Fire! Fire!

Kyle St. Jean, the fire chief for Olathe, is cautioning people to be more careful this season while burning ditches and setting open fires. We've seen and heard of several fires get out of control due to the high winds, which are common later in the day here.

I don't farm and I don't have ditches to burn. But even I've noticed that the wind almost always picks up in the mid to late afternoons, and mornings are usually still.

So I have to wonder why I see people starting their ditch fires and field fires in the afternoons? Hey, I'm no Einstein, but I figured out quickly that if I need to burn trash outside, I don't do it mid-day because the wind often picks up and gets pretty strong. So why do people who have experience in this sort of thing, who ought to know better, try to burn fields and ditches later in the day? Why take that risk, when starting earlier in the day would make it much more safe to do?

Puzzles me! I just keep the hose handy in case my farmer neighbors think mid-day burning is a good idea ...