Green returns

After a bit of rain, the patches spared by the recent fire have become greener than ever.

After the fire: strange

It’s fascinating walking our normal dog walk route and noticing the changes – and anomalies – since the fires. Here the plastic part of a broom – in a burned area – is neither charred nor melted, while the wooden handle – extending into an unburned area – is completely burned.

I guess it’s possible someone moved it since the fire two days ago, but we’ve seen no one the last few days, nor any signs of activity other than firefighting in a very few places.

Still smoldering

Monday’s fire persists, but only in a few stumps and with no apparent further danger of spreading.

After the fire

The fire

The dogs were understandably confused yesterday when they encountered something never before seen on the dog walk.

By the end of the walk, we looked back and saw that the brush fire had reached the trees. We were not at all sure we’d have any trees remaining the next morning.

But somehow the fire died down, leaving charred trunks and smoldering stumps today.

The “Boo!” bear stump had already degraded seriously since my photo of it almost three years ago. Not much left of it now.

Some stumps were still aflame. This one has burned underground (note the crater)

Other stumps burned completely, above and below ground, leaving holes.

And strangely, many of the paths we followed were untouched.

Here’s a sapling that was burned in half, but note that the very flammable pine needles nearby were untouched. All in all, very few trees were destroyed.