READER SUBMITTED CONTENT Sitting at my desk at work by the window cutting out shoes to stick on the wall there was a huge explosion…

Sitting at my desk at work by the window cutting out shoes to stick on the wall there was a huge explosion, the whole building shook, I jumped back from the window and out of my seat. I ran out of the room, my heart was pounding, it felt like my whole body was full of adrenalin. I thought it might have been a petrol tanker exploding so I wanted to get away from the window in case there was more. I knew there was only one other person at work that day, it was a Saturday, it was Vito working security at reception. I ran down the corridor towards reception and the front exit. On the way running through the building I could see through offices to the window facing the water and I could see a boat had blown up. I yelled out “Vito!” when I got to the top of the stairs. He yelled back “Brent!”. I ran down the stairs and we ran out the front doors.

There was massive fire and black smoke coming from the marina across the road. There was a few people running around. There wasn’t many people there because it was a Saturday. I ran across the road with Vito behind me. I yelled out “Vito, you got your cellphone?” because I didn’t have mine. I had boots on that I wasn’t used to wearing because it had just turned winter and they were making hard clop – clop noises as I was running. The boat and the petrol tanks on the water had blown up and there was massive fire and the people around were hurt. I ran down the deck and around the gate to get to the water. The was a man with burns on his face with a hose pointing it at the petrol pumps and burning pieces of boat in the water. The fire on the water was about twenty meters wide. There was another man standing closer to the flames. His face was badly burnt. I took my boots off and my jacket and was yelling at him if there was anyone else on the boat. There was too much debris in the water and petrol and oil on fire everywhere. I kept yelling at him if there was more people and he started freaking out and yelled out his kids names and they yelled back from the jetty “We’re OK Dad”.

“Was there anyone else on the boat? Was there anyone else on the boat?” He started freaking out and saying “My parents, my parents”. I wanted to dive in and look for them. I couldn’t see anyone. I was concerned about the burning petrol pump and if there would be any more explosions soon. I ran back around the gate, jumped onto another boat, fumbled with the zip in the canopy, opened the door to the cabin, looking for a fire extinguisher. I saw one and ripped open the clips holding it on and tried to pull it off. You had to un-clip them fully and slide it down or it wouldn’t come off. I cut my hand on the clips. I got it off and ran back to the fire, around the gate. In my socks I could feel the gaps between the wooden planks. I pulled the pin out of the fire extinguisher and held down the handle and it sprayed out the white powder. I pointed it at the flames and it seemed to work. The guy was standing on the edge of the pier staring into the flames. He started saying “Mummy, Daddy”. He was about forty years old. I’d never seen anything like that before. My fire extinguisher sprayed white powder all over his legs. He looked at me, his face was all burnt. He’d said “Mummy, Daddy” looking into the fire. I don’t think he knew what he was saying. When he looked at me I knew he wanted me to dive into the water and look for his parents but I didn’t.

There was a lady up by the road covered in blood. Her body was twisted. There was a couple of people holding her. She was looking around all dazed. One of her eyes was burnt out. Her blood was all over the decking and the footpath and the road. The kids were burnt. Someone had taken the son away. I was down by the water with the fire extinguisher trying to put out the fire. I wanted to dive in to see if I could save anyone. There was just me and the guy with the fire hose down there. The other people were up the jetty by the road. A guy was yelling out “Get off the pier, get away from the pumps”. I could hear the son yelling and moaning “my parents, oh no, oh no.” Someone was looking after him. I was saying to the guy with the hose “That’s two deceased right? Two deceased?” and he was like, “Yeah, two deceased”. He was burned and in shock. The people on the road were yelling “Get away from there”. My fire extinguisher was used up. I picked up my boots and my jacket and ran back up to the road. I went back across the road closer to our office. The lady on the phone couldn’t understand Vito’s English, I was explaining what had happened, the address etc. She was being a dick, telling me “calm down, yeah I know the address, was it a boat on the water?” I’d already explained to her exactly what happened. I told her “No, it was a fucking train”, hung up on her and gave the phone back to Vito. I wanted to go back to our side of the road and get away from it. The cops came, then the fire engines, then the ambulance, then the TV cameras. A few minutes later when the ambulance was wheeling the son away on a stretcher the TV cameras were up in his face filming him, following him. He jumped up out of the stretcher and tried to punch them out. He was totally distressed. Me and Vito were standing across the road watching. We took some old people in that the chef bought over from the restaurant next to the pier. They needed to come into our work and use the toilet, I made them a cup of tea. They were in their eighties. The old guy said to me “Let me give you a piece of advice: don’t ever get old”.

- Bj

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