Just when things were starting to get routine-like and predictable we decided to kick it up a notch. I say "we" but really is was a Steve decision! He decided to burn some of our boxes in the burn barrel and then, just as the wind was kicking in he wondered if he could burn out the vegitation in our lagoon. Short answer: no.
Long answer:
The wind carried some sparks into the grass by the lagoon, swept up a wall of flame and took off on a race. Sometimes we were winning, but you just can't beat a brushfire on a windy day without a little advance planning. I casually glanced out the window and saw the trash burning and thought, good, "Steve is taking care of the trash" then I thought "why is he looking so upset". I strolled out back as he yelled some incoherent phrase that didn't sound like "sweetheart, love of my life, so good to see you, I've been thinking about you this past hour"........ and then I saw the wall of flames kick up.
I ran into the house and filled a bucket with water. I don't care what Steve says, I am convinced that we DON'T have good water pressure. The buckets in both kitchen sinks slowed down as I rallyed the troops. We all ran outside and Johnny ran straight for Steve......through the burning field! We finally convinced the boy he was much more valuable in the back yard, saving the house. at this point Steve likes to say that the house was never in much danger, but I beg to differ. I am convinced that stalwart Johnny flooding the back lawn with the hose did in fact keep the flames from running up to our home. That, and the fact that the wind blew south easterly and Kaitlyn and Katrina put in some heavy duty prayers while running water and wet towels to us.
We would get a section damped down by hitting the flames and smothering them with a wet towel and then the wind would fan the embers and sparks would jump to the next closest dry brush and a wall of flame would burst up. Good times.
At one point in time it occured to me that this inferno would be easier to handle with a little help from friends so I called my neighbor over. She brought her son and some rakes and asked why we had not called the fire department yet. Well, we thought this was just a little fire that we had mostly under control....then the wind picked up again. I like to think that I was very calm when talking to 911.......I am sure that it helped as I kept repeating our address. Oh, and it did help when I finally conveyed the fact that we had a fire and it was headed towards out neighbor's propane tank. You never know how you might come across on the phone during those conversations.........something calm and serene or something more urgent.....like maybe"please teleport a firetruck to my house right now, my children are fighting a fire and I am not sure where they all are!"
Now, that's a little melodramatic. Truly I was only wondering about Kimberly as she had started a fantastic monologue about us burning out our home and had wandered off somewhere in search of an audience. The rest of the kiddos were very business-like. Johnny was holding off the flames with a flood of water dripping from the (very slow) hose. Kelly was trying to fill buckets with water but running into the problem of not being able to carry them, so devised a strategy of only half filling them. (this was frustrating to those needing the water) Katrina was stationed in the backyard by the house and Kaitlyn was running the field with me. After a few hours of hard work we had the good fortune to have a visit from the volunteer fire department who sprayed down the neighbor's yard by their gas tank and put our the fire in the woods.
As Kaitlyn said: "All's well that ends well." I'm pretty sure she knew she was quoting someone but it could have been just a thought that popped into her head. No injuries except some singed hair and a few towels sacrificed their lives for us. the fire chief said that it was about 7 acres that ultimately burned and invited us to join the force. I just might. He said they have health insurance benefits. I realized that I kind of liked the adrenaline. However, before we burn the field that we really want to burn down, we will have the fire guys on hand and water pre-staged. I have heard that some people burn fields on purpose. Imagine that!
No comments:
Post a Comment