Fire!

Dialing 911 after daughter #1 told me she had lit the woods on fire was not the way I expected to spend the day yesterday when the spinners and weavers came to spend the day at my house to learn how to use a Weavette. I had been pleasantly enjoying an afternoon of teaching bias weaving on a hand held pin loom when Daughter #1 came to me to inform me that she had been to her "Fort" (which is a few logs pulled together with a piece of tin over it and a circle of stones to signify a cooking pit) and caught the woods on fire. I looked out the window and witnessed flames shooting 40 feet into the air as the "fire" had spontaneously combusted up the side of a spruce tree and was threatening a grove of beetle infested dead pine trees...... ACK!!!!

911 was called in a jiffy and the spades and buckets made their debut in a hurry let me tell you. Marjorie (a gem) and Daughter #1 jumped to the frey and tried to put it out. Daughter #2 and her friend got buckets of water and tried putting it out too. With horror I watched and asked friends to move their vehicles so the soon to arrive fire trucks could reach the flames and slow the fast moving fire.

Suddenly sense hit..... what were my girls doing in a forest fire? I, in short time, got them out of there with a few good yells and grabbing a shovel I proceeded into the flames, myself. Keep the fire from drifting into the forest (the real forest) and keep it on our property where the firefighters could fight it was the game plan. Keep the flames out of the trees. Keep the flames in the grass and away from the paddocks and house. Keep us all safe.

The smoke was choking and the heat was awful. My face felt like it was going to explode. The spade put out the flames but there was nothing to be done about the smoke and then suddenly I was blind.... I could hear sirens wailing... they were a long way off. How to get out of the smoke. Move to the right..... turn back on to the smoke.... there.... out of the smoke.... choke, choke, choke....

I was never so glad to see firefighter in my life. I remember someone telling me to sit down and drink water. I remember directing trucks around the house and down to where the flames were burning their way through the grass and debris. I remember crying and hugging and then I had to deal with Daughter #1 who had hidden herself in the upstairs skeleton of our house. I wanted her to know that it was ok that mistakes happen and that everything was going to be ok. But I wanted her to know that this was serious. I wanted her to know that I loved her and I always would no matter what.

She took it all well though I know in her heart she is horrified by what she did. It was a valuable lesson with a small cost.

Life has returned to normal.... there is a big black patch out my living room window. The yellow wagon that Daughter #1 received as a Christmas present when she was one year old and which she had been hauling rocks to her "Fort" in, melted in the fire. Daughter #1 retrieved a melted blue wheel with an axle in it and a whole lot of pine and fir needles in it. It is charred beyond recognition and Daughter #1 laments for it. My spinners and weavers, I'm sure, will never forget their lesson on the Weavette..... I'm glad we are all safe.