ESCAPE! Fire and Flames (English Version)

Chapter two: Flaming Death

The screams come from the hallway. Quickly you put the book aside to see what's going on out there. As soon as you open the door to the small bookstore where you are, thick clouds of smoke are rising towards you. Coughing, you turn away. Your eyes start to water and it takes quite a while until you can see clearly again. In front of you, a picture emerges like from a news broadcast from Syria. Small fires are burning everywhere, people are running screaming towards the exit, while some are left injured or carried. To your right the building has completely collapsed and an abyss rises 2 floors into the depth.
The stench out here is unbearable. You want to get out of here as soon as possible.
One last time you look back. All the books would burn. And the move would be so close. Suddenly you remember your book, the good one with the dragon binding that the bookseller gave you. At least you want to save this book, so you make a quick decision, turn around and run hastily back to the sofa you were sitting on. In a hurry, you grab your book and quickly run out again.
You still hear a few injured people, but you can't see any more on your floor. Either they've been helped and they've already left, or they're still there and the smoke's just so thick that you can't see them anymore. Actually, you don't want to know that exactly and just hope for the best for them. Because even if you found someone, you probably wouldn't be able to carry an adult. And if you don't get out of here right away, you'll probably suffocate in the increasingly dense smoke.
So you run at random in the direction in which the many people also fled a few minutes ago. There you also suspect the staircase that will lead you to the exit. And you are lucky. In fact, you'll find the stairwell right away. A short staircase leads up to the roof, the longer one winds down to the exit.
With quick steps you fall down the stairs. You've almost reached the first floor, where a jet of flame suddenly shoots up directly in front of you. Shocked by the heat wave that grips you, you recede. You almost dropped the book. Then it would have passed in the wall of fire that spreads hip-high in front of you.
You don't understand all this! The stairwell is built of concrete and tiles. How can it catch fire?! Then you discover a carrier with broken vodka bottles in the centre of the flames. Darkly you remember hearing somewhere: "Alcohol burns!"
But even this realization doesn't help you. Dense clouds of smoke now rise up to you. Again you have to cough and turn away. You no longer see any hope in being able to overcome the flames downwards. Slowly you feel the panic rising inside you.
Hectically you run up again, towards the roof. Maybe at least the smoke is not so exhausting there. But soon the next disappointment awaits you. The door to the roof is locked!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator