But life is something else doh nuh? Ya doan know from one day tuh the next what could, would or gine happen. Now take fuh example, the fire duh just had there at the Sewage Plant in Lakes Folly or Fontabelle, wha’evah you choose tuh call it. I doan think anybody woulda evah expect dat a fire would break out in there; anything else but a fire.
I ain’t know what ya’all was thinking when you hear the news ’bout the fire but the first thing dat came tuh my mind was the people who live down in there close tuh the Sewage Plant and the amount o’ businesses in and around dah area dat could be affected if the people at the Fire Service didn’t get it put out, and fast too.
Look, we in Barbados does take evathing wid a grain o’ salt, especially when it doan affect we directly but recently we have been experiencing some very strong and gusty winds and it woulda only take one o’ dem gusts o’ wind tuh kick up and you and I know dat a lot o’ people would have been in real trouble, hear wha’ I tell ya, ’cause fire doan cool out; fire does take out any and evahthing in its path when it get going.
I ain’t gine tell you nuh lies, one thing dat I have always thought about and feared is a fire happening down in The City area. Well the Sewage Plant is out there in dat corner by itself and kinda open so dat the people at the Fire Service could get in there quite easy. But duh got some roads down in The Orleans, Chapman Lane, Lightfoot Lane, King Street and some o’ dem small roads off Baxters Road so, dat if any kinda fire was tuh break out in some o’ these areas, it would be bare horror, bare damage and bare loss – a disaster.
Now I was born in Lightfoot Lane in the heart o’ The City, but I doan have nuh lot o’ memory ’bout down through there as my family moved out when I was a li’l girl. It would be easier tuh tell you bout Chapman Lane or The Orleans because dat is where both my mother and father came from and most o’ my family lived all duh lives. So dat is why I could tell you ’bout some o’ the areas dat right now, today, even more chock-o-block wid houses than it was when I was growing up.
Another thing is dat a lot o’ the houses in these areas are wooden houses dat are in between a lot o’ small gaps and alleys and it would only take one o’ dem tuh start burning and all the rest gine follow like a domino effect. I pray dat nothing like this would evah happen ’cause I gine tell ya, some o’ the roads suh small and narrow dat fuh the fire trucks tuh get down in there, it gine be close tuh impossible, bare trouble, and by the time duh find a way tuh get in, a lot o’ damage gine be done a’ready and a lot o’ people gine be left homeless.
I hope it never happens. True!
As I said before, fuh years now, I used tuh look at how close the houses used tuh be and dat is way before duh had all o’ this modern technology. What I mean tuh say is at one time, people only had duh li’l TV and perhaps a radio, dat was the extent of the electrical equipment but nowadays boh, nuh matter how small the house is, it got in all sorts o’ gadgets and electrical things ’cause evahbody trying tuh out do the next door neighbour.
I does pray dat the people in dem areas would be always pon duh Ps and Qs ’cause I gine tell ya, fuh something like what happen there at the Sewage Plant tuh happen down in some o’ dem densely-populated areas, it ain’t gine be too pretty. I only pray dat nothing so evah happen.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
