April 20, 2005
Garden Fire
Pat had an interesting phone call from one of our neighbours yesterday. Apparently our perennial garden had caught on fire. The first person who noticed it phoned our neighbours across the street and asked if we were in the habit of starting grass fires on our property to clear dead leaves. (!!!) Samatha took a look and immediately called 911. I guess the fire department arrived quickly as no one had yet bothered to unroll the garden hose at the side of the house and put out the fire. Took the firemen a couple of tries to get their hoses working, but then put the fire out without too much trouble. They mentioned it was the 3rd grass fire of the day they had responded too.
The likely cause is high schools kids (Git off m' land!) flicking their cigarette butts into the garden as they walked by. Unfortunately my webcam was not working at the time.
Hopefully most of the plants will have survived the fire since most had not really started sprouting yet (except the tulips) and it was the dead leaves that burned. Our drip sprinkler system is melted though, so we will have to replace that. Pat is checking whether the insurance will cover it, and whether it's worthwhile to claim it.
-Walter