Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Swamp Is On Fire...Again

I stepped outside the door Saturday morning and there was that now familiar smell of burning.

Yes the Great Dismal Swamp has smouldered back into life. It apparently takes more than a Cat2 hurricane and the associated rain to put out a good peat fire. It was 'out' for about a week but seems it was smouldering quietly underfoot just waiting for the surface to dry out again.

I guess thats why peat was so long the fuel of choice for our ancestors.  

Goodness knows what its going to take to put this out finally. Winter probably.

 
UPDATE. 09/13/11

It seems that pretty much as I posted, the untidy remnants of hurricane Lee were limping up from Texas dumping another huge bucket of rain as they went. And it does seem that this might have been enough to finish off the smouldering peat. Its been a week now and no signs of any more flare-ups. But I'll keep my eyes and my nostrils open a while yet. 

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