flint and tinder

I'd never been successful starting a fire by striking flint until I did so by accident. I'd been using the brush hog (that's the heavy mower that road crews pull behind tractors) in a remote part of our place, and while going over a particularly rocky section of pasture, the rotating blade struck flint and ignited a blaze. I did not know this until I came around again, 10 minutes later.

The tractor commands respect. I've always thought that I'm much more likely to get hurt on it at 3.5 miles an hour than I am in a car at 60. On a tractor, problems develop slowly and then suddenly.

When I rounded an edge of the woods on my return trip and saw smoke, I knew what had happened. I pulled "into the black" --the area already burned -- shut off the tractor, and ran to a portion of flames with my fire extinguisher, which lasted all of 10 feet of flame. The fire had grown to probably 50 feet in diameter.

I needed help.

Back at the tractor I called my neighbor who said he was on the way, and then 911, who would relay my location to the Spring Valley Volunteer Fire Department, whose chief is a friend. Then I called Denise, who I knew was probably on the deck knitting, but who was about to see and smell smoke coming from my direction, followed by sirens. Best this information comes from me.

Help arrived in the order called. Mark, our neighbor, and his son, Mathew, arrived on tractors and went to work with their buckets smothering flames at the perimeter. Lacking a bucket, I continued to mow fire breaks, hoping not to spark a new fire. Some areas were full of 7ft tall Johnson grass, and flames easily shot up 15 feet, but then would go back down when shorter grass was reached.

Ronnie, with the VFD, arrived and began spraying the flames with water, soon followed by two other trucks and one tanker. Then Denise pulled up in my truck.

From beginning to end was probably 45 minutes, and the area burned was about half an acre. The fire never got into the woods. Although most of the trees are green, there are dried leaves on the ground. They don't burn like tall, dry grass does, but the woods would have been a more difficult place to reach.

I've never had this happen before, in all of the miles I've brush hogged, although each one of the volunteer firefighters said, "I've done it." I was only minimally prepared with a fire extinguisher and a cell phone. The buckets on the other tractors and the fire department made quick work of what I started.

What I liked about the event was how different all of the people were. Ronnie grew up here and started the VFD because he knew there was a need. Our neighbors moved from California to be near a religious community here, and they gravitate towards that strong group. Denise and I don't fit in either category, but enjoy them both.

With all of the differences we hear about daily, it's heartening to know that at our core, we move to action when someone needs help. I was on the receiving end of that this time.