Being a firefighter is never an easy task, and that might be even more true in rural areas.
In addition to going face-to-face with flames, smoke and super-hot temperatures, there’s the constant cleaning and maintenance of equipment, the ongoing training and education, and much, much more to deal with on a regular basis. So even if there was nothing added to the standard-issue responses and daily regimen of responsibilities, the job of a rural firefighter would involve plenty of challenges and strenuous effort.
Ah, but there is something added. Something that rears its ugly head on a frequent basis that defies logic and is clearly outside the boundaries of common sense. And no matter how you slice it and dice it, it’s something that’s pretty dang hard to understand.
It’s the way people insist on conducting outdoor burning in extremely dry conditions when the wind is blowing with significant force.
“Why would someone do that?” you ask.
A legitimate question.
But as is evidenced by recent circumstances, people do it far more than you might think. Last Sunday, every single volunteer fire department in Texas County had personnel on scene at a wildfire fueled by ultra-dry surroundings and fanned by strong winds.
And that’s not the first time that’s happened, and Sunday wasn’t the only day recently that all the local firefighters were busy tending to the results of peoples’ misguided attempts to do an outdoor burn of some sort.
It’s such a shame, really, because you just know that someday there will be a big house fire or other emergency situation and the closest department won’t be able to properly respond due to having too much equipment and manpower involved in saving a guy’s barn and his neighbor’s old-growth pine trees after he torched a pile of scrap wood and trash on a dry and windy afternoon.
OK, I know it’s not illegal and I know you want to “get it done” now rather than later. I know there’s another chore that awaits, and you want to get the burn pile out of the way before you tackle it.
But for goodness’ sake, there’s no doubt also another chore you could focus on without any adverse effect, no matter what the weather.
As a long-time home and property owner, I know that’s just a hard fact. There’s always (always!) something, so the burn can wait.
It really can.
“Oh, but I’ll make sure nothing happens,” you say.
Good luck. Many a burn master has believed the same thing not long before calling 911.
Firefighting officials often issue statements urging the public to avoid outdoor burning, but it’s kind of hard to tell if they have any positive effect at all, because every time it’s dry and windy, the wildfires start popping up all over the place. I find that baffling.
Anyway, the subject of outdoor burning in dry, windy conditions isn’t about being cautious and thinking twice before you do it. It’s about the opposite of Nike’s famous slogan: Just don’t do it.
That’s literally the only thing that common sense would dictate.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.
