Fire can be your friend or it can be your worst enemy. It’s good when you’re camping in the Sierras and it’s freezing cold; all you have to do is light the campfire and cook some burgers or steak. But you need to be careful and keep the fire in the fire ring while you’re cooking and remember to douse it with water when you’re done and then cover it with dirt.
Fire is bad when your house catches on fire and burns to the ground like so many did recently in the three major fires burning in the mountaintop area, especially the Bridge Fire that laid waste to dozens of homes in the Wrightwood and Mount Baldy areas, and the Airport Fire in the Santa Ana Mountains, where hundreds more burned to the ground.
Long distance runner, what you standin’ there for? Get up, get out, get out of the door, you’re playin’ cold music on the barroom floor. Drowned in your laughter and dead to the core, there’s a dragon with matches loose on the town, takes a whole pail of water just to cool him down! Fire on the mountain, Fire! Fire on the mountain, Fire! Fire on the mountain. Fire! Fire on the mountain! (“Fire On The Mountain” – Grateful Dead – 1978) (Also recorded (with different lyrics) by The Marshall Tucker Band in 1975)
As for the devilish Line Fire that broke out on Sept. 5 and burned nearly 40,000 acres, with thousands of folks evacuated and thousands more under an evacuation warning. Fortunately, only one home burned and that was in Running Springs – not so fortunate for the Running Springs family who lost their home.
At a recent, outdoor social gathering at a home in one of those hoity-toity Lake Arrowhead neighborhoods, the topic came up of what should the penalty be for an arsonist who purposely sets fire to the forest, like the punk who allegedly lit the Line Fire. One person suggested the gallows, while another suggested smearing the dirty, rotten punk in honey and strapping him to an ant-infested tree, while yet another suggested fighting fire with fire…if you know what I mean, and what I mean is, “what goes around comes around.” (You can probably tell by now I’m not prejudiced against dirty, rotten arsonist punks) Yeah, right! I suggest we give ‘em a fair trial and then string ‘em up. In case you are wondering why my musing isn’t lighthearted and amusing, it’s because fire isn’t funny and it’s nothing to laugh about.
Almost ablaze, still you don’t feel the heat, it takes all you got just to stay on the beat. You say it’s a livin’, we all gotta eat. But you’re here alone, there’s no one to compete, if mercy’s a business, I wish it for you, more than just ashes when your dreams come true.
Keep it flyin’, (No drones in a fire zone)
Uncle Mott
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