After lunch, while the adults were talking, the kids came in to tell us it was raining ash. This did not surprise me at all. On the way to church that morning we saw the western mountain burning. Not an uncommon sight here as many people start “controlled” fires to reduce the risk of a larger one. Also, Sunday seems to be garbage burning day. It seems to us that many people here love to burn stuff, so ash in the air isn’t uncommon. I got up to check it out. I was met with snap, crackle and pop noises, thick grey smoke with large chucks of black ash swirling in the air. This was from the lot of land not 10 feet from my front door. I was still thinking this might be an intentional fire, but asked Steve and Jenni to come out and have a look. They came out and immediately look at each other and said, “This is not controlled”. They jumped into action. Steve grabbed a machete and told Paul to do the same. The boys jumped the fence and started another fire and started hacking at the brush. Jenni calmed the children, hurded them inside, turned off the propane tanks and said, “Get your stuff packed.” Now Jenni has become such a dear friend and I trust her implicitly. I gave my head a good shake, as I felt a little dazed and got into evacuation mode. Passports and papers first, followed by computer, phone and camera, than a bag of some clothes. I looked at Syd and Josh and reassured them that everything would be fine, but they should go and pack an overnight bag, just in case. Jenni went to turn on the water hose and guess what? No water! Our landlord, Jerry and his family had arrived and Jerry followed suit, hacking and starting another fire. Within 3 minutes the fire was in full blazing mode with huge orange flames. Syd and Josh brought me their overnight bags. Their overnight bags were actually their suitcases stuffed with all their stuff, minus their school books! The kids, 6 in total were running around screaming “Evacuation!”, “The house is going to burn!” “We have to evacuate”. This was not helping my facade of calm so I asked Jenni to take all 6 kids to town. Off they went with Josh just trembling and Syd, extremely quiet and wide eyed.
The fire started to calm right when the firemen showed up. Let me explain what that looked like. The fire crew, the “Bomberos” consisted of four men in a small blue car with one backpack of water, 2 shovels and 4 machetes. That was it! I was like, are you kidding me? Where is the fire TRUCK with water in it? Where are the hoses? Do you think 10 liters of water will be enough? How about a fire hydrant? Hey princess, wake up and welcome to Panama! I called Jenni to reassure her that she could come back and asked how Josh was. Jenni asked him and he said “not good.” That boy is so honest. The fire calmed to a small smoldering patch, the firemen left, we all had a beer, except the kids of coarse and thought, just another day here in Panama.
The burning brush
Ready to evacuateI am so thankful Steve and Jenni were here. I would not have known that starting another fire could help put out the original one. Today I kind of remember seeing that concept on the movie “Backdraft”.
This morning there are still a few patches of smoke. Our place stinks like camp fire, but we are so grateful how well things turned out. I hear there were 3 big fires in the Boquete area yesterday. This is the dry season with very high winds so everything is very dry. How did the fire start? Who knows. The kids had a few ideas while we were de briefing yesterday. A cigarette? Perhaps. Sun shining through a beer bottle? Maybe. The sun itself? Who really knows.
It is funny, yesterday morning Paul and I were praying for guidance for the future and joked that a “sign” from God would be really great. Be careful what your pray for1 Today I’m thinking, the burning bush wasn’t suppose to consume and I did not hear God’s voice from our burning bush!
Ahh, a day in the life of the Days. No wonder our blog is called the Day Family Adventures!
Until I bog again.
Linda
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