Urban Fire

A few days ago I received two emails, one from Nicole and one from my Mom. They both wanted to know details on the Quezon City Fire that apparently made enough news in Canada for them to hear about it.
Naturally my parents wanted to know that I was alright. Quezon City is technically the district of greater Manila where I live. However, despite the massiveness of the blaze, it touched a relatively small corner of the grand "Quezon City". But it was a ruthless fire that has, according to one source, put some 15,000 out of their houses. I wonder if the enormity of the photos that it produced were the biggest contributer to the event finding its way into international news. BBC, for example. mabuhaycity.com, I think, will give a little more information though. I will not post photos offline of the event. If you follow the prior links you will find some thunderous photos. However, remember, as you do, that besides the anomaly of the fire, the people and buildings and details in every one are true-form Manila. These are the places and the people the ministry works with. The photos do not ring one bit false.

So, with people asking me about the fire over email and over the phone from home I have tried to give what answers I could. As to where the residents will go or what will happen to where they once lived I have not figured out. My personal understanding comes from the small way that the effect of the fire has entered my limited world.

I saw the smoke from the fire with my own eyes on Sunday. I read that it broke out at about 3:00pm on Sunday afternoon last week. I was walking along the boardwalk that runs in front of the Mall of Asia that afternoon. Friends and I were enjoying the breeze by the ocean when funny colored brown clouding started to blur the sky-scape. Eventually we walked to a place where we could see the source. It was clearly smoke, from a very big fire, and coming from a part of the city where there should not be a big fire.
I looked at a friend who was with me to ask what she made of it. Her response was casual, stating that fires this time of year in Manila squatter communities were common place. The offhandedness of this declaration settled the nothing-I-could-do-about-it-anyways in me and we finished watching the sun go down against the evil brown score.
I found out later the grim results, and its personal implications.
Mario used to work with the ministry. He came through our door a few days ago and I was introduced. He immediately came across warm and friendly, and I have no doubt that he is. If I knew him better and looked in his eye I might have been able to tell you that this is also called "being in shock."
"You know that fire on Sunday?" Joke asks, "Mario just lost his entire home. What he's wearing is literally all he has."
Now my eyes widen.
"If you have some extra t-shirts or anything, I'm sure he would appreciate it."
A few minutes later I bring him something I have on-hand, and when he takes it I can see into him a bit more.
This friend has a network. He has the ministry and all the individuals that it represents who will support him. I gave him a shirt, which isn't much.
But I guess this is what I know: that despite ambiguous futures for too many in the Quezon City District, the goodness of other people will be the refuge for many.
The challenging truth, I guess, is that the frequency of fires does not depreciate their destruction any more than the frequency of goodness depreciates its necessity.

All that from someone who has barely touched the event. If i find out more about relocation or re-establishment for the residents I might post it later on.