FLASH: Forest Fires Encircle KYUEM

In Akmal Batu's words, "I first sensed something was amiss on Thursday, when I felt the sky was a bit dark. Then I sensed smoke and knew something was burning." Well, Akmal, you got that right.

KYUEM bore witness to a surprisingly violent forest fire. Here we at Veritas present pictures of the inferno, kindly supplied by our intrepid photograph..ess? Alicia, Order of the Council of Humanitarian Photojournalists, Class II. Her insistence in putting her life on the line for the call of duty was a very selfless act of journalism for the cause of truth. She will be deeply remembered.

Are forest fires a common occurence in KYUEM? In the words of a few seniors, names withheld to safeguard privacy, an emphatic NO. Rendra (name changed to protect privacy) has never seen a forest fire near KYUEM before when encountered on the basketball court, asking me to take a few pictures of this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. He was duly informed that Alicia was battling smoke asphyxiation and tar stains to snap the fire's Kodak moments.

Question: WHAT WAS the fire engine doing dormant at the disaster scene? This particular fire engine was parked here for 1 hour (Alicia as eyewitness), all the while not budging. Question: WHY did the fire engine arrive so late? After about 3 hours of ash raining on people in college (quote Hazwan Senior: "Nicholas's shirt was white when he first sat here." Nicholas was wearing a grey shirt that fateful day in Saad Square.), then Alicia noticed the fire engine present. Well, as Shakespeare so aptly put it, all's well that ends well, and the forest fire disappeared of its own volition on Saturday evening - just in time for Bangsawan, which will be the focus of the next article.