BLAZING SCREAMS OF DEATH
BLAZING SCREAMS OF DEATH
Following a spring of ground quenching rains and mild temperatures, July bounded in with her hot temperatures and cloudless skies. People flocked to the lakes and streams. It was going to be the perfect summer. Blue skies, warm and sometimes hot days, perfect for lying in the shade or playing in their favorite swimming hole. By the end of July, farmers were beginning to wonder if their crops were going to need irrigation. Streams and small rivers were running low. The ground began to crack from the three-digit heat. August was no better. By now, people had abandoned their shady trees and dried up swimming holes. It was so hot outside of an air-conditioned house, you could hardly breathe. Heat alerts were given throughout the state. Burn bans went into effect. Where was the rain?
September brought even higher temperatures. People carried barrels of water in their pickups. Fire became the scariest word spoken from the mouth. Everyone was afraid, the trees were dry and losing their leaves too early, grass lay brittle and brown on the ground. "It's like a tinder box," was heard throughout the gatherings of the men on the court house lawn. Then the horrible happened…
Fire! It came over the scanners, the beepers of the volunteer firefighters, the two-way radios of the police and sheriff department, and the phones that connected neighbor to neighbor.
A power line had broken under the weight of a dry, brittle tree limb that had crashed to the ground. Just one little spark and the fire was started that would bring hell to earth. It moved quickly through the forest of timber, headed toward a small country town. Neighbors began swinging wet sacks, desperately trying to save their homes, barns, their lives. Fences were cut, allowing animals to flee from the burning fields. Within a very short time, firefighters from all over the county had verged upon the roaring inferno.
Bulldozers converged on the scene. Facing the beautiful forests of pine and hardwoods, they lowered their heads and pushed forward. Nothing was spared. Trees that were decades old now lay, dying on the earthen floor.
The firefighters fought hard, trying to save as much as they could. The raging fire was relentless and the wind was its ally. "Let it burn," someone on the front line began to shout. "Just try and save those houses." The men turned, focusing on the fire burning toward the nearest house. An explosion shook the ground they stood on. Someone shouted above the roar and the hot wind. "Kenny's van just blew up." A neighbor, fighting to save his new home, had just lost his new van; next he would lose his barn and a vintage car he had been restoring for several years. A tractor he just paid off sat black and smoldering in the pasture next to the house. He turned away from the grisly sight and beat at the flames racing toward his back door.
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