The fire was raging at the end of the barn, where the straw was stacked. There was no way we could get Bex through that and out of the doors. I remembered seeing pipes that ran around the top of the barn, supplying water feeders for the pigs. If we could break one of them, maybe it would put the fire out? But if the electricity was still on, it could make the whole building live.

I ran and grabbed Kirsty. ‘How can we switch the electricity off? Then if Bex can burst one of the automatic waterers, she can put the fire out. She’s definitely in there.’

For a moment, I thought Kirsty was going to argue. Tell me Bex couldn’t possibly be inside. But instead she dropped her shoulders and nodded towards the barn. ‘The fuse box is in there. We can’t risk water.’ How could she be so calm when her sister was about to be burnt to death?

‘But can we get Bex to turn the electricity off?’ I said.

‘No,’ Kirsty said. ‘The fuse box is at the end where the fire is.’

‘So how can we bash the barn wall down?’ I wasn’t giving up on Bex, like Kirsty appeared to have done. ‘At the end which isn’t burning too badly. Do you have a tractor?’

‘Look, the fire brigade are on the way,’ Kirsty said. ‘Bex will be fine.’

I’d never seen a relative react like this before. Okay, Bex and Kirsty hadn’t grown up in the same house, but they’d spent a summer together. They were sisters. In that moment I hated Kirsty. I’d give anything to have my sister back, and she was prepared to let hers burn.

I heard sirens. ‘Oh, thank God.’

Fire engines piled into the yard.

‘There’s a woman inside,’ I shouted.

We watched helplessly while the firefighters worked, one group cutting a hole in the thick barn wall at the far end to get Bex out, another group drawing water from Kirsty’s pond and dousing hundreds of gallons of it over the barn.

Kirsty stood recklessly close to the barn while the firefighters worked. But she didn’t appear to be concerned – more fascinated. One of the men told her to move away but she ignored him, and he was too busy to insist.

Finally the firefighters managed to remove a panel from the side of the barn. The roof lurched downwards, spitting sparks in our direction. I jumped back. The firefighters were in. The pigs were still squealing and there was so much smoke I couldn’t see inside.

Someone was coming back out, dragging a woman behind him. Bex.

The barn made a strange groaning noise. I took another step back.

The remaining firefighters ran from the barn, just before the side wall collapsed.