The August Fire

I have always been fascinated with forest fires. Coming from Northern-ish Saskatchewan, it's a pretty common summerly occurrence. The grasses in Africa grow very tall, taller than me. During the winter, it's a lot cooler and so it's a perfect opportunity to burn these grasses. The sky is hazy with smoke from all the grass being burnt. Saturday night the sky was a little more than a haze.

I spent the day at Youth and on the drive back home noticed they were burning along the main road. Thinking nothing of it, we drove up the driveway to the farm. Later on, we noticed the wind was strong and the fire was starting to head in our direction. It was still a distance away and was only seen to be in the direction behind the house. That soon changed. The winds picked up, the fire grew larger and was faster approaching. Not only that, but we started noticing in more directions the fire moving towards us. This was so very exciting, but at the same time we were getting a little nervous as it was now approaching a large part of our perimeter.

And the fire grew larger and the fire came closer. We began to feel the heat of the fire and the air grew thick with smoke. Walking outside, my eyes instantly began to water and I could barely breathe the smoke was so thick. By the end of the evening, my eyes were red and puffy.

This was so intense. But so exciting!

I felt as if I was in a few movies. It reminded me of Free Willy 2 when the tanker exploded and the water was on fire. The fire began to close in and Willy barely escaped. This fire was closing in on us.

A couple men were driving around inspecting the fire. At one point, they told us that the fire was out of control and if it crosses the fence, we should do anything we can to protect that house. Thanks man - good advice. The men were later watering down our perimeter with big tanks and hoses.

So we were in "protect the home" mode.

As the fire approached the fence, the grass was a lot shorter (thanks to our lovely gardener, Kiver) and it died down. But only a meter away from it.

Then a new problem was noticed. We have a large tree in our yard that was struck by lightning before I came. It is very dead and very gnarly. Marc noticed the tree was on fire. Somehow a spark flew into the tree and it began burning from the inside. Knowing this tree will burn quickly and because it is right beside the fence, we were frantic to get the fire out. Marc filled a large barrel with water and ran towards the tree. And here is where my story becomes comical. The ground is uneven and there are many holes. As Marc got to the tree, he stepped in a hole and fell down the rocky/rooty ground. Not only did he twist his ankle, but he spilled half of the water and lost his pants. He says there was so much going on at that moment. A tree on fire. A painful ankle. A spilled bucket of water. And pantslessness.
I was kind and did not laugh at first, but everytime I think about it, it makes me laugh and I do not let him forget about how funny it is.

The next day we went for a walk around to check out the damage. It was a rainy and gloomy day. There was a huge area of land charred. It reminded me of Bambi, the large forest fire and the chaos that ensued, then the next day a rainy and solemn day. I guess it makes more sense though to compare it to The Lion King, seeing as it was a grass fire and it was in Africa.

So that is the August Fire. We took lots of pictures and video, so hopefully I can get that up soon.


To see other pictures meanwhile, go to these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015065&l=851b6&id=122200374
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014092&l=e5455&id=122200374
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013351&l=1e2d4&id=122200374