Late the night before last (in the madrugada) a neighbor's house exploded, probably because of a gas leak. It was a house that was one part wood and one part concrete. Nobody was hurt, but the wood part burned to the ground and while the concrete part retained its walls, even the metal roof warped from the heat. A glass decoration on a wall hung completely melted. Everything was destroyed.
The house sits away from the street. There are little clusters of houses in back of the main streets, often very poor. On this tiny alley, some people live in little more than bamboo sheds. I think everyone is family. The lady whose house burned was better off than most in that little cul-de-sac. She had a gas stove which may have been the problem and a television set and electricity. The fire knocked out the electricity in the whole Colonia, by the way.
Our neighbors across our street told us that they heard the explosion and that everyone ran out in to the street to see the flames leaping into the sky. People from near the burning house rescued their burros and their horses as fast as they could. Fortunately, really fortunately, the flames were confined to the lady's house, probably because the fire department came.
We didn't hear the explosion probably because our bedroom is far from the street and we are behind a wall (and just maybe because we don't hear as well as we used to). We realized our dogs did. They woke us up barking in response to neighbor dogs barking, but the barking lasted a surprisingly short time.
If anyone in our area would like to donate clothes or chairs or a table or pots and pans or whatever, please write to me.
