Published on 12, July, 2020
Last night was nightmarish and very traumatic.
My support-worker left me at 8pm, as is usual on Fridays, and having had my dinner, I was cooking my stewed apple on the hob. I was following my usual Friday evening routine, and was looking forward to watching my DVD from 9pm-10pm, and then to get an early night - I had only slept for 4 hours the night before.
While the apple was gently stewing away, I cleared up my clothes from my bed and went to hang them up in my walk-through wardrobe. I then noticed a damp patch on the carpet, and looking up I noticed water dripping from the light-fixture. Very soon I was panicking, worrying that I could electricute myself , and so I did not want to touch anything electrical. What was even worse was that my parents were away for the night, and so could not come out to help me. Luckily I had their phone number and so could phone them up on my mobile. By this point I was standing in the porch area, crying uncontrollably, and regressing into that 2 year old child I turn into in emergency situations.
I wanted my parents to get me a taxi straight away to take me back to their house, but my mum insisted that I needed to speak to the upstairs neighbour in case she had left her tap on. Of course there was no way I was going to do this, given my state and anxiety about knocking on doors, and it did not help that my parents were shouting at me down the phone. My dad then phoned the police (he was panicking, too), but the police got the fire-brigade to come out. They came in a fire-engine, and all its lights were flashing. Three men in uniform trouped into my flat, reassuring me, for they had been informed that I am autistic.
They surveyed the situation and told me that the leak is isolated, and they cordoned the leak off. One of them also went upstairs to speak to the neighbour, but I am not sure what happened. The neighbour has epilepsy and is not always very well; I heard no sounds coming from upstairs.
Eventually the fire-crew turned the electricity off, and another fire-man (not in uniform) was called to take me back to my parent's house in his van. I arrived 'home' to a familiar and safe environment at 11pm. Just being back home, where I grew up, made me relaxed, and I eventually went to bed at 12.30pm, later than my usual 11pm bed-time. Thankfully, though, I fell asleep very quickly and slept well.
What a drama. Now, I can see the funny side, thinking it would make a good Catherine Tate sketch!.
Early on Monday the people from electrics will visit my flat to ensure everything is safe and secure.
Writing this down is cathartic!
That's definitely not a nice experience, water coming through a light fitting especially. Well done for surviving. At least the firemen understood and took you back to your parents' place.
My experience in various places (many of dubious quality) is that mould is only a problem if there is long-term damp/high humidity. If the ceiling has all dried out after a few days then it should be fine. The brown tidal marks are a pain (especially in a textured ceiling as they're a nightmare to paint) but cosmetic rather than a hazard like mould is. Even if there was some growth, if you catch it soon it's fairly easy to deal with.
Unfortunately absolute certainty can be very difficult to reach. Whatever happens they'll always be pipes up there, and even if you were in a top-floor flat there'd be the roof. Worries about my flat drive me nuts. I had the electrics all brought up to spec and inspected by an electrician from a council certified register and I still worry about it. Presumably if it was anything more than a tap left on that caused the problem then the housing association would get a plumber in to fix it anyway though?