Feature

Street Horror

Fariha Naaz Shafi

IT was a scorching hot Friday (June 11) and just to keep away from my elder sisters' emotion running wild, we decided to drive to an ice-cream parlour, to grab a few scoops - something that to the oddity of the moment had not appealed to me. The drive was smooth and I pressed on my heels when we reached Airport Road. The car before us, a brand new Premio was gearing up to the highest speed, going haywire. In a frenzy, all on a sudden, the car crashed on the island, screeching, leaving behind an enormous scratch on the island wall. So our car stopped on the middle of the road. The others, to the left, the right, the middle-left and middle-right also did so. A scared crowd watched as the radiator of the car got heated up and one of the cylinders burst. The whole road was in a mess within minutes with bellows of fire and smoke coming out from all direction.

After the devastating fire tragedy in Nimtoli weeks ago, we are now scared of even a small spark from a cigarette. Therefore the crowd was angry, afraid and did not know how to act and react at that moment. Some people from the car screamed and even came down and banged on our window telling us to turn back. Others dialed the number of family members, while another person started to take footage of the inferno. Turning the car back, amidst rows and columns of other vehicles, the problems were quite obvious. If a fire began on the road such as this, there would be little chance for people to escape with their cars.

We were waiting for another cylinder to explode. The heat soared up the rows of cables. Most of the cars were abandoned, their owners standing on the roadside, necks lifted to catch a glimpse of the direction of the fire. And silence. Meanwhile, the horn of the Fire Service broke the tranquility. Within minutes the fire was put off by the firefighters. They came so fast and for the first time in our lives, maybe all of us had muttered a prayer for these men s who really saved us.

The fire service officials along with the police then tidied up the roads and slowly the huge traffic began to move again. Cars, buses, lorries and motorbikes started to pass by in full speed, excited to be out of the danger zone. The victim car was probably being driven by four youngsters, who, on the speculation of a fire jumped out of the car. The reason of reckless driving or any malfunction accounting to the accident of the car still lingers in the wind.