Andy in Christchurch

For those who do not know my family well, I have a brother who's one year younger and an officer with Singapore's Civil Defence Force. He's a firefighter.

Before he got in, we used to talk about how fires in Singapore are generally mild, and we hardly hear of fires. We thought firefighters in Singapore are paid to do nothing much. How wrong! One day, Andy showed us some clips of real life fires that he led his team to put out.

We were dumbfounded at the magnitude of one such fire they went to put out. It was burning soooo badly at least 6 surrounding units of that HDB flat appeared engulfed. A maid was locked in and screaming eerily in the middle of the night. They got her out but she suffered burns.

There were many others that were no less dangerous. Not to forget, they rescue people, both living and departed. He spoke of drowned corpses that they need to fish out of river etc.

At that moment, I was so proud that he's my brother, a brave fire fighter! Mr Liow couldn't help but remind him to do his best AND remember that he's human too (in case that adrenalin rush during each mission makes him forget he has no superhuman powers). Even Mr Liow gets worried over what Andy has to do.

Soon enough, he got posted out and is now working office hours. He must miss all those actions (coz he's got other plans in progress). But he still gets to go on firefighting missions (if he's needed) during his "on-duty" days, and has to be on standby for big events like National Day, F1 race dates, Youth Olympics (just to name a few).

Just this morning, he called to inform me that there had been an earthquake in Christchurch and he was awaiting instructions to be sent there to assist in rescue work. Our parents said he came home in the afternoon to pack and left after a quick early dinner.

He'll be there for a week.

As much as I always complain about last minute work commitments that befalls Mr Liow sometimes, nothing beats this, that he has to leave the country at last minute notice, for a week, to do dangerous stuff.

Saw on the news that one of the after-quake tremors rated 5.7. That's still bad. Imagine rubbles giving way while rescuers are on them or trapped victims becoming even more trapped.

This disaster is more personal, coz Andy is there. While others are evacuated from danger zone, rescuers like him enter the same danger zone.

To think that we were planning for a mahjong session this Sat evening. Guess we'll have to wait for him to come back in a week. Can't wait to hear his stories!

Lord, please protect him and the other rescuers as they search for trapped victims. We pray You'll comfort those waiting to be found, and families of those who did not make it. Please keep tremors mild so they will not affect rescue works. Please help those doing rescue to look into right places. Please bring Andy home safely. In your mighty name we ask of these.