She was alone with little Joele, just 2 years old, Ilenia Pau, in the apartment on the first floor of a building in via Manin, in Quartu . First dinner, then brushing their teeth and hands before going to bed early because they had to go to nursery the next day. But on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday what the thirty-year-old mother would never have expected happens: the fire in the garage downstairs, the fire that engulfs two cars, her apartment filled with smoke, the firefighters who save her and her baby with the ladder truck and the ride to the hospital.
The shock
«Luckily we are here to tell it, because it could have been much worse» says Ilenia in a faint voice. A few days after the drama and the scare, however, the problems remain. « Our house is now uninhabitable and we don't know where to go. Let's be clear, I don't want anything for free: I'm just looking for someone who can give us an apartment to rent." Outside the nursery in Via De Cristoforis where she took Joele for placement, "because for him and my other 11-year-old son Valentino, everything must continue as before", Ilenia Pau recounts that nightmare night.
The story
«Valentino wasn't there. Joele and I were in bed." What woke her up just before 4.30 was "a smell of smoke, but light but not strong, so much so that I got up to check the sockets". And at that moment when he saw a light, «it was filtering through the shutters so I went out onto the balcony and saw the car catching fire. I ran into the room, picked up Joele and we took refuge in the living room. I held him tightly and prayed that it wasn't anything serious." Instead, within a few minutes the situation degenerates. «The hall filled with smoke, you couldn't breathe. But what I wanted most was to reassure Joele. I told him "it's nothing, let's go now". Then the idea: «I thought about escaping to the terrace, I said to myself "go Ilenia, run upstairs there's air there". Instead I open the door and scream: you can't see anything, the entrance hall is filled with smoke."
Chaos and fear
In the meantime, the fire engulfs the cars and the garage, people take to the street, there is chaos: «I went back to the living room and called a neighbor from the building opposite, I shouted "we are dying in here", I panic." Luckily help arrives, «the firefighters took Joe and me to safety and then we went to hospital. We had oxygen, they did all the tests but luckily they released us." However, they were unable to return home: «The apartment is not usable. We can only go and get our things with the police. For now we are staying with my mother but the house is small, my brother is also there, we can't stay there for too long."
The appeal
Hence, the appeal. «I was renting in Via Manin and now I'm looking for another house which, let's be clear, I can pay for regularly. Also because I don't want to go back there, even if they put it back together, what I experienced was too bad. I know that many private individuals are afraid to rent their homes, but we are good people. It's me and my two children. And I'm on foot. So I hope to find a home in Quartu."
