17. FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

Fire fighting

We have been so busy in the garden and then we had some fire fighting to do. I am exhausted.

We have been having periods of almost drowning and then lately it has been very dry and this dry weather, combined with all the wind, (which seems to be normal for this area), makes it all to easy for things to go up in flames. I must admit we have also been very lucky, one of the neighbors just phoned to say one of his fire breaks got out of hand, so sorry! Lucky for us the wind direction changed and it was possible to get the fire under control before it got near the houses. 

There are very many theories about why and how these fires start. One of the reasons are neighbors burning fire breaks and then these fires gets out of hand. The other reason is that the grass is burned down on purpose, to kill the old dry grass, so that new fresh ones can grow, this seem to be the work of cattle owners, wanting new fresh grass for their cows. This is all good, until the wind changes direction and then it becomes a problem. 

Then apparently people collecting honey from wild hives use smoke from burning sticks to get the bees out and then just throw the burning sticks down. 

We have had to fight 3 fires now, but these fires are also necessary, they kill off the old plant materials, which gives new fresh plants a change to come up. Some seeds also need the heat to germinate, so without the occasional fire, some plants will actually not be able to grow.

Burning bushes

The best way to control these fires are to burn a piece of field in the way of the fire, this (already burned) field stops the fire from going further. It is exhausting work! and mostly guess work, because the wind can change direction any second and the fire can go into a whole new direction.