A Lucky Day

 

  On July 19, 2006, at 9:30 pm a man banged on our cottage window and yelled, "fire on your island--we need buckets!" I looked down the hill from our cottage and saw flames about 4 feet high, easy to see in the dark.

   Luckily we had several buckets handy. These volunteers were carrying water from the lake and climbing about 40 feet up the incline to reach the fire.

   The fire was spotted from across the lake at Sandy Acres and two cottagers came across the lake in a boat to fight the fire--in the dark!

   Fortunately, the water line from our submersible pump in the lake was close to the fire. We cut the line, turned on the pump and dragged the end to the fire. Without this pump close by, it is doubtful that the fire could have been contained, since the fire was advancing up the hill and there was lots of combustible brush around. We believe that our cottage would have been burnt out during the night as we were sleeping.

   One of the volunteers pointed to a circular area that he thought was probably a  'hot spot' where someone was cooking and had a fire and was the start of the fire.