Worst Case

America is a hopeful place. It seems like we spend some time worrying about what might happen but never seem to fully apply Murphy's Law. If you aren't familiar it is the statement that goes something like this. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. You know like when we listened to all those folks making predictions before the election that Donald Trump didn't have a realistic chance of becoming president. He did. Then folks started talking about how he would change and he couldn't possibly be that bad. He is. That, however, is not what this post is about.

A few days ago there was a house fire about a mile from us as the crow flies. It was in an area where we had looked for a house before we bought the one we are living in. We thought it was within the city limits and had all the city services. That area does not. It is missing important things like city water service. No city water service means no fire hydrants. Being from a rural area in Illinois I know that lots of places do not have fire hydrants. The fire departments rely on tanker trucks to haul the water for the fire engines to pump through the hoses and put out the fire. That was the case here as well. There is also a plan B. Since the homes in that area boarder the marsh the plan was and still is to pump water from an inlet hose placed in the marsh through the fire trucks pumps and put out the fire. It is a good plan with one exception. Low tide. When did the fire happen here? Murphy's Law was in full effect that day. Low tide. What is the other problem here with houses? To prevent damage from flooding the houses here are often raised on pilings or stilts. If you are going to build a fire what is the most efficient way to get a big fire going. Start the fire so that it can draft air from the bottom to feed the flames. Houses here that are raised have a large empty space under them which allows perfect drafting for a quick hot fire. The final element you need to make this the worst case is some wind. Everything that would lead to a bad fire happened. There is some news that wasn't so bad. The fire destroyed one house and damaged another. No one was killed or injured. While property was lost, lives were spared.

If you look to the right side of the photo you can see a stream of water spraying on the fire. It looks to be pointless at that time.

Things are not going will for the firefighters.

It is tough to do much without water. They did call in another resource which likely saved other houses in the neighborhood.

Having the ocean close and a FEMA helicopter in the area to drop water was an option of last resort. As you can see at this point the house is a smoldering piles of ruins.

The community is pulling together to help the families affected. I'm sure over the next few months there will discussion about doing something to provide water for fire hydrants in that area. If Galesburg can provide water for communities up to 25 miles away I'm sure the city here can get water out there about a mile.

As a final thought I offer this observation. I had never paid much attention to fire hydrants up to this point. I did notice as I was walking around getting my daily exercise that the tops of the hydrants were different colors. I assumed it must mean something to firemen so I looked it up. It has to do with how much water they can expect to draw from the hydrant.