Easter Fire

Old lady Leary took a lantern to the shed,
And when the cow kicked it over
She turned around and said,
There’ll be a hot time in the ole town tonight.

I wasn’t planning to invite them, but they all showed up. Half the town of Estacada, it seemed. Now it’s typical for a few folk to show up at a fire. But here’s how to get a mob. Call 911 to report a fire while the fire department is hosting an Easter egg hunt. The whole community, all the kids and their families, were in the local high school football stadium for the big event. The news spread like wildfire.

It was the day before Easter, April, 2004. There was a stiff east wind that day, probably 20 miles an hour, steady, at times. The kind of wind I had grown to dread. I had burned more burn piles and slash rows that winter than any tree farmer in the county, I am certain. But I hadn’t burned any piles for several weeks, not since the last big scare.

That Saturday morning I was working with the tractor moving piles of firewood and cleaning up brush. It was a good thing that I happened to be there working that day. Really, really good. I noticed smoke coming out of the old burn pile that had burned two weeks earlier. That pile had been about the size of a small house when I first lit it up, when it first gave me problems and tried to go out of control. But this was two weeks later. And here it was smoldering and getting stirred up again. Soon I could see some flames and I knew embers must be blowing in the wind. So I decided to go over and check on it. I took my shovel and went to inspect and quickly noticed that the embers were blowing downwind and starting lots of little spot fires -- in old rotten stumps, in dry grass, and in lots of ground duff left over from logging and clearing. I ran around with the shovel trying to throw dirt on them but they were spreading way faster than I could control them. But I kept trying, kept running from fire to fire. It was futile. Pretty soon I saw some spot fires down the ravine heading for the neighbor’s woods. So I ran up to the renter’s house, bolted inside, and found their phone. Even they were at the Easter egg hunt. Fortunately they had left the house unlocked.

I also called home to have my boys come quick and help me control the fires. The fire department got there first, in time to spray foam on all the spot fires. I ran about showing them all the hot spots that they were missing. Pretty soon I collapsed from exhaustion and someone gave me a bottle of water. Then I noticed the boys, standing out of sight from the crowd. They didn’t know what to think. They didn’t want anyone to know they were related to that crazy guy who almost started a forest fire, the Estacada version of Old Lady Leary’s Chicago Fire.

All’s well that ends well. Right. It sure has made for some good stories.

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

I knew weary that day. Exhaustion. How many fires do I try to put out in life? When God has pumper trucks full of foam and the “manpower” needed to deal with any and every situation. Teach me Lord to wait upon You.