Steve and I were in the shop...we finally got it all cleaned out and dried out from the flood. So we were sitting there in the shop, resting.
Earlier, Steve had started a fire in the BBQ pit to burn some old credit card statements and stuff...so Joshua came in and said "I'm burning some grass." We didn't think anything of it...we thought he was burning you know, handfuls of grass...tossing them on there. Well, apparently not.
Matthew came in the shop and said "We need some water...the grass is on fire." Steve and I looked at each other and then jumped up and ran out to find a huge swath of our backyard knee-high in flames! Well, it was about a 15 by 15 foot area (between the garden and that tree by our shop, OT) and growing fast. I'm talking amazingly fast. It was traveling toward the back fence and toward the tree.
We tried stamping it out and that did no good at all so we grabbed some blankets we just happened to have out drying and did pretty good with them but finally Steve got a big piece of wet cardboard that my floorpans had come in and had been in the yard under the snow and he started putting it out with that and it worked. (Remember, the outside spigot was the one that burst a few weeks ago and it just capped off for now.)
We finally got it out, then ran the hose from the spigot in the garage out there and sprayed it down real good.
Joshua was hysterical. I have no hair on either of my hands and I burned my left hand when the blanket I was using picked up a burning twig and I grabbed it. I was covered in front with suet.
Had it kept going in the direction it was going, the tree might have caught on fire...that would've been bad, but not likely...I don't think. Also, the back fence still has a layer of thick ice in it's shade, so I think the flames would've stopped at that boundary.
Had the wind been blowing a different direction, it very well could've burned our house down.
I've been kinda shaking ever since.
Well... it coulda' been worse... :-)
Don't all parents have a moment when the kids come close to burning the house down? Maybe it was just me... I still remember when Mom asked me what I was doing with the chemistry set in the garage. I said "Oh, I'm making rocket fuel". The look on her face was priceless.
Glad you got it under control quickly.
Hang in there...
Poor little Joshua! I'm sure he was horrified! Glad to know everyone and everything (except the grass, of course) is OK.
I bet! Wow! Not much is scarier than a grass fire. Your account reminds me very much of the scene in Little House on the Prairie where Laura helps Ma and Pa do the backburn against a prairie fire.
Goodness! How and why did he set the grass on fire?
Good morning :~)
I think our friend Bob did burn his house down when he was a kid.