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Out of the Fire: What Teddy Learned about Fires

by Jeanne Gowen Dennis

During the fires, Teddy learned many things about fire and its effects on nature. Fire is part of God’s plan to keep land healthy. Every year wildfires destroy huge areas of forests. Some fire helps forests by keeping underbrush (low plants) from getting too thick. Sometimes foresters even set fires to control insects, diseases, and weedy brush that can cause worse fires. This is called prescribed burning. A few species of trees, such as lodgepole pine, have seeds that sprout only after fires.

However, serious fires leave land bare, with no plants to hold the soil. Then wild animals have no food or shelter. Dirt washes away (erodes), pollutes streams, and kills aquatic life. Florida’s 1998 fires damaged forests, towns, and cities. In 7½ weeks,

approximately 2,300 fires burned about 500,000 acres. They injured 124 fire fighters, destroyed 151 homes and businesses, and damaged 219. Firefighters came from 27 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico to fight Florida’s fires.

Teddy learned that careless people start more than eight out of ten forest fires. Lightning causes the rest. So it is important for everyone to be careful whenever they use fire outdoors. They should always make sure that matches and fires are totally extinguished by dousing them with water.

Even though massive fires destroyed much of the area near his home, Teddy knew that God’s plan is for nature to bounce back after disaster. A few weeks after the fires ended, green shoots poked through the blackened ground and leaves sprouted from half-burned trees. Now, many years later, the area that was burned is filled with trees. 

To read the story of Teddy’s experience with a wildfire near his home, click here.

© 1998–2009 Jeanne Gowen Dennis. U.S. and Worldwide rights reserved.