So, on the evening of April 5th, Chargel was affected by a pretty intense bush fire. I don't actually know where the fire itself came from, what caused it or how long the fire had been going before it got close to Chargel, but at around 7pm a pretty intense wind brought what seemed like basically a really long line of fire straight at our village.
Now, it's important to know that bush fires happen pretty frequently here. At the end of each rainy season villages prepare by burning the fields immediately around them to act as a fire barrier. And the people are also quite familiar with the whole process of putting out fires, as there really isn't a "fire department" here to help them out. Nevertheless, the wind on that day was pretty intense, and the fire seemed to be coming dangerously close to Chargel. So on that day I learned first-hand how to put out a bush fire, and I wanted to share that experience with you.
(note: I apologize in advance that the quality of some of these pictures is less than good, but in my defense, the smoke and flying debris was a bit of a problem.)
Step 1: All the women and children get the the wells and start pumping as much water into buckets as possible. This water isn't actually to put out the fire in the bush, but to have on hand to start drenching houses and fences once the fire gets too close.
Step 2: Send out the small boys to collect full branches (as in, full of leaves) that will then be used by all the men in the village to quite literally beat out the fire.
Step 3: GO BEAT DOWN THE FIRE! I must admit, at first I was quite skeptical about the whole idea of just beating out a fire with branches, especially a really BIG fire. But, as it turns out, it actually works quite well! You do have to get a bit closer to the fire itself than I would have preferred, as the smoke is quite intense. But yeah, basically you just kind of smack the branches towards the fire, smothering it with the sand and dirt around it. It basically creates instant charcoal, which is much more manageable than huge flames.
Step 4: Spread out. As I mentioned before, this particular bush fire was QUITE big. It actually spread from the border of a town called Sare Guia, past Chargel, and on towards a village called Sare Nallen. I realize this really doesn't mean anything to you, but it was basically about 8k long, which I believe is just short of 5 miles. I mean, we had multiple villages out there taking this thing on.
And Step 5: Just try to make the best of the situation. It was really hot, really smokey and all-in-all probably not the safest thing I've ever done. (don't worry mom!) (And in retrospect, taking my camera along wasn't necessarily the best decision either, considering I lost my last one to a river...) But in a strange way I actually had a really fun time with my friends beating out this fire. One could call it a "bonding experience."
We ended up actually fighting this fire off from about 7pm until about 2am. By the time we were finished we were ALL quite tired. Fortunately, I'm glad to report that the fire never actually did hit Chargel (or the other villages around), so no homes or fences were affected, and no one was injured in the process. It just smelt really bad for the next few days.
And that was the Chargel Bush Fire of 2009. A true Peace Corps experience!
