Burning Mystery

A twenty foot chunk of  burnt tree was lying on the ground across the campground road one morning recently.

Campers gone wild?

Harley dog sniffed the downed tree, then peed on it.  I often pick up and move small tree branches that land in the road but Harley has this curious habit of wanting to water them for me first. I just let him have his way because I am secretly thrilled that I have successfully trained him not to pee on car, truck and RV tires. If you're a dog owner, then you know that for some strange reason only a dog knows... they are often attracted to peeing on tires.   But I digress...

Anyhow, this hunk of a chunk of a  tree wasn't there in the middle of the road,  the night before.

Mysteries...  the hospitality industry is full of them. The inexplicable things one finds when dealing with the public.

Luckily this wasn't campers gone wild. Not this time.

Turns out a dead tree up above was on fire from the power lines it was chafing.  Sometime during the night, the tree burned all the way through, dropping the twenty foot hunk of a chunk down below to the road.

We are darn lucky the entire campground didn't burn down while we slept.

Many campsites were empty because it was mid-week. The closest campers were in a van type RV, known as a Class B. They reported they  saw the bright light, then saw it go dark. They thought it was a street light in the park that burned out. They went back to sleep, ignoring the loud thud of the falling tree.

The problem is,  we have no street  lights in the park at all.  I surmise they saw the light of the flaming tree just before it fell to the ground.

Where I was parked in my wheel estate,  I couldn't see the tree, but I had smelled the burning wood during the night. Since every campsite has a fire pit, I just assumed it was campers enjoying themselves.

This picture below is not overly clear because I was about 25 feet below, standing on the ground, taking the picture of the smoldering tree above.  You can see the electric power line.

Winds were breezy, unusual for this area.

Apparently a gutsy gust wiggled the tree, which chafed on the electric line, which started the  fire.  It might have smoldered all night long while everyone slept.

Eventually the power company came to survey the situation.  Later that afternoon a crew put the fire out and removed the tree.

All's well, ends well. I am just oh so grateful it wasn't any worse than this.