Grass Fire!

Last week we had a huge grass fire behind our house. It started with an old stump in the middle of the field that my dad had decided to burn. They brought a sprayer full of water to soak the ground around the burn, but it can take weeks for a stump to finish burning. The dry dead roots under ground can smolder for a very long time. I guess the stump had been burning for about a week and one windy day sparks were carried to the dry straw stubble of the field. It happened so fast! My mother noticed it when it was still a pretty small fire but it only took my parents a minute to decide that they were going to need help getting this fire under control. They called 911.

My father had to do something in the meantime. The wind was blowing the grass fire quickly to the natural gas well drilling site! They had struck a huge gas supply just a few days before! The man who was digging the well wasn't there that day but all of his equipment and machinery were there. One of the vehicles was a full water truck. My dad decided to soak the ground between the fire and the gas well with the water from the truck.

Soon after we had pretty much every volunteer fireman, truck and some helpful neighbors working to get the fire under control. I guessed 20 acres at least were burned. Some of the trees on the edge of the field are singed brown, but I think many of them will recover. The fire got within 10 metres of the gas well. Phew! Wonder what would have happened if . . . .?!