Jeddah; Lost Between Rumors and Real Crisis.

This is the tweet that made me go bananas at work. My little niece studies there, and it was her what I was thinking about. I kept holding my phone and throwing it away not knowing what to do and who should I call. I didn't want to scare mom and sister, so I called the driver and begged him to tell me where's my little niece, I started crying hysterically and that's when he tried to comfort me saying that Ghada left the school just before the fire. The feeling was horrible, so horrible dear god I pray for all the troubled families and for their beloved daughters, sisters and mothers. I just wanted to cry, so I sneaked in the storage room next to me and I tried to let it out of my system!



After I let it to sink it, and saw my niece in good health, my friend is safe, too after she and her co-workers evacuate the KG students. She said: "We saw the fire come from the ground, we didn't know from where it comes, the children were frozen and I had to cover their eyes and push them for them to move." I don't blame them, kids in this age they don't understand the concept of fire! She's still in shock.

Other people, the ones who sit at home behind their computers' screen started to blame everyone and everything. First of all, we have to have faith in Allah and believe and accept that everything happens in the world is from Him. It's not the time to blame the school's owner or the Civil Defense.

The Civil Defense are doing their job, regardless how well they're trained or not, they're still doing it. People around the school panicked, Jeel Al Faisal's students, a boy school nearby, rushed to the rescue, and some of them just out of curiosity. Scared fathers and mothers scattered around the school, and who could blame them? Fire overpowers people and numb their senses. Most of the injuries are either from suffocation or from trying to jump from the second floor. Ghadeer Katou'ah was one of the victims who has been identified by her co-workers at the hospital. I don't know if the victims died from the fire or after their attempt to jump and save their lives, but still there were girls who did so in order to survive.

My sister called a teacher who was in the school, she was terrified and told my sister that she's seeing the girls jumping from the windows and she hung up instantly. The fire was put out quickly but the girls were in extreme panic. It made me wonder when was the last time the school did an evacuation tryouts, and if was the crowd around the school has a major role terrorizing them even more. I could imagine screams from outside shouting prayers or random instructions, I wouldn't be surprised if someone shouted out: "JUMP" for the girls.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj_MrMpd0RI]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-67FnDxOs]

I remember when I was in school, we loved the days of Emergency Training because it was an opportunity for skipping classes and have fun. Actually, we have be evacuated one day without actually knowing there was a problem in the school, we thought it was another emergency training, and that was in a public school!

But in time of crisis, everything changes.



My heart is breaking for the girls and their families. For the security guards and the cleaning ladies. For everyone who was caught in the fire and has their hearts ripped from their chests in a moment of panic. I had a little taste of that, and I'm still shaken up.

What's ironic, I was so afraid of the rain.. I was so afraid of one single thing, I forgot that in hands of Allah, anything could happen.

يا الله رحمتك.