When Small Fires Become Big Fires

[264 words] A few weeks ago, I was burning the wood from two trees that had to be cut down. I’d piled the wood as far from any other tree as possible, but the fire was so hot that a branch about 30 feet above and off to the side of the fire started to smoke in several places. Even though I was spraying water on the fire the whole time and had wet down the nearest trees, the heat continued to grow as some of the larger logs caught fire. With some embarrassment, I asked Heather to call the fire department. It wasn’t an emergency yet, but I could tell I was losing ground and knew I couldn’t reach that high branch if it caught on fire. I asked the fireman in charge if it was foolish to call before there was a real emergency. He said, “Absolutely not….