The Night Joe and I Save Historic Mordecai

The title may be a bit over dramatized but who knows, we could have saved thousands of homes and lives... or maybe just a bush. Let me explain...

Last night Joe and I headed out to the store to buy a few items to make a side dish for him to take to his work "Smoke out". As we got in the car our conversation involved fire (I'm not sure what the specific topic was about). Driving down the alley that we live on we noticed a small flame on the side of the road. "Speaking of Fire!", we laughed, thinking it was a candle in some one's yard. As we passed the small flame I noticed there was no candle in sight but instead a small patch of leaves that were on fire. We reached the end of our alley and decided it was a good idea to turn around to investigate. Come to find out the fire had already grown larger amongst the small patch of dried leaves in the yard. The fire had obviously been started because someone dumped a hot batch of charcoals in their yard. (genius people!) We knew we couldn't leave the fire unattended especially since the houses in our neighborhood are fairly close together and have well wooded yards. Fortunately, my eagle scout husband came to the rescue. He had a few half used bottles of water in the car which he was able to use to extinguish the flames and wet the coals. However, we didn't tell the people there was a fire in their yard because of their idiocy because we weren't exactly sure who was the culprit. The fire was in an obscure location that could have been a possible dumping ground for several residents. I wish we would have known who was responsible so we could warn them of the dangers of their brilliant move to dump hot coals in the yard.

Two lessons were learned from this experience.

1. Never dump your hot charcoals on a pile of leaves. It's generally a good idea to leave them in the grill until they are cooled and then bury them in sand.

2. Despite what they say about keeping plastic bottles of water in your car, it's probably a good idea to have one handy. You probably wouldn't want to drink it but you never know when a bottle of water might come in hand.

You never know, one day you may save your neighborhood!