The Fire

Photos: the fire, the fire stick and the char the next day

It is now the dry season in Swaziland and it looks a bit like Sonoma County with golden undulating hills. It is truly a beautiful country with granite boulders and small mountain ranges. Pine Valley is loaded with tall, dry grass, dead trees and dried leaves this time of year – a perfect set up for fires. Typically, locals create a firebreak around their houses so that if fire does come toward their house, it stops at the break. The firebreak is usually a ring of pre-burned area surrounding your house. In addition it is advisable to keep the grass very short in your yard and have no downed or dead trees next to your house. Lastly, houses built of wood with thatched roofs pose an additional fire danger.

Our house has a metal roof and is built out of brick, good news. We have a gardener who does a good job of keeping the grass short but did not put in a firebreak. Daily fires are common in this area. A month ago there was a large fire burning the hillside that caused us some concern. That is when we discovered that although the fire department was called, they did not show up. Neighbors notified us that if they did come, they would likely be using long sticks with rubber flaps on the end to beat down the fire. No water supply and hoses or anything of the like. There would likely not be a very large team. After that intro, we were asked if we wanted a stick and to join in the neighborhood firefight. It did not seem like that much fun at 10 pm with work the next day. After surveying the area, it became clear that lots more would burn but that it would reach a small creek and likely be stopped. We went to bed and in the morning saw that what we expected to happen is exactly what did.

Last Monday, when getting ready to go to bed I noticed some large flames on the hillside above and to the north of our house. I had been hiking in that area and knew that it was all excellent fire fodder from the flames right down to our house. We realized at that point we wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night. Sure enough the flames progressed down the hill toward our house. We took a drive down the road to survey the scene – no creek to break the flames. We found the origin to be at a distant neighbor’s house that likely was trying to create his firebreak and let it get out of control. Seems to be a common phenomenon each year. Soon, the entire hillside surrounding our house was in flames. By 2 am enormous flames were approaching. Our landlord had come over earlier and given us his fire fighting sticks. He then had to leave, after a call from his wife, because the fire was approaching his house. We packed our computer, passports, money and other valuables in the car, opened the gate, and pointed the car out in the get away position. Ash, smoke and flames soon were on all four sides of our yard, crossing the fence and burning our grass. Angela was using our weak hose to put out what she could and I was running around with the fire stick (pictured) beating down the flames. Fortunately, since the grass was short, the flames were fairly small in the yard and we were able to head them off in all directions.

I think the level of danger was less than it felt because it was likely that the entire yard would have burned and then stopped. Since our house has nothing flammable on the outside, likely nothing really would have happened. Nonetheless, it is frightening to have your fence line surrounding by billowing flames, ash and smoke and no fire department. We went to bed after 3 am feeling smoky, eyes irritated and exceedingly tired. It was a long day at work the next day. Angela was recovering from a long coughing illness at the time of the fire; I was recovering from a weekend of extremely strenuous hiking in the mountains of Malalotja Park. Neither of us was ready for a night of duty on the Pine Valley Fire Department.