Smoke in the air

It takes a while for the fire to catch. Slowly, the flames lick the dry leaves. Slowly, the leaves curl and blacken. The flames lick higher. I watch them take hold. The heat rises and I take a step back. There is no wind and the smoke goes straight up. Satisfied it is going and safe, I push the wheelbarrow over and pick up a pile of leaves and bark I raked up earlier, bring it back and feed it to the fire.

With summer approaching it’s time to get the place ship-shape and as fire proof as possible. That means reducing the amount of leaves and bark and sticks lying around the place. There is a lot. Rob and I spend days raking, carting and burning. We’re not the only ones. The local community WhatsApp group is full of messages saying things like: ‘Small burn at number 30 today.’ ‘Lighting up a big pile at 73 today. Apologies in advance for the smoke.’ People around here are fire sensitive and want to know where the smoke is coming from when they see or smell it. But the effort of reducing fuel load is applauded and we’re all doing it. We know we live in a high fire risk area and the Fire of February 2022 is fresh in many locals’ minds. I’m glad we weren’t here. In case of a repeat, we create a fire plan. The main part of it is four words: GET OUT! LEAVE EARLY.