Sometimes a little rain can be a good thing

I don’t know what you think, but we need rain. Badly. The entire state is dry as a bone. It is getting to the point that if someone sneezes, a fire will flare up.

Well, OK, that is a wee bit of an exaggeration. But as the fire in the Funny River area demonstrates, we are in very deep trouble. The one thing that can truly save us is rain, and a good deal of it.

We have had close to 80 days without the wet stuff. Which followed a very dry, mild winter season. Our spring came in rather early as well. All combined to render our valley and beyond a huge tinderbox.

That should scare the willies out of anyone.

The rain we have received in the past days was widely scattered and far too little in volume. It was just a drop in the bucket. We need more.

I’m not talking about a deluge. Jeepers, that would only create more messes. But we do need rainfall to offset the extreme dryness and that smoke coming in from the south.

The only good thing about the smoke filling the valley was turning the sun a lurid blood red at sunrise and sunset. It appeared like an alien sun of one my science fiction movies I love to watch at night. It was eerie and chilling at the same time.

That was the only thing good about the smoke. The eye-burning, tissue-drying fog of smelly smoke that filled the Valley for days was just plain nasty.

Rain would be a blessing beyond relief. Everyone I have run into the past few days agrees with me. I’m pretty sure you, the reader must feel the same.

What can we do? Well, the rain must be left up to nature, not much can be done except hope and pray that substantial amounts of rain fall to alleviate the problem.

What we can do ourselves is to prevent fires from starting in the first place. First and foremost, that means obeying the burn ban. There is one going on right now for the Valley and, indeed, for most of the state.

Yet there are some who are, shall we say, idiots. They ignore those bans all together, fire up a burn barrel or a pile of dead wood in the driest of times, like now, or sometimes even in windy conditions. And they wonder why half of their land and their neighbor’s land has gone up in smoke and why the neighborhood has been invaded by an army of firefighters, risking life and limb for their stupidity.

That seems to happen far too often nowadays. The recent fire in the Butte area and the huge Funny River wildfire, which at last count is up to 180,000 acres, were started by humans.

Some might say “Everything is so green. What is the problem?”

Take a closer look at what is under that green growth: years of old dead trees, grasses and leaves and acres and acres of oh so combustible black spruce. Add to that, conditions also are extremely dry.

The rain we normally get hasn’t happened this year. So all it takes is one careless spark and we are all in for deep trouble.

Have a spark-arresting, mesh screen covering your burn barrel. Keep your yard clear of dry underbrush. Keep a fire extinguisher within reach while burning.

Above all, stay with the fire until it is out. Never leave any fire unattended, period. Putting a fire out properly means pouring water on it, then stirring the embers until all is dampened and cold. Do it again and stir some more. Repeat until nothing remains except wet ash.

It is your responsibility to get a burn permit and to call the burn permit hotline to check conditions before lighting a burn pile or other fire that requires a permit. That number is 761-6312. Remember, 911 is only for emergencies.

Thank God we have the best firefighters on the planet. But please do your part to make their dangerous job easier. They are all currently strung out fighting fires all over this state and beyond. We need to help them out.

Lastly, use common sense. Pray, chant, meditate or just put up a good vibe for a good steady rainfall. That rain will help bring us out of this dangerous dry time. And please, please don’t burn down the woods.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.