Well my goodness, did we have an exciting day today. It’s the dry season here and brush fires are very common. Our house is beside a wooded area and my neighbors swore that there never has been a fire there. But, there have been fires across the street, up the hill, and so many other areas close by that I became concerned. In the past I have left the many fallen leaves on the ground thinking they would offer the grass some protection from the scorching sun. When the rains returned, then I would clean up the yard. About a week ago though, I began cleaning the yard. Thank goodness I did or it could have been worse.
There is a big cliff right outside our fence. The land goes down to a flat area below and then to the river. Last night I could hear fire popping and see some fire down below, but the neighbors assured me that it was far and wouldn’t do anything up here. By the time I went to bed it looked like the fire was moving west, away from our house. When my husband returned about 3AM from the music festival, he said there were flames at the end of the street but not next to our yard. I learned later that my neighbor across was up at 4AM dousing the flames outside our fence with water. When I got up this morning everything was fairly quiet. The area at the end of the street was smoldering but I didn’t see anything else going on.
The winds were calm until a bit after noon when they started to blow a bit, not hard, but enough to get the fire going again. It seemed like no time at all and the woods were popping and crackling down below and I became concerned. I ran a quick errand and when I returned it looked like there was a volcano of smoke coming from our yard! The fire had advanced to the other side of our fence, and it wasn’t long before it jumped to the leaf pile (now I know whey people here don’t make leaf piles!!) and it also started burning any other leaves and dried plant material it could find. It jumped into the neighbors yard and burned up to beside her house, and it also advanced across the street to the woods behind those neighbor’s houses. There was a big fire there not long ago so I’m not sure what more could be burned but there must have been enough to do it again.
Of course we were busy with the water hose and buckets of water (there is more than one reason to have a swimming pool, even a little one!). But, I did manage to get a couple photos during it, and then more later.
Joel mans the hose beside the leaf pile, trying to stay out of the smoke as much as he can.
fire burns right on the other side of our fence
the firemen arrived, 30 minutes after they were first called and by then things were pretty much under control.
The plants near the fence don’t look so good any more.
The leaf pile isn’t nearly as high as it used to be
In the woods beyond and below, the fire continues and the air is still full of smoke
I don’t know why the lemon tree in the side yard looks so bad. The fire was near, but not under or in it. My neighbor says now we can enjoy smoked lemons. ha! I cleaned out tons of leaves from under this tree last week though, thank goodness or they would have burned for sure.
There is a layer of ash on everything
The woods across the street are full of smoke too
The smoke is really bad, but it makes an interesting photo
Fire continues to smolder outside our fence. This area inside the fence was very full of leaves but look now, the fire didn’t even come here.
Looking down the cliff to the woods below, it looks pretty burned.
The bomberos (firemen) took a while to arrive. Even when they come they aren’t able to do very much. They strap water containers on their back and squirt perimeters of property or in our case, hot spots where they found them. They did come in our yard and our neighbor’s yard though, to squirt anything they found still smoldering or burning.
I suppose this is one way to clean up the place. There was a small area of our yard that I hadn’t finished cleaning but it’s done now. I can see into the woods better than I ever have before, and the corner outside our fence that needed to be cleaned up is also done. All the yard trash the everyone dumps at the end of the street is also gone. But, I don’t think I would recommend doing this on purpose!
Thankfully the houses are made of block and metal roofs so the houses aren’t going to burn. I’m not too happy about the yard though. I know most, if not all the plants will recover and regrow but they sure look pitiful at the moment. We have a ton of lemons too, so we’ll see if smoked lemons work as well as the usual ones. I have also learned more words related to fires including limones ahumados (smoked lemons).
Tonight all is quiet except for a couple instances of something crashing in the woods. My neighbor thinks the fire has weakened some trees and they are now falling down. I can’t see anything from here, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings. I am going to continue to keep the yard cleaned up as much as I can, just in case. I wonder if this will change the amount of dry leaves that seem to rain down on us from the woods every time the wind kicks up.
