Fire

This is how things looked when we arrived:

But after nearly two months of drought, we now have this:



Okay, so that was an extreme comparison - photo hyperbole to make a point of just how dry it is here now. As if the lack of rain was not bad enough, conditions are just right for brush fires. By the way, the cow died of unknown causes other than drought, more on that in a later post.

Our personal experience with fire started out on a somewhat light note. As I wrote in my New Year's post, we started out the year playing firefighter in front of Gloria's house. That particular fire burned an area roughly 20 by 30 feet and we were able to get it under control before the real firefighters arrived.

Photo courtesy of Gloria.

That fire was nothing compared to the one now raging just down the street from her house. Fortunately it is a safe distance away. Others are not so fortunate though. Large swaths of hillside are engulfed in flames as I type this. The smoke is illuminated by the fires and looks like billowing red clouds against the night sky. It is rather scary, especially considering there are homes nearby. We do not know how it started. Firefighters have been working all day to try to contain it.

There have been fires in nearby departments as well. In Canelones, the department just to the east of Montevideo, a huge fire started last Thursday near the town of Villa Argentina. According to an article in El Pais on January 2, 2009, translated courtesy of UruguayDailyNews.com, 100 hectares burned there. Poor visibility due to smoke caused lengthy back-ups on the coastal highway and flames were as close as 20 meters to some houses.

As I type, the wind has picked up. I can hear it blowing outside. This is bad for the firefighters. I wish in vain that rain would accompany the wind, but the sky was perfectly clear today, not a cloud in sight.