So I came home from lunch about 2:40 and there was a good-sized fire going in the neighbor’s yard. It did not look controlled.
After a few minutes I decided to go up and check. It had spread to some small trees and into the leaves and was nearing their shed. No one answered my knocks.
I called 911. In about 10 minutes the firemen were there. They told me I did the right thing, it was probably going to only get worse.
That’s weird…any clue what started it??
You did the right thing. It could have spread to your house!
No clue at all. It wasn’t burning when I left for lunch at 11:30. I had lunch with an old friend - the drive takes about 45 minutes. About 2:40 it was going pretty good. I had a friend with me and he agreed it looked uncontrolled.
I hate to butt in, but no one was home and it did not look safe at all to me. I guess better safe than sorry, so I called 911.
It was the neighbor across the street, so it would have been quite a while before it hit my place. But there is some real danger there. My front yard is all trees - and trees make dead leaves. A spark *could *have leaped the road.
Man, if it was my yard, I’d be so glad you noticed, were concerned, and called the fire department! Just think of the property–and more–that could have been lost. A toast to you.
Staying at a friend’s apartment in Kawagoe just last week, we had to do the same thing, only it was the inside of the bar/single unit apartment next door that was on fire. Unfortunately, by the time it was noticed and the FD had gotten it under control, two people inside died. 
It only takes a few minutes for an uncontrolled fire in a residential neighborhood go from “my isn’t that curious” to “6 homes destroyed 2 dead news at 11:00”.
You weren’t butting in. You were being a responsible citizen. You didn’t respond hastily. You noticed a fire, but it could have been your neighbor burning yard waste. When you were reasonably sure that wasn’t the case to took the appropriate action. We need lots more people like you.
I love brush fires. Usually not too hard to put out, and I sometimes get stuff given to me. They’re roughly 2/3rds of the calls we get.
When I was still a probie in January 2007, I was paged to a brushfire that some clueless morons let get away from them, and was threatening to spread into the woods behind their house. It was out in 10 minutes once we got there.
The next door neighbor to the clueless morons came out and gave us an earful about what morons her neighbors were because they did stuff like that all the time. Then she asked, “Anyone want a canoe?”
About five of us looked at her bewildered, because it was out of the blue and was about the most illogical thing she could ask us in the context of the situation.
“Well, it was my ex-husband’s, and he left it here. I don’t want it.”
I piped up. “If you’re getting rid of it, the dump is on the roof rack of my car. I’ll be back as soon as I can get back home and get some tie-downs.”
That’s how I became the proud owner of a 15’ fiberglass Coleman canoe.
good decision. you are a good neighbour. with so many people at work during the day it is nice to know there is someone looking out for the neighbourhood.
As an afterthought, do you know if the neighbor was cited for anything related to the uncontrolled burn?
I annoy my wife constantly because I will spot smoke, and have to check it out to see if it’s a structure or uncontrolled burn.
I didn’t hear any follow-up, so I don’t know if they figured out what started it, or if they were cited.
Heh. No toast, marshmallows!
You know what, even if it was a controlled fire and you misinterpreted it, who the hell cares? A big fire in a backyard in a neighbourhood is usually a very bad thing - you’re not “butting in” to call the fire department! Way better safe than sorry.
I agree with Antigen. Even growing up in the country, when my parents would burn garbage in our little silo-turned-incinerator, we would sometimes have concerned passersby stop to warn us about our grain fire (we lived along a fairly busy highway). There was never any real danger, but it was nice to know that people weren’t going to just let our farm burn down.
As a side note: My parents no longer burn garbage, after learning how detrimental household garbage incineration can be to the environment. Now they compost the organic stuff (or feed it to the sheep/goats, if possible) and send the rest off for proper disposal.