Where there's smoke, there's fire (06/15/05)

I wasnÂ't at home when the lightning struck. Allan told me there was a flash of light, a loud pop inside the house at the same time as the huge thunderous crash. The power did not go out. ThatÂ's the beauty of solar energy.

However, the phone did go out. Something in the radio, the antenna, the wires or maybe the charge box was fried.

A few minutes later, another streak of light, but the sound didnÂ't arrive until almost half a second later. It was near, but not right on top of the house that time. And the rain came too. Wonderful, refreshing rain. How the Earth rejoiced in the torrent.

Next day I had to take the boat across the lake to call for phone repair. I found that no one would be able to come out until late in the day, or maybe the next day. It was nearly noon when I wandered on back home.

As I motored down our long skinny bay, I watched the mist rise from the forest to join the clouds above. It was one of those damp, humid days, with the forest still drenched from the storm of the night before.

The rising white mist looked a little thicker than it should. When the next puff rose, I got suspicious. Was that mist? Or was it smoke? How could smoke be that white? How could mist be that thick? Smoke it was.

Kate waited for me at the dock, but long before I got there, I called to her to run for Allan to tell him of the smoke. I parked the boat, then jumped into the canoe to paddle 50 metres to the shore just down hill from the smoke. Allan got the fire pump and hoses into the boat, and over to the shore.

I ran up the hill to find a small fire just starting to make more flame than smoke. During a quick look around the site, I saw where the lightening had struck the ground. It had turned up the soil and some rocks - like a dotted line running straight to the fire. This was probably caused by that second bolt of lightning and thunder that Allan heard the day before.

I ran back down to shore to assist with the hoses while Allan got the pump set up. Vesta and Kate had come by the land route, and helped join the sections of hose.

We had the hose ready at the same time as he had the pump going. Within a few minutes, we had a heavy stream of water hitting the ground where the flames were rising. The fire was extinguished within the hour.

This story is an excerpt of the report I wrote for the local volunteer fire department. This small group of dedicated people responded quickly to the call for help that I made from a neighbourÂ's cell phone a few kilometers from home. Due to the delay of the call because of our broken phone, the fire was out by the time all of the five boats and 10 people arrived with more pumps and hose. Nonetheless, it was a very encouraging sight to have so many concerned neighbours travel the six to eight kilometres to get to our end of the lake, on a rainy and windy Monday afternoon. Thank you all!