Subtle Signals Save

Have you ever ignored subtle signals, with potentially catastrophic results?

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I have!

Last month, as I sat at my kitchen table savouring a cup of after dinner tea, scrolling through social media, I heard a crackling sound. I glanced outside to see if it was raining, even though I knew that wasn’t what I was hearing.

No rain, so I went back to scrolling and sipping my tea. The noise persisted, and I glanced outside again. Still no rain, or visible source for the crackling sound.

Suddenly I was jarred out of complacency by my next-door neighbour pounding on my front door. Out of breadth, from dashing to my place, she told me that while watering her gardens she glanced up and saw a fire behind the house on the other side of mine moving our way…

She had already called 911, and the fire fighters had been notified. Her husband was trying to reach the neighbour whose shed was on fire. She ran off to help him, and I went through the kitchen door to my deck.

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Fight Mode

Seeing the fire, the crackling sound made sense. My reaction was to calmly go into fight mode: what could I do to minimize the chances of my home going up in flames?

I moved the propane tanks and BBQ to the side of the deck furthest from the fire. Then I went inside and grabbed a bunch of 4L jugs filled with water and drenched the edge of the deck closest to the fire.

(Water jugs are a precaution in case of power outages. We live in the country, on a well, and our generator is busted.)

Once the deck was soaked, I started trimming back branches hanging over the edge of the deck.

While we waited for the fire-fighters, a bunch of neighbours turned up and took action to contain the fire. This included someone shouting that they needed a long hose. I shouted back that I had one, and a neighbour crashed through the woods, grabbed it, and ran back.

All the while, the thought running through my head was which 3 things I would grab, if the fire neared my home, before hopping into my van and driving away. I felt eerily calm and practical.

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Fire Fighters to the Rescue

The short video accompanying this post shows the effect of the fire fighter’s hoses as they put out the fire.

They stuck around for more than an hour, soaking the woods between our yards, to the point where I could feel water dripping on me standing at the edge of my deck.

While the firefighters did their job, I trimmed back more greenery between the woods and my home. I was not comfortable going back inside until the firefighters started packing up their hoses.

After they left, I started to reflect on how I might have reacted differently if it had been a wildfire, like those that have been burning throughout Canada this year. I’m still thinking about that a few weeks later…

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Gratitude and Lessons Learned

Later that evening, I walked to my next-door neighbours’ homes; to check that all was well with the family whose shed and lawnmower had burned to a crisp, and to express my gratitude to the couple who saved our neighbourhood, by spotting the fire, and taking quick action.

The adrenaline rush of being in “fight” mode for an hour, meant that it was quite late before I could fall asleep that night. When I did, I slept hard.

The lessons from this long, somewhat rambling real-life story:

1. Pay attention to the small subtle signs that change is coming.

2. Do not ignore things simply because you don’t recognize what’s going on.

3. Be curious, learn more, and then act.

4. When danger strikes, communities pull together and help each other.

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I’m curious, does the story of ignoring subtle signals resonate with you?

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