Almost a catastrophe!!!


On a quiet Sunday afternoon the son of the owner of the property where the mission office is rented, came to check on things. The huge palm trees were dying and we had previously been told that they would need to be cut down. Well, the son decided to take things into his own hands and in his intoxicated state decided to burn the trees down.  It is the dry season here and in a huge whoosh the entire tree was engulfed in flames. The guards frantically did their best to put out the fire! 

As you can see from the pictures a lot of damage was done!! In retelling the story, the guards said that if the wind had been blowing in the opposite direction, the mission office would have gone up in flames!



This shed holds the generator which also holds quite a few 5 gallon containers of fuel. Fortunately, they did not explode!


There were three palm trees in the yard. They were just as dry as this one. It is easy to see how the trees were simply matches!!


Surrounding vegetation was badly singed. I'm not sure if they will survive.


We park our vehicle under this canopy, which was destroyed in the fire. Two of the palm trees just to the left of the building in this photo remained.


After the fire was put out, the guards went right to work and cleaned up the debris and cut the burned tree into smaller pieces.


The other trees were also cut down. No chainsaws! It was all done with an ax. The cuts were better than any chainsaw!! Ropes were tied to the tree and pulled so the tree fell away from the building.


 

President Chansa (counselor in the Stake President and PM manager) and the owner of the property and Elder Phelps assessing the damage.

The banana trees were burned but the bananas are still green. You can see in this picture the smooth cut. I have no idea how they can make those cuts with an ax so smooth.

 

The tree that burned and made all the green grass brown. Banana trees in the back ground.

Another view of the burned tree. You can also see the close proximity to the generator and gallons of stored fuel. The avocado tree in the garden area (along the wall) was also singed.

What a tender mercy that the wind was blowing away from the building and that guards were nearby to put out the fire. No firefighters were called. I don't know if they have any, actually.
I am grateful that just a few weeks ago we had one of the guards show us around the yard. It was so beautiful then!!!

The Lord is watching over us!



 

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