T-3 MonoMonday Challenge - Tree

Welcome to the jungle!

Gotta love Italians... I drive down into the underground box tonight. There is an overwhelming smell of gasoline. I put up the windows right away and then even so stagger getting out of the car.... what the h??? I get my stuff around hastely and make my way towards the exit... then my curiousity gets the better of me... where is it coming from and what if somebody is in difficulty? Didn't take long playing the game of hot n cold. I walk in front of a box with a lift.... man on a ladder under a car loosing all it's fuel - holding up a funnel in a bad attempt to put the gas into a plastic tank. His clothes are soaked in gas...

Me- you ok?
Him- not really, darn old car. you got an extra tank?
Me- no... not on me at the moment, I'm trying to quit.

So the folly enfolds.

I tried to help him and even found some empty wine bottles in the recycle bin by the nearest door leading up to the apartments. By that time, most of the gas is emptied out. It is everywhere. In the few demijohns he has, on the ground leaking in the ground sewer in the middle of the garage, on his clothes, on rags... everywhere. I am worried... for sparks, for his health (he looks a bit crazed by the fumes...), for my health, for the entire apartment block (including mine next door...) He plays it down, even after slipping on the wet floor and falling, ensures he can clean it all up and that he feels fine. I get upstairs and after shucking my shoes which are now throw-aways with the leather soles and sides wet from the gas... and decide I can't really let that fall away like that.

I go back to the 24h doorman at the building directly above the box and explain the situation...
Him- I was wondering where that smell came from.
Me- You need to call the fire department.
Him- Why? What can they do?

That goes back and forth for several minutes. Residents pass and complain about the gas smell upstairs... he makes the call.

The fire department obviously was not interested either... throw some absorbent sand on it. (yeah, I've got some of that!) then, the line went dead... or the other resident in the building who gave cause to his neighbor and not the apparent risk. Just wash it off with water was his response. Go to hell all of you and my stupid interest in any of you... let the dumb bastard in his garage make the fatal spark and burn himself up and everyone around him!!! I hope that g-d car was worth a million!!! (OK, that is not my take on reality... thankfully.)

I called my downstairs neighbor and he was interested. The fire department promised they would send somebody to check it out. I foolishly ran out to the gate to wait for them. The guy who made the mess left the underground garage in his other working car two minutes later and waved g-bye to me at the gate. Pretty obvious that the doorman or the neighbor tipped him off that an interested neighbor was too interested. I waited 15 minutes with my neighbor in vain for the fire department. Nobody. I went back down to confirm that the doors to his two garages were indeed closed and the gas had been indeed washed into the sewer.

Bastard.

More than two hours have gone by, and nobody ever came to check out the problem.

Bastards!!


Not in my happy place.


ps, on a happier side, thanks to Gingernan for hosting the MonoMonday challenge.