It was the night before Christmas when Vífill Valgeirsson woke up. He was in bed with his wife and everything was still on the farmhouse Bjarg in Eyjafjörður, close to Akureyri. Suddenly, his dreams were interrupted when he smelled smoke and felt extremely warm. He jumped out of bed, rushed to the corridor and got the feeling that the whole house was ablaze, ruv.is reports. In shock he stumbled out of the house and shut the door behind him. It was then that he realized that the door was locked and his wife and mother in law were inside.
Plus he was stark naked.
Vífill decided to break a window on the door, but the heat was so intense that he could not enter. He called his wife who answered, but dared not leave her room. Somehow he thought of his mother in law on the second floor but her door was locked as well (RÚV does not tell us how he knew that).
There was nothing to do but walk to the next farm, which luckily was only 500 meters away (600 yards). He managed to wake them up and 15 minutes later the fire department came and managed to save both women. Just in time, because Vífill’s wife had almost passed out. She was taken to the intensive care unit in Akureyri with smoke inhalation. She has now recovered enough to be released from hospital.
The cause of fire is thought to be a furnace used to dry food.
