Fire - Part 1
I awoke this past night to the smell of smoke. It may have been a coincidence or it could have some automatic instinct that awakes animals when a potential danger is lurking. Regardless, I woke up.
I did not panic though and I made an assumption that this was somehow related to the fires burning four hundred kilometres north of Montreal. There are over fifty already burning in the Province of Quebec, nine of which are out of control.
For the next few hours of sleep I awoke regularly - I can't tell you at what interval as the alarm clock is on my wife's side of the bed and, unless I put on my specs, I can't see the green numbers. Since I had not heard that smoke might make its way this far south I was not prepared for this and, therefore, I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. Something in the back of my mind made me wonder whether this was some other fire, closer to our home. Maybe a house in the neighbourhood?
The alarm went off at 6:30 A.M. and the news came on. It was indeed those forest fires and a northerly wind that had blown the smoke over the city. My thoughts wandered a bit to what my reaction might have been had I lived in this same place two hundred years ago.
Last night I awoke in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. More accurately I jolted up. I shook my wife to awake her and asked her to raise the kids in the room next door as I bolted out into the dark night to see what was happening. The smell was strong and that surely meant the fire was close. Strangely there was not orange glow in the sky - though that might be explained by the cloudless night. The wind was blowing. How much time do we have and which way should we go? Panic.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
I did not panic though and I made an assumption that this was somehow related to the fires burning four hundred kilometres north of Montreal. There are over fifty already burning in the Province of Quebec, nine of which are out of control.
For the next few hours of sleep I awoke regularly - I can't tell you at what interval as the alarm clock is on my wife's side of the bed and, unless I put on my specs, I can't see the green numbers. Since I had not heard that smoke might make its way this far south I was not prepared for this and, therefore, I did not sleep well for the rest of the night. Something in the back of my mind made me wonder whether this was some other fire, closer to our home. Maybe a house in the neighbourhood?
The alarm went off at 6:30 A.M. and the news came on. It was indeed those forest fires and a northerly wind that had blown the smoke over the city. My thoughts wandered a bit to what my reaction might have been had I lived in this same place two hundred years ago.
Last night I awoke in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. More accurately I jolted up. I shook my wife to awake her and asked her to raise the kids in the room next door as I bolted out into the dark night to see what was happening. The smell was strong and that surely meant the fire was close. Strangely there was not orange glow in the sky - though that might be explained by the cloudless night. The wind was blowing. How much time do we have and which way should we go? Panic.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
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