Protection from Fire in Building

Last week, straight after arriving home from work one night, a strange set of circumstances arranged it that my husband was out and instead of me being inside our home, I also was outside in the common hallway area of our building. It was then that I noticed a very faint alarm sounding on our floor. I couldn’t quite work it out, so I decided to investigate the common hallway on some other floors of the building. I didn’t run into any of my neighbours, the whole building seemed very quiet except for this one alarm that could now be heard in the lift as I travelled to the basement and back up to our floor, investigating. We are often taught at this Church to always listen for God what is God saying to us, and also to be aware of mortal mind, error, evil suggestions, that are not of God and how to differentiate between the two. So I was listening to God as I arrived back up at our floor and I noticed the sound of the alarm was more persistent. The primary concern was that the alarm was not being attended to by anyone, so I went for some further investigations, leaning on God the whole time, whether it was safe to go into the lift. Returning back up to our floor two alarms were now sounding. Still with no response. I went down to ground level now and tried to view our floor from the darkened street outside, I couldn’t see any problem.

I felt like God was telling me to call emergency but the mortal mind suggestion of who would cover the $2,000 bill for the callout, was holding me back. I waited to hear what God would say. A few minutes later I returned to our floor now both alarms were sounding and the common area absolutely reeked of smoke, it was now really obvious that there was an active fire somewhere and I became very worried about my neighbours, but before I could investigate any further, God told me no just go back to the ground floor foyer and call the fire brigade which I did immediately and within about two minutes the fire brigade arrived. Twelve smart fire officers bundled into the building and up to our floor. A few minutes later six of them came back down to their truck and carried some more equipment into the building, I could see a very large smoke-exhaust fan that needed a few men to carry which they now deployed to disperse the smoke on our floor. And with my husband now arriving home we both just stayed close to God in thought as we waited in the foyer. After thoroughly investigating all floors the fire officers gave the all-clear and the fire chief said to us with a very stern face as he came down the stairs to leave our building “it was definitely the right thing to call emergency in this instance!”

Truly it was only by God promoting me to walk out into that common hallway area at that time, that I heard that faint alarm, as it could not be heard inside our home. Currently the Fire brigade is investigating why the building alarm did not engage, as this was definitely an active fire and not a false alarm! In thanking God about this in the following days my husband pointed out that I was the only person on our floor of the building at that time, with an active fire next door and a failed fire alarm! I am so grateful for God’s Love and care. We don’t always get what we want but God always gives us what we need, to paraphrase a dear comment made at Sunday’s Roundtable. I am so grateful for Christian Science and this precious independent church which always reminds us not to listen to mortal mind but to listen to God, a habit I am slowly but surely getting better at cultivating.