Mother Nature finally prevails ~ April 21, 2004

David Heiller

Fire almost always has the last word with me, It happened again on Saturday, although this time I had someone, or should I say Someone, looking over my shoulder.

The day started calmly enough. Four local fire fighters came out to help me burn the field south of the house. I had a permit for it from the Minnesota DNR office in Caledonia.

Our barn, the house and the field.

But the field was a bit too green and too wet to do much at 10:30 in the morning. We got a slow fire going, then the other people left. Valiree Green from the DNR, and Gary Meiners, the Brownsville Fire Department chief, said they would come back about 3:30.

During the day I watched the fire creep to the north, and kept it from going into the woods. The wind was from the north, so the fire couldn’t go anywhere. It was the perfect back-burn. And the ground was green and wet, remember?

At 3:30 Gary and Valiree came back, and we agreed the fire had burned about as much as we wanted it to. Valiree put out one smoldering log, and I said I would watch the other smoldering logs below the house. Valiree left a bladder bag full of water for me just in case. (A bladder bag is like a giant squirt gun that you wear on your back; it’s excellent for putting out grass fires.)

I looked over the fire line carefully. It was all out. I went into the house, changed out of my dirty fire clothes, and took a shower. As I stepped out of the house to head for Mom’s, the sight of smoke and crackle of flames hit me from the north field. The fire was burning again! The wind had switched to the south. Some spark probably blew into dry grass. Who knows?

I grabbed the bladder bag and started dousing the fire line near the ditch, which was full. of dead trees and tall reed canary grass. I got that part out, ran back to the house for more water, put out more fire, then went back for more water. After four trips, I had it out. I checked it, and checked it again. It was out. I was lucky.

I drove to Mom’s then, but stopped first to buy some eggs. When I got to Mom’s, she said Glenn, my brother, had just left to get me. Her mother instinct had kicked in and told her I was having trouble with the fire. I pooh-poohed that, and sat to wait for Glenn to return.

We waited. And waited. Finally the phone rang. Mom said a few words, then said in that mother voice that kids, even grown up ones, don’t like to hear, “Call the fire department. The fire is out of control!”

I called 9-1-1, then sped back home, worried and angry—at myself. When I got there, Glenn had the bladder bag on and was watching over a pile of rotten lumber that was burning in the ravine. He had put out flames at two other spots. Soon the firemen were back, and Valiree too. She gave me a look that was not too much different than the one my mother had given me. They doused the flames with about 1,000 gallons of water, and looked over the rest of the fields. The fire wasn’t going to go anywhere any more.

“But keep an eye on that pile,” Valiree told me before she left.

Sure enough, about an hour later, the old boards sprang back to life, and spread to a near-by rotten log. I was right there, so there was no danger to anything except my getting a good night’s sleep. I was looking at an all-night fire-sitting.

That’s when Mother Nature—or the Lord, I’m never sure which—had seen enough. She let forth a good soaking of rain and took care of that darn fire once and for all.

Did that rain look and feel and sound good! I said a silent prayer of thanks for it then, and relaxed for the first time all day. The experience was a good reminder to me that fire has a mind of its own. Don’t ever take your local fire fighters for granted either, or your big brother, or good old Mom and those instincts of hers.