Fire

I just put a load of laundry into the drier and I'm about to go to bed. As a result, my paranoia about the house burning down is kicking in. Once or twice, I have had to drive back to my house when I was worrying that I left a candle burning, a kettle on the stove, or the drier running. I know that normal people might not do this. I think my mom actually leaves the drier on when she leaves the house. What if it gets too hot, though?


This year, two fires have had an effect on my life. First, my aunt and uncle's house burned down from a lightning strike that hit the electrical panel. Luckily, they weren't home and none of their animals were harmed. However, they lost their home and everything inside of it including photos and family heirlooms.

Second, the Linville Gorge was on fire for several weeks last Spring. As a point of reference, the photo on the top of the page is Table Rock, which sits on the east side of the Linville Gorge. Because the North Carolina Outward Bound basecamp is below Table Rock, our home was threatened when the dry season and a series of lightning storms combined to set the pines in the gorge on fire. I was actually instructing a course when the first of several fires exploded in the Linville Gorge. Before that course, I had never seen the sky rain ashes.


It was immediately after the course that we had to evacuate the basecamp for the first time that summer. Unlike the sudden destruction of my aunt and uncle's house, this fire slowly moved towards us. Still, we waited as it moved towards us and hoped that the wind would stop blowing it up the ridges and the rain would dampen it.

As the fire moved closer, we had to load vans and cars with Outward Bound pictures, historical documents, and our own personal items to evacuate the basecamp. At the time, I had half of my belongings in the cook's cabin at the basecamp. He had everything he valued there. As a result, I packed my Annie Dillard books in his truck and helped him load (in this order):


* his musical equiptment
* his cds
* his photos
* and anything else that would fit... I don't think my love letters made the cut.




It was strange to have time to decide what to bring as this fire approached.

This is a picture from Table Rock of the fire moving in the distance. A friend described it as little explosions of pine on the far rim of the gorge.


After it fizzled and the next fires of the season threatened our base, the instructors going into the field were told to put anything they wanted saved on their beds. As I sit here and consider the drier, I think I know what I would save.

I wonder, dear reader, what would you save?