Holy Smokes

Holy Smokes!
About sun up on the morning of October 28, I was awakened by the sound of feet running past my house. A strange sound began. It was almost a grinding of an engine or a sucking sound. I went out to see what was happening. My host mother yelled, “Mpho! The house is burning!” I walked around the main house to find the fire. It turned out one of the houses in the compound adjacent to ours was burning, big time. Flames were leaping out of the windows from the cement block house, which no longer had a roof.
A crowd of neighbors came by to watch. The police arrived. No one had been injured in the fire fortunately, but a woman was screaming and had to be assisted by other women to lay down on a blanket. She evidently had high blood pressure ans was taken to the hospital by the police.
The closest fire department happened to be in the capital, Gaborone, about 50 kilometers away. This fire could not be extinguished. The flames continued. The neighbors moved on to prepare for their day. The wind from the day before had died down and now blew in the right directions so the fire did not affect the other houses in the compound or our houses not far away.
I found out that the fire was started by a gas cylinder by the stove. An older woman entered the kitchen early to light the flame under a pan. She returned to see the hose from the cylinder on fire. She called for help and two tired to carry it outside, but if fell. The entire house burned. The old woman and her new intended daughter-in-law escaped, but not the new wardrobe of clothes for the upcoming wedding. Alas, all was lots in a short time.
Then it occurs to m that my huge gas cylinder is less than a foot from my stove, like many of my fellow volunteers. I call Peace Corps. I learn that it is “recommended” that cylinders be place out of doors. To do this I need to have holes drilled and then get a chain and a lock to prevent theft of my large container. These I have requested. In the meantime, I know have cylinder two feet from the stove, which is the length of the hose. As an extra precaution, I have put my fire extinguisher next to the stove, hoping I will not have to use it.