Fire Safety, Fire Hazard Rating has risen to - MODERATE - June 21, 2016

Some food for thought.....Do you have some fire fighting equipment/tools around?  If you were to detect a small smoldering ground fire in the proximity of your house, shop, garage, barn,generator shed, or even your preferred place to sit and relapse around the yard or garden could you retrieve your fire fighting hand tools and be working on the fire within one or two minutes?    If not please consider the risk to your property, your person, (also those around you) and improve your readiness to respond. Have your hand tools handy, possibly even cashed in more than one designated spot. You need to have a simple workable plan that you are prepared and able to execute.  For a plan to be realistic you must first establish what your expectations are and after that establish how you intend to meet those expectations.  I suggest that unless you are an expert in the field once you have established your plan review this plan  with someone that is knowledgeable, this will allow you to get feedback as to whether your expectations can be realistically met or not.  Should you be unfortunate enough to find yourself using your fire fighting equipment even if all you have is a shovel it is important that you stay alert to the fact that any fire plan can fail.  You must be reassessing your situation constantly and be prepared to pull back if your plan and or attack is proving to be insufficient.  You must accept how dangerous such a situation is, and be ready to act on real and current observations, not just doggedly push ahead with your plan based on your original observations.  The previous statement goes for any fire, big or small.  Rule #1 in fire fighting is the safety of the fire fighter. The fire department wants you to report any and all fires.  If you call-in a fire and state that it is out you should expect to have someone attend to verify your findings.  If you call-in a fire and you have the fire out or knocked down by the time the Fire Department gets to your location you can expect to receive some congratulations. 

Ross