FIRE
One morning we awoke to a snowstorm.
“Well, we won’t be going anywhere today,” I
remarked.
That suited us fine. I had lots of reading
material, Anders had his essay, and Hap always had sketches on the go.
Thomas was restless, so I played cribbage with him for awhile, but he soon
got tired of that.
“I’m bored,” he said.
“Well, use you brain and find something to
do,” we almost said in unison.
“I’m going outside.”
“Okay, but don’t go far in this weather,” I
commanded.
Thomas went outside and I picked up my book.
Lunchtime came around but there was no sign of
Thomas.
“Wonder where he is?” Anders said with a bit
of worry in his voice.
“Ah, he’s okay,” Hap said.
He had just come back from the outhouse.
“He is over in the other shack doing
something,” Hap explained. “At least I heard a lot of banging coming
from over there.”
Before Hap had finished, the door opened and
Thomas came in looking excited.
“Guess what? I found this old tin drum and
I’m building a travel stove just like yours,” he said all excited.
“What are you going to use that for?” Anders
exclaimed. “We don’t have any need for one.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “The fun is in
making something, never mind if you have no use for it.”
“I also lit a fire in the old stove over
there,” Thomas continued, “so it’s nice and warm.”
“You watch that old stove,” Hap cut in.
“It’s not in good shape at all.”
“Ah, I’m careful,” Thomas shot back.
"Okay," I said. "But Hap's
right."
We had lunch and Thomas went out again.
“Watch that stove now,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, yeah,” we heard as he went out the
door.
“It doesn’t seem like the weather is going to
let up,” Anders said.
“I think you are right,” Hap replied, almost
without paying attention.
We got back to doing our own things. After maybe
an hour the door suddenly flew open. Thomas stormed in red in the face.
“It’s okay,” he started.
“What’s okay?” we said in unison.
“Well, some sparks must have fallen on the
floor,” he continued. “I was working away when suddenly I smelled
smoke.” He took a deep breath. “When I turned around the floor was on
fire but I threw a lot of snow on it.”
“What?” I shouted.
I dropped my book and ran over to the shack. The
shack was not in good shape or anything but we sure didn’t want a fire.
When I got to the shack there was smoke or steam coming out the open
window; I couldn’t tell which. If Thomas had thrown snow on the fire it
might be just steam. I couldn’t see any flames.
"Damn!" I thought.
I went and got the shovel and threw a lot of snow
in through the window.
"I can’t do more than that," I
thought.
When I came back to the cabin Thomas looked at me
sheepishly.
“Well, what do you think?” he said.
I told them the situation and that I had thrown
lots of snow in through the window.
“Well, that ought to kill any fire,” Hap
suggested.
“Let’s hope so!”
When we went to bed that evening everything
seemed fine. But at some point during the night both Hap and I awoke –
there was a dancing red shimmer on the wall next to us.
I flew out of bed. It is fantastic how adrenaline
in the system can make you instantly alert. The shack was on fire –
flames were shooting high in the sky whipped by the wind.
We ran outside – the heat from the fire was
intense and we didn’t feel the cold standing there in our long johns.
The shack was built of boards and covered with tarpaper – the perfect
combination for a hot fire. Once we realised that there was no danger of
our cabin catching fire because of the wind direction we calmed down.
“Boy, no danger of a fire, eh!” Hap said
shaking his head.
“Yeah, that’s the last time I let Thomas
loose,” I said jokingly.
By now Thomas and Anders had joined us.
“Wow, look at the light from the fire against
the low clouds,” Anders exclaimed. “I wonder how far away you can see
the light.”
“Probably not far,” I said. “Besides, it
won’t be long before the fire dies down.”
I had hardly said that when the whole building
collapsed in a spectacular shower of sparks.
“Well, maybe you did Lands and Forests a favour
there, Thomas,” Hap laughed. “They don’t like these abandoned shacks
in the bush and often just burn them down in the late fall.”
The fire slowly died down and we went back to
bed.