Fire in our Apartment Building.; 3015 Temple Drive, Windsor

It was 2;30 AM , 23 September, 2019, that the  fire alarms in the building were on. Everyone was out to see as what happened.I live in apartment # 212 , the fire broke in apartment # 207;  Everyone was supposed to leave the building immediately except a few handicapped people who needed assistance to leave. I have to take care of Sushma, my wife who herself can not stand up without a patient lift. I took her out of the bed and transferred   her to her TRANSFER CHAIR ,took her near the balcony; moved quickly to leave the building; the corridor was full of smoke and suffocating. I was the last person to leave the building . Sirens/alarms were still sounding in each apartment. Outside , it was cold and windy. Thanks to the pastor of the Church ( our building is in the compound of the church and we direct access to it.) who came for our rescue and took everyone to the church to make us comfortable in all respect. I have to stay back in the lawns to watch Sushma if she needed my help any time.
FIRE safety system over here is excellent. The Sirens/fire alarms are immediately on as soon as the fire is sensed ( which is also instant ) in the building and individually in each apartment with the instructions to immediately vacate the building. Everyone follows it sincerely. The Supervisor who lives in the building takes the attendance and makes sure that the building is completely evacuated.
Simultaneously, Fire Department also gets information about the Fire accident automatically by sirens/alarms and giving the details of the location etc. It does not take more than 5-10 minutes a team of firemen with their equipments etc. started  working on extinguishing the fire. Simultaneously , Ambulance facility is also informed in the similar manner. Ambulance also reached within 5 minutes and took the lady from the Apartment to the hospital; Additional ambulance was also in attendance. Roads were blocked from all sides to stop the traffic in the area just for precaution. Police cars also came rushing for their  own job to do. Since, it was in the knowledge of the fireman and officials of the building that there is one handicapped person in the apartment, the alarm in this apartment kept ringing though Sirens/fire alarms in the building were silent after the arrival of Fire Brigade.
Manager of the building, BOB, supervisor , ERNIE were also informed and they were also present and carrying out their job.
It was 5AM that everything was in control and each apartment was separately checked by firemen, that we were allowed to come back in the building.
An EXCELLENT fire safety system; excellent courtesy and help  by the priest of the Church - additional advantage for the seniors living within the campus of the church ( otherwise also we enjoy several programs of the church- dinners, lunches, coffee sessions , musicals etc.)

see other links for the story;
https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/fire-at-seniors-building-leaves-woman-in-critical-condition

My friend Mr ELUVA (Friday C); incident 4: My farewell from Nigeria

after three out of many incidents with my Nigerian friend, Mr Eluva;
 https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-1.html
https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-2.html
https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-3.html,

here, I am describing very interesting and emotional incident.
In September 1988, I was leaving the University and Nigeria for good to join my new assignment with Addis Ababa University, Addia Ababa, Ethiopia.
My friend Mr Eluva was very sad for my leaving him, the University and Nigeria. One day, he came and cried aloud and sad that my dearest friend is leaving us and he and Victoria are very sad as they even do not have money to give a suitable gift to our departing friend; said further that Victoria is really very sad and does not even dare to come and see us. My friend and his wife are so sad and emotional, I was also shocked , went to his office and gave him enough money saying that being his good friend, I have the right to share his responsibility and feelings. He unwillingly accepted the money and I gave him a condition that he will not tell this to Victoria. This is just between us.
Victoria and Eluva came after a few days, they were very happy especially Victoria that they could manage some money and the gift. This kind of happiness can not be bought with money.
This was the kind of relationship we had; I think this was as per our prarabhadh that we met and enjoyed such kind of friendship.
Accompanied to the airport that evening were Mr. Eluva, Prof. PBL Goel and Godwin ( our house help, very quiet, sincere and hard working; I shall write about him separately).
Mr Eluva was almost crying. The biggest mistake, I did that I did not transfer my bank balance to Eluva as it was a waste after my departure from Nigeria. One of my regrets.

My friend Mr ELUVA (Friday C); incident 3; Photocpying Machine

In my two previous blogs, I described two incidents involving my Nigerian Friend, Mr Eluva and about his care and concern about us;https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-1.html;
https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-2.html

This is another typical happening , I would like to describe here;Mr Eluva had a big family with several growing children; His own income - salary from the University was not enough therfore, his wife, Victoria has been doing some petty business to supplenent the income  to support the family. It was very hard way to earn some little money. As a friend,  I wanted to help him some easy way to earn more money to supplement his income and hence I got a business class, a big Photocopying machine for Mr. Eluva which he kept in one of the office of the Faculty of Education ( as he knew The Head of the Dept  and other people in the office); His sister-in-law was taking care of the work and business on the machine. I was taking care of the material - paper and ink etc.and keeping the account of income and expenditure etc.
It was doing good business as there was a great demand of photocopies by the students and the faculty on the campus. There were not many machines on the campus even in some of the departments as the machine was  new of its kind and quite expensive.
Some people got jaleous of Mr Eluva that he has been making good money out of this machine. One night those people broke into the office and stole the machine. Poor Eluva was lost, he was shocked and could not bear the loss , cried a lot. In fact the whole family was sad and shocked. Certainly, it was source of their supplementary income and making life little more comfortable. It was a great loss to him. I was equally sorry about this terrible incident. Though we recovered the cost of the machine during these few months but now the real future gain was lost. His poor luck.

My friend Mr ELUVA (Friday C); incident 2; Snake in my Flat

In my previous blog, I wrote about Mr Eluva and his obtaining the travel passage as a special case for my daughter https://shubhkamna-davendra.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-friend-mr-eluva-friday-c-incident-1.html
Here, I would like to give the details of another incident . we were living in a flat on third floor. After the dinner, we went to sleeping room and found that there is a snake under our bed. it slowly creeped into the closet nearby , there was a small hole through which some rats used to sneak in. It was very scary  having a snake in the closet of our bed room. I ran for the help and Mr Eluva came rushing immediately with a small matchet to kill the snake. We decided that we should wait till it comes out of the hole ( at one point of time it has to come out ). We can not sleep and have been watching the creature to come out. At about 2 AM in the morning , I saw its head out of the hole of the closet and called Mr Eluva again, he came rushing and saw the head of the snake and very carefully killed it. Took out the whole snake out of the closet .
When asked Mr. Eluva as how could he come so soon at 2 AM , Was he not sleeping. His answer was , whether I was sleeping. If not then how his friend can sleep in such  a situation. What a kind of wonderful, most trust worthy, caring and sincere friend.
Next day when I met Eluva to thank him for this incident , he told that he is so much scared of snakes that even if he saw a snake in front of his car, he will take his feet off the accelerator. Then he told, it was because of me, his fear was gone and he did the job. How should I appreciate such a person, nobody else could have done it for me. I can never forget this incident in my life and will remain ever grateful to him and Mr Eluva in our memories.

My friend Mr ELUVA (Friday C); incident 1; Sapna,s Home Passage

Mr Firday C Eluva was one of my very good Nigerian friend. He was our immediate neighbour on the ground floor in the block of flats on Amina Road on UI Campus, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. It was a lovely family with several children, Rose one of his eldest child and Victoria his lovely wife. Mr. Eluva was the Private Secretary to the Vice Chancellor in the University .
My daughter, SAPNA was studying in Raghunath Girls College , Meerut in India during 1984-86. Once Mr. Eluva asked me about her and her coming to visit us over here. I told him that we are entitled our passages to India every four years and to UK every two years, so she can visit us once in two years. He said no, she must visit every year during her vacation ; He himself drafted the letter , got my signature and finally got the sanction for special priviledged passage for her every year from the Vice Chancellor ( Prof.  Tekena Tamuno ). He was happy more than me.
When I took the sanction to the passage office- a section of Bursary, Mr. Balugun, the Passage Officer  was looking at it surprisingly and simply said annoyingly , he (VC) must be knowing as what he is doing , otherwise, she is not entitled to this. She has no entitlement of her own except that she enjoys the entitlement of her father only - as UI faculty.
Thanks to Mr. Eluva. Any one will do such kind of favour taking personal initiative ?

. I am fortunate having such friends all over.