Clue Bat Time

[ellyssian]

I'm not sure if it should be a fire retardant foam clue bat, or a flame thrower...

There is a Fire Weather Warning issued by the National Weather Service.

I personaly saw umpteen acres afire on Saturday.

And people say:

"... but that's not right. It's not dry!"

and:

"We've had many, many inches of rain in one day last month!"

and:

"There was snow last week!"

and:

"We're over the average rainfall for the year!"

In otherwords, because it rained some time ago, there is no danger of fire. Even when you can look at cracked, dried out parched soil, and crunch along on dry, dead last-year's undergrowth.

So I suppose that's an excuse to burn something in your backyard or throw cigarettes out of your car window or leave campfires unattended.

Because, at one time, it rained.

Comments

[wolfette]

I daresay if you can keep it in your own backyard it might be ok.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

That's the problem: they think they can keep it there, but the woods and undergrowth have other ideas.

Fire sweeping through forests and meadows and so forth can be a good thing - it's a healthy process that rejuvenates many species. The only problem is that people seem not to like it so much when their house burns to the ground.

[stormbringer986.livejournal.com]

It's good to see Florida doesn't have a monopoly on idiocy regarding fire.

I worked at a resort last summer and part of our deal was fireworks every Tuesday night. Alas, right behind the launching area was a big patch of woods. It barely rained at all last summer, so it wasn't too surprising that the big July 4th show started brushfires. They were contained easily enough but the fire dept told the resort no more fireworks until we got enough rain to dampen things down a little bit. Makes sense right?
It didn't stop the idiot tourists from coming in my shop all of the time going "Are there fireworks tonight?" and getting their over-priced panties in a twist when I said no, because it started fires before. They'd be whining a lot more if the fires burnt their precious beach homes, that's for sure.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yes, but their whine would go in the wrong direction - the fault would not have been theirs for providing the pressure for a pretty show, but on the government, fire department(s), and resort staff for not implementing proper safety measures (which would, of course, not include the most obvious: don't light 'em up when it's dry!)

[stormbringer986.livejournal.com]

Oh of course. It's one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of things. They complain when they don't get what they want from us, but they'd be jumping down our throats if something had gone wrong.

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

Even though New Hampshire was in a state of emergency last week due to a nor'easter and much flooding occured and the ground is still wet/damp underneath and my sump pump is still pumping water out from my house on a hill, tonight's news mentioned a series of brush fires and issued fire warnings. How/ Why? you may ask, given that so many houses like mine have wet cellars. Here's why: the air has been very dry the last several days with warm sunny weather (Laconia was up to 76F today). The not quite green growth and myriad branches knocked down are dry as, well, as tinder. Human carelessness most likely sparked the blazes -- open trash burning is allowed on private property. Even if burned in a proper fire pit, it's been windy and spaarks travel well in the wind.