As soon as it fell down.
This midday, we — almost all members of my family — have missed the death. In other words, death has missed all of us just for five minutes or so.
I know the above line doesn’t make sense about what happened in our home. So, I think I need to tell you a little more before I tell you the actual incident.
Ours is a tin-shed house. It’s an old house dates back to more than a few decades. We never wholly reconstructed it as we had plans to completely destroy it and build our home newly. But due to some reasons, we actually could never start that.
Recently, we have planned to change the total structure of our home. We planned to increase bathrooms and a few more rooms for us. There are a number of rooms for rent. Out home is situated in a busy area of the capital. So, there are always people searching for a room everywhere. Luckily, the demand for a room in our house is comparably higher than any other tin-shed house around us.
No sooner had the plan to change the structure confirmed than the work began. It was a really hard, boring (for me, only) and long-term work. We had to cover some of our furniture as Wrights began to work. They were breaking some walls, building some new ones and lots of other stuffs.
When we planned that we would put a water-tank on the rooftop, we had to prepare our rooftop for that. So, Wrights were also working on that. Stuffs like changing old tins with new ones, repairing some good ones, etc.
Back to the Story
This is what fell down from the rooftop. It contains not less than 100 bricks. Photo was taken a year ago.
This midday, we all were sitting in our living room and took our breakfast (yup, late!). We were also discussing about some household matters. Besides me, there were my parents, my sister and her husband. After about more than half an hour, we all left the room because we had other works to do. But my sister stayed. After about five minutes later, she got a phone call. She received it and while talking on the phone, she began to walk out of the room slowly. I was at the veranda watching her coming out of the room. Trust me, as soon as she had stepped out of the room, the tin along with a heavyweight wall fell down right behind us. If she was there, she would have been dead in a second. Even her body would be gone under the bricks. Her bone, skull as well as skeleton would be powder if she had taken one more second to step out of the room. Luckily, the heavyweight thing just broke the sofa into pieces.
The same thing could have happened to us if it had happened five minutes ago, when we all were sitting right where it fell.
Now the question is, what exactly did fell? It’s like a wall which contains about 100 bricks and was set up on our rooftop by the previous owner of our house. Now guess how it weighed since it contained not less than 100 bricks. See the picture, you’ll see what fell down on our sofa and broke it into pieces. I took the picture on May 2009 to capture the cloudy sky. Who could imagine that a year later, this photo will bring history.
Our sofa was made of pure Segun wood, which is rare these days. It was so heavy that it took few men to move it. We wondered how the bricks broke it into pieces in a matter of a second. All day long we were just imagining what would have happened if it fell down when we all were sitting there and taking the first meal of the day.
Here are a couple of pictures of the room and the unnatural disaster that could have left us dead in a second:
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I thank Allah again and again for saving us. It’s proved one more time that there’s none but Allah to save us from anything accidental. Say one more time, “All the praises to Almighty Allah, most gracious, most merciful.”
Update
I have got a backlink to this post from the Global Voices Online. Thanks to the folks of GVO for letting the world know about this miraculous incident of escaping death.
This was a terrible thing to happen! Thanks to Almighty, HE is our savior. HE saved you and family members. I am feeling the shock
Even the people around, workers and those who live in the buildings around were shocked and speechless for a few minutes. By now, you would be reading about this accident in newspaper instead of this blog. This is how accidents take place. And this is how Allah saves us everyday, every moment.
Thanks for your comment. I appreciate your feeling and would like you to read further posts as well.
That is so terrible! I am so glad and relieved that no one got hurt, alhumdulillah. May Allah keep you and your family safe.
Thanks.
I got access to your secret posts.
Thanks for that, too.
Sajib, what has happened is both horrible and amazing!
… Disaster of this magnitude and not even a scratch left on your body.
Realizing that you were so close to death , no doubt, gave you an adrenaline rush, thinking ‘what if’. But it also made you realize how lucky you are
I am glad to hear that your family is safe.
Do you have a safe place to stay?
My prayers are with you
Thanks for your comment. Yes, we now have a safe place to stay. I’ve talked to you personally so now you know everything.
Hope you keep reading my blog.
How horrible!!! You are all very lucky to have survived. Now stop thinking about this almost catastrophe and get ready for repairing your home. It sure is going to take a lot of time but it is going to make you stop thinking what could have happened if…
Elli
It took place before my eyes. So, it’s so fresh in my mind.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Hope you’ll read my blog regularly.
Really Thanks to Allah that you and your family members are safe after such incident.
Take care.
Thanks for your comment.
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Thanks to Allah that you are okay.
Thanks.
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Thanks to Almighty Allah……………..
It was terrible…………
Now what about you?? Have you started to reconstructed these??
The work of reconstruction was already going on in my house. It was just an accident which could have left all of us dead in a second. However, the duration of reconstruction is going to take longer, that’s all.
Your story made me realize that Allah is the only savior, He saved you and your family… May Allah bless and your family…
Hey, thanks for the post on my blog. I came to check out your story and it is amazing. Something similar happened once to me: We were in Church worshiping and we had just prayed that we could raise some money to get a new roof. The roof was falling off in places. Something made my aunt switch chairs and about ten seconds after she moved a huge chunk of roof fell and smashed the chair she was sitting in.
Crazy but it opens your eyes.
Almost same. Thanks for your comment.
By the way, I didn’t realize which blog you were from. I paid to the site you linked from your name but it felt like I had never been to that site. Weird!
Allah is great
you and your family are safe .
No doubt he is; no doubt we are.
tokhon kemon lagto janina, bt ekhon sunte onekta bangla sobir moto lagse to, tai moja lagtase!!!………………he he , dont mind.
Jina, bangla sobi hoile ekta hero thakto, je douraia aisa apu ke bachaito. tarpor prem kahini start hoito…
Eisob kisui hoynai, so bangla sobir moto na aita.
[...] usually go to bed early in the evening provided that I actually sleep in the late night. After the unnatural disaster that took place at our home, my desktop computer has been temporarily set up next to my bed; on a [...]
Woah dude.. :O i was imagining and living through every moment as you laid out every sentence. And God! I am shocked. Alhamdulillah all are fine. Really… this story and those pictures had an effect on me.
Thanks for reading, Arif.
Wow, despite the disaster, you were so freakin lucky
BTW, what is the roof of your house made of? My mum is an architect and she always tells us what could happen with buildings which are not well done, it’s very interesting. Oh, and right now she’s taking a course on Construction Pathology :]
Ours is a tin-shed house that means the roof is made of tin. It’s perfectly safe because violent earthquake doesn’t do any harm to such houses. When it comes to tornado or tsunamis, that’s another question, though. Oh I forgot! Bricks can break this kind of roof, too.
Ohh, right. I guess putting those bricks on a roof made of tin was a huge mistake, it obviously couldn’t bear so much weight! My house’s roof is made of bricks, and most of the houses here are made of them too. That’s because there are not earthquakes were I live, though there might be strong winds (so far, never a tornado or hurricane, but supposedly there could be one).
That big mistake could take away our lives.
[...] top of everything, you cannot avoid being killed even if you’re at your own home. Remember the disaster that was about to take life of everyone in our family? Take you look if you haven’t seen that. I want to say that if I am to die, I’ll die [...]
I’m sorry this happened Sajib. I’m glad you and your family were unharmed.