By Rouaa Tawfiq A. Abahussain
DUBAI – Have you ever smelled something so strong that you were about to faint?
For me, it happened on a Saturday night around 10 o’clock when I went back home after a long day. I had dropped my car at the service center earlier in the day, and my friend Noorah lent me her car for the day.
When I got home, I went up to my room, which is located on the second floor, and closed the door to get ready to sleep. Then I started to smell a very strange, annoying smell. It smelled like gas or an electric explosion.
I asked myself, “Is this smell an indication of a fire?”
I didn’t know where it was coming from or what the source of this strong smell was. I thought it was coming from outside from a garbage truck or something else maybe.
Since I was very sleepy, I decided to ignore it.
After a while, I started to feel dizzy from the strong smell. The smell was affecting my nose, and it felt like I was inhaling chemicals into my lungs. I went to the first floor to check if this weird smell was there, and there was nothing. I went back upstairs to sleep, but the awful odor became worse.
I couldn’t breath easily, so I decided then to go to the ground floor to look for the source of the smell. The ground floor smelled more strongly than the second floor.
After moving around the house, I finally discovered the odor’s source. It was coming from the garage. It is very close to the entrance (part of the entrance somehow), and the smell of the petrol was coming from Noorah’s car because I filled the tank of the petrol fully. I apparently had not screwed the gas tank cap back on securely enough. Of course, I shouldn’t have filled it all because Noorah told me later that there was a problem with her tank.
But why was the smell all over my building? Apparently the smell was being transmitted through the air conditioning units, starting from the garage, passing to the entrance and then to my room.
I can tolerate the smell of petrol during normal hours. However, when I am about to go to sleep, the smell of petrol makes it hard for me to close my eyes and sleep peacefully. Now that I had found the source, I managed to open the garage door to let the smell out, and finally I was able to breath again and went to bed out of harm’s way.
About the Author
Rouaa Tawfiq A. Abahussain is a graduate student in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at ZU. She is working on her master’s degree in public relations. A native of Saudi Arabia who earned her undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of Sharjah, Ms. Abahussain works as a corporate community executive for Estee Lauder in Dubai.
This story was originally published on March 5, 2015. It was re-uploaded on Dec. 24, 2020.
