Olivia's Personal Narrative

“Where is that smoke coming from?” Mum asked. Dad drove closer and I started to feel sick. “That doesn’t look like smoke from a chimney” Dad replied. As we drove closer I could smell a sooty stench of ash. I soon realised where the mass of smoke was coming from. We parked outside Maidstone Turf and raced out of the car to what was ginormous, powerful, deadly, orange flames. The worst thing about it was that it was on the other side of the hill to where I lived. I remember feeling dizzy, I remember hearing faint voices crying the words oh my god, I remember how big the flames were, I remember how terrified I was.

There was no sign of any helicopters, no sign of any firemen, no sign of anything that was going to help. I wanted to go home and stay with the animals, so after begging Mum thousands of times she took me home while Dad and Charlie stayed to watch the event unfold. I raced in the house and found my peaceful cat asleep on my bed. “I’m really sorry about this Bobbi. Mum have you got the dog?” I asked. “I don’t think we need to take the animals with us the helicopter is here” Mum replied. I didn’t let go of the cat. “I don’t care I’m still staying here.” Mum then left home to go get Dad and Charlie. It felt like Mum had been gone millions of years, I looked outside the window and saw black smoke moving in the wind, I started to see little bits of ash gliding towards my house. I heard the helicopter racing back and forth carrying litres and litres of water. I wanted this nightmare to end. 

Mum, Dad and Charlie eventually arrived home. “What does it look like?” I asked. “It’s almost out don’t worry, but it’s left a huge, uninviting scar.” Dad replied. I could picture the image in my head just like Dad had described it, it wasn’t pretty. After dinner Dad went down the hill to see if the flames were gone, and he was back in about five minutes. I peered around the door and saw Dad whispering to Mum, Mum didn’t look happy. “What’s wrong Dad?” I asked. “The fire has started again but this time it’s even worse.” Great, this is just what I wanted. “Can I have a look please?” I asked. Soon enough we were there. A crowd had gathered on the hockey turf. I gasped as I saw the gigantic 6 foot high flames burn everything in its path. It wasn’t just a small area it was about the size of two olympic pools joined together. Dad had said in the car that the flames were less than a kilometre away from the houses on the street next to ours.

Those 17 words had me panicking. Mum and I raced home put the cat and dog in the car and left the house. When we got back, there were 3 helicopters at the scene, and the fire had started going downhill and more people had gathered. It started to get very late and very dark so we headed home but Dad stayed. I couldn’t sleep. I kept checking my window to see if there was any smoke. An hour passed then Dad finally came home with the words I had been waiting to hear. “The fires out” Dad announced. I started to drift off to sleep but there was words I had heard earlier that I didn’t quite pay attention to words that kept playing over my mind like a broken record machine; This was no accident.