Ordinary start

What started out as a unremarkable day, today became anything but.

In the midst of spring cleaning, I decide to get outside and burn a little paper and cardboard in the burn barrel. Burn barrels are a not too uncommon site around these parts for disposing of trash and leaves. Today was a bright, sunny, warm day, perfect for a little burning.

Everything is going fine. I’m burning a large box that I ripped into pieces. I’m keeping a close eye on the fire. Then I notice a little piece of flaming paper no bigger than a dime. It fluttered up from the barrel and over to a pile of leaves. Not good.

We have a fire

I’m on the other side of the barrel so I run around a try to stomp it out. Mistake number one. Now I have fire all around my foot. I try to stomp that out. Mistake number two. The fire around my foot is now two feet tall and around both my legs.

I run up to the house taking inventory of the children and running several possible solutions to this problem through my head. The brain works amazingly fast in these situations. I thought of water. Try buckets. No, too slow. The fire extinguisher. Yea, try that. Grab it, pull the pin, and run outside. Fire is too big for a little kitchen extinguisher. Call the neighbor. Nope, nothing he can do. Call 911. Yes, definitely. All that thought and action occurred in less than 30 seconds.

The firemen

The fire departments in rural areas like this are all voluntary. Immediately after hanging up with 911 I hear the air horn blow calling all the volunteers. Yes, there are parts of the country where that still occurs. The horn is a blowin’, must be a fire a goin’. And, upon hearing the horn blow not once but twice, I’m thinking “major fire” by the time they arrive.

The first pickup truck arrives within five minutes. Soon after that, a rescue vehicle, a tanker truck, a fire truck, and two more pickups arrive. The neighbor pulls in laughing. He knows, without looking, exactly what I did.

They end up putting out the fire with my small plastic bucket and water that had collected in John’s sandbox. A bucket and water, hmmm…why didn’t I think of that?

Aftermath

The firemen were quite nice. I thought they might be upset but they said these are the types of fires they like. So, I suppose it’s nice for them to come to the rescue and all is well. No one was hurt, no homes or property damaged; just some scorched earth and one grateful family.

Special thanks to the Medway-Grapeville Volunteer Fire Company.

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