Fire in Culiston Street A scary happening a few days ago. The house four doors down the street burned down. We were alerted by what sounded like fire crackers and went to investigate – celebrations perhaps for the start of the Nowruz four-day holiday. Within minutes the blaze lit up the street and sparks flew – we feared for the house next door, and ours a few doors down. Though the fire wagons arrived within ten minutes, by then the roof had gone and the house was an inferno. Fortunately noone was harmed and fortunately, unlike our house, it was not a duplex so the fire did not spread.

The next day a constant stream of barrows ferried charred timbers rebuilding to the dump at the end of the street. The day after that, rebuilding began. Today there’s a new corrugated iron roof sitting on the new rafters (it’s either corrugated iron or asbestos here, very few tiled roofs). Doubtless folk will be moving back in soon. Insurance? We doubt it. Cause? No boom, so probably not gas. Most probably an electrical fault – wiring is primitive. All the circuits in our (renovated) house are on one board - the plugs hang from the walls, the switches spark and the wooden floors and roof timbers are like tinder. But fortunately, it’s easy to jump out the windows.