Friday, March 21, 2014

It's Fire Season

This is what the hillside at the top of my street looked like last weekend. 
What began as a small garbage burn turned into a much larger brush/forest fire. 
Here in West Virginia, fire season begins March 1st and continues through May 31st. 
No burning allowed until after 5 p.m. and it must be put out by 7 a.m. the next morning.
You'd think we'd be safe from forest fires with all the snow that we've had this year. However, there are plenty of dead leaves, trees and grasses that can ignite rather quickly. Add a little wind to that mix and you could have big trouble.
The fire department was called back a second time for a rekindle the same day. I saw at least 5 other departments from surrounding towns coming up our street to help put it out. Thankfully it didn't make it to any houses.
Five days later and after a rainy night the fire department was called back a third time to extinguish some brush that began smoldering again.
I think it's safe to say it's not worth burning right now. It's just too windy and there is too much dead foliage laying on the ground.

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