It was a rough weekend for those who fight fires around the province, with several fires popping up in various locations. Fires are one of those things that can be easy to start, but really hard to stop. One small hot ember from a well intentioned fire can soon get out of control.
If you’re like me, you probably lots of small branches and various things that have come down over the winter that could easily be taken care of with a small fire. But this isn’t the time.
It’s been a pretty dry spring and there’s not a lot of precipitation in the forecast, which could make a bad situation worse. And the winds that have been blowing almost every day this spring can dry things out even faster, making it even worse.
The situation is serious enough that the province didn’t even wait until the usual 2:00 PM time to put out the restriction map for the day. They simply banned all fires this morning. A good idea considering the state of the forests at present.
I am not a trained fire fighter at all, but many years ago, in another lifetime, I did help on a couple small forest fires. While in certainly gave me some rather vivid memories, it is not really something I want to repeat. It was not fun. And if you are ever wondering, water dropped from an airplane may help fight the fire, but if you’re on the ground below it, it hurts. And soot can find areas of your body to hide in that you never knew you had.
So try to give the fire fighters a break. Please avoid burning and be extra careful with smoking materials.
While I enjoy sitting in the sun with a cool beverage, hopefully we get some rain soon. We certainly could use it.