Finally,today, I got to see the infamous Dutch fire brigade at work. It happened at around 7:30 this evening. The chinese chap's room three doors down from my room was on fire, ....or so we thought.
But, before I launch into this narrative, let me first tell you about our smoke alarms. I remember setting off mine in the first month I got here, frying some...hmmmm..well, I don't really remember. The point is, I was all a'twitter. The lights grew dim ,the room swirled , the shrill beeping resonated in my ears and I bleated weakly about water cannons and fire extinguishers. (It was my first time, my FIRST time). Fortunately, there were no fire trucks barreling down the street and everything was relatively calm. Not a soul stirred. Except, of course, for the noobs who had gotten here around the same time I had. These poor chaps stumbled out of their rooms in their night clothes, muttering imprecations and stood waiting in the corridors for (I think) some fancy fireworks. After hanging around in this zombie like stupor for a while, they returned to their rooms to retire for the night. Err...My bad. Sorry lads.
During the course of the month, we learnt that the damn alarm went off for the slightest excuse. There used to be an incident every two days. The standard procedures to be followed for these cases were as follows: Drag chair under smoke alarm. Climb up. Smartly push the 'hush' button. And that was it. No more shrill annoying sound. After that discovery, everytime we heard that shrill beeping, we ( enlightened now), would shake our head wisely and tut tut and say "That Han (or Jin or Deshpande or whatever the case was), burning the ol' pork chop (or egg or paneer or whatever the case was). When will he learn?" We also discovered that the alarm was just.. well.. an alarm. It wasn't tied in to the police/fire brigade's system or what not. So there was no real danger of our front door getting hacked to bits by a firemans axe. That's what we thought. Until today, anyway.
At about 7:00, this evening, the alarm went off again. "Silly Nitwit!" I muttered, full of righteous indignation. I turned up the volume on the Simpsons episode I was watching and eased back into my chair. I was running out of Simpson episodes, having exhausted another season the previous day, waiting for my UK visa to arrive , which by the way, never did (another story, another day). No way, was I going to let someone's smoke alarm spoil what little pleasure I had in life. Tuning out the alarm's beeping was for me, the work of a moment. Twenty minutes later, new sounds coerced their way into my ears. Wailing sirens. Yep, you read that right."Wailing". This was followed by heavyset footsteps in the vicinity of my door and then the banging and pounding began. Not on my door, of course, but still I had to go check.
Three doors down, five fireman had gathered around a room. Two of them held a battering ram and were trying (unsuccessfully) to break down the door.
Now, the average dutch guy is 6 feet tall with a build to match. These, however, were firefighters, not average Dutch guys. So when I say they couldn't break open the door, it says something for the door, eh? (Yeah, that's the ram they used, on the left). Two other guys were standing there with chainsaws on the ready. (Small ones, not the ones lumberjacks use). After the door breaking failed, the chainsaw dudes stepped in. They cut around the lock..and well...that didn't seem to work either. The fifth guy seemed to be giving orders and stuff. He also had some funky instruments that I couldn't, for the life of me, recognize. Ultimately the guys smashed the door clean off its hinges (as you can see in the picture below).
As for the cause of the fire, no no..wait, there was no fire. It was just the smoke alarm. Anyway, the cause of the alarms was, yup, you've guessed it. Pork Chop!!! Or at least that's it looked to me.
Heh heh heh. And where was the poor sap whose room was missing a door? Well, he was playing tennis apparently. After the whole thing he and the fire chief had a nice talk and that was that. 
I, unfortunately, wasn't privy to that conversation, but it was probably a juicy one. Also, below are more pics of the 
firefighters and the 'concerned' crowd.
Like I said before, the alarms were not tied to the system, so how the deuce (the intelligent reader will ask) did the firemen get here? Apparently, someone smelt something burning and called for them.
During the course of the month, we learnt that the damn alarm went off for the slightest excuse. There used to be an incident every two days. The standard procedures to be followed for these cases were as follows: Drag chair under smoke alarm. Climb up. Smartly push the 'hush' button. And that was it. No more shrill annoying sound. After that discovery, everytime we heard that shrill beeping, we ( enlightened now), would shake our head wisely and tut tut and say "That Han (or Jin or Deshpande or whatever the case was), burning the ol' pork chop (or egg or paneer or whatever the case was). When will he learn?" We also discovered that the alarm was just.. well.. an alarm. It wasn't tied in to the police/fire brigade's system or what not. So there was no real danger of our front door getting hacked to bits by a firemans axe. That's what we thought. Until today, anyway.
At about 7:00, this evening, the alarm went off again. "Silly Nitwit!" I muttered, full of righteous indignation. I turned up the volume on the Simpsons episode I was watching and eased back into my chair. I was running out of Simpson episodes, having exhausted another season the previous day, waiting for my UK visa to arrive , which by the way, never did (another story, another day). No way, was I going to let someone's smoke alarm spoil what little pleasure I had in life. Tuning out the alarm's beeping was for me, the work of a moment. Twenty minutes later, new sounds coerced their way into my ears. Wailing sirens. Yep, you read that right."Wailing". This was followed by heavyset footsteps in the vicinity of my door and then the banging and pounding began. Not on my door, of course, but still I had to go check.
Three doors down, five fireman had gathered around a room. Two of them held a battering ram and were trying (unsuccessfully) to break down the door.
Now, the average dutch guy is 6 feet tall with a build to match. These, however, were firefighters, not average Dutch guys. So when I say they couldn't break open the door, it says something for the door, eh? (Yeah, that's the ram they used, on the left). Two other guys were standing there with chainsaws on the ready. (Small ones, not the ones lumberjacks use). After the door breaking failed, the chainsaw dudes stepped in. They cut around the lock..and well...that didn't seem to work either. The fifth guy seemed to be giving orders and stuff. He also had some funky instruments that I couldn't, for the life of me, recognize. Ultimately the guys smashed the door clean off its hinges (as you can see in the picture below).
As for the cause of the fire, no no..wait, there was no fire. It was just the smoke alarm. Anyway, the cause of the alarms was, yup, you've guessed it. Pork Chop!!! Or at least that's it looked to me.
Heh heh heh. And where was the poor sap whose room was missing a door? Well, he was playing tennis apparently. After the whole thing he and the fire chief had a nice talk and that was that. 
I, unfortunately, wasn't privy to that conversation, but it was probably a juicy one. Also, below are more pics of the 
firefighters and the 'concerned' crowd.Like I said before, the alarms were not tied to the system, so how the deuce (the intelligent reader will ask) did the firemen get here? Apparently, someone smelt something burning and called for them.
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