's not too surprising that they were short-staffed and resorted to inviting me to work again! I was happy to do it, and in fact I will work there for the next couple of days as well.

But anyway, in the afternoon ~2pm I was outside playing in the rain with all the 3-5 year olds (except those whose week it is to be in the forest), and I spotted smoke coming from a house very close (~50 meters) to the barnehage! Another teacher spotted it immediately after me and ran in to call the Fire Dept. Then one of the mothers (who was there to pick up her daughter) left her infant with me while she ran over to the house and two of the teachers jumped over the fence to run over as well and try to get any residents out. I stayed with a herd of kids (including Rhiannon and the girl whose mother had run off) and we hugged altogether with me trying my best to explain in Norwegian that the firefighters were coming soon, and that the adults who went over were trying to help the people who live in that house. It was quite a scary scene though because the fire got big very quickly and soon the flames were coming out the windows and we could hear and see bits of the house falling off. Rhiannon was really upset and scared, as were many of the other kids.

Once the Fire Dept arrived (less than 5 minutes after the call), we started easing the children inside, but for the rest of the afternoon the barnehage was a chaotic scene. The evacuees were escorted into the main room of the barnehage for warmth and shelter (it was about 40 deg F and raining steadily at the time). Various emergency people and several other neighborhood residents took refuge here as well. The children were all accounted for and then calmly (and with an air of excitement rather than fear) sat down in their respective classrooms to cuddle and talk about what was happening.

I wasn't directly part of this because I was looking after the infant whose mother (who is a doctor) was helping the victims and I was also trying to sort out the pile of raingear mixed with sand that was in a great heap by the door. But I was very impressed with the manner in which the staff handled the situation. They covered the windows and darkened the rooms so the kids couldn't peek out, and lit candles for an ambience of calm. They immediately called all the parents to inform that everyone was okay, but that they should probably come pick up their kids as soon as possible since the barnehage was turning into more of a staging area for evacuees and emergency workers. I was very grateful to have been there already and to have witnessed the entire thing rather than being told about it on the phone! I was asked to take my kids and go home ~3:15pm and that's what I gratefully did. Tryfan, by the way, for all of his obsession with firefighters, was completely oblivious (as were all the small kids under 3 years old) until we were on our way to the car. Then he didn't want to go to the car, he wanted to watch the fire trucks and firefighters working. But Rhiannon helped me to lure him away and into the car so we could go home and tell Daddy all about it. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little bit less exciting at the barnehage!