So… guess who showed up at White Plains tonight? You guessed it… one police car, three fire trucks, one ambulance, and two very confused land owners. It all started when I suggested that we have a bonfire and pizza after a long day of mowing fields.
Now, you have to understand that this isn’t our first fire on the property… In fact, it might be our almost-tenth brush fire. The difference between this one and all the rest is that it was closer to the main road than the others, and considerably more visible. This is where our plan backfires.
We get settled in to the lawn chairs, the first piece of pizza is dished out, the fire is going just fine, I have the garden hose around the edges… and I notice that people are driving about 10 miles per hour in front of the house. This doesn’t happen on a road where drivers compete to see how fast they can go. I immediately know that this isn’t going to turn out well.
The next thing I know, there are sirens. Not just one, but two – and then three – and then more arrive. First arrives the cop. Then the firemen. Then the hose from the fire truck. Then they start putting out the fire… but WAIT… not the PIZZA too! “Sorry, Sir…” was all he said. Thankfully, the pizza was saved at the last-minute.
Needless to say, we caused quite a stir, got a healthy lecture from the very nice Fire Chief, and walked away with a LOT more information than the County website had ever bothered to provide us. I’m learning very quickly what it’s like to live in a county where you have to work really hard to learn the rules – not the most progressive municipality I’ve ever lived in.
On the other hand, the cop turned nice when he found out that we owned the property and weren’t just starting fires illegally, the Fire Captain and his crew did an excellent job, and the entire crew was very courteous… except for the guy who tried to put out our pizza.
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