Sir Charles of Evans and the Fire Warden

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Sir Charles of Evans and the Fire Warden

dedicated to Sondra Grizzlyfingers and SIr Charles of Evans.

One day Sir Charles of Evans decided that he was going to become a Fire Warden. He thought he would enjoy his days in a fire tower keeping people safe from forest fires. He gathered his Merry Men and told them that they were going to take a hike, and at the end of the hike, he, SIr Charles of Evans was going to become a Fire Warden.

Sir Charles and the Merry Men started off on their hike. It was not an easy hike. The Fire Lookout was at the top of a mountain. At first the Merry Men thought it was fun, singing and laughing along. But, the hill got steeper, and it got longer. The trail went up forever. The Merry Men began to complain. It was hot. The trail was too long. Couldn’t they just stop and have a snack?

Sir Charles cut them off. “Are you not the Merry Men of Sir Charles of Evans?” he scolded. “You are all whiney bears! You sound like my sister Sondra Grizzlyfingers when she hikes! Get along there, up the mountain with you!”

And off they went again. The mountain did not get any shorter, it just got steeper, and longer. And the Merry Men did not stop complaining until it got so steep they were panting so hard they had to just breathe and couldn’t talk at all.  

Finally after hours of hiking, they could see it just up the trail. With one last great effort they made it to the picnic area right next to Fire Tower Lookout. Sir Charles was excited. The Merry Men were pooped!

Sir Charles said,”On men, I am going to the top to become a Fire Warden!” but the Merry Men were already too busy lying on the ground or getting lunch out of their back packs.

Sir Charles ignored them and ran up the stairs. He burst through the door of the lookout and raising his hiking stick like a sword said, “I am Sir Charles of Evans, I demand that you make me a Fire Warden!”,

There was a man there looking out over the mountains with binoculars. He said, “Not happening buddy, this is a very busy day during a very busy fire season.” He had not taken his eyes off the mountains.

“ But, I am Sir Charles of Evans! I will storm the Fire Lookout with my Merry Men, and make you, make me a Fire Warden!”, said Sir Charles.

The Fire Warden glanced down at the picnic area. The Merry Men were all sprawled on the ground. Some had peanut butter and jelly smeared on their faces from stuffing their lunch. Most were fast asleep in the afternoon sun. “Yeah, good luck with that plan, Charlie,” he said. “And where to you come off being so bossy?”

Sir Charles said,”I am always bossy! I am Sir Charles of Evans! I boss my sister, Sondra Grizzlyfingers around all the time!”

“And how is that working out for you, Charlie? I’ll bet your sister doesn’t like it much being bossed around. I don’t think I like it either, but I do need some help, and I have a plan.”

The Fire Warden explained that he could not make Sir Charles a Fire Warden, but if Charlie was willing, he could help around the tower for the afternoon. He explained that it had been a very busy year for fires and today was the busiest of all. There were fires to the south in Montana, and there were fires to the north in Banff he had to keep track of. He was having trouble keeping up with the regular reports.

Charles agreed to help. He answered the radio when the warden was busy. He wrote down weather observations when needed. He became a second pair of eyes for the Warden.

But mostly, he learned about fires as the Warden talked as he worked. He learned that most forest fires were caused by lightning strikes, but sometimes careless human beings start fires by not putting their campfires completely out.  He also learned that weather played an important role in how a fire spread and how it could be fought. The hotter and dryer it was, the harder it was to fight a fire.

He also learned that not all fires were bad fires. Fire is part of the cycle of nature. An old forest that burns, makes room for a new forest and is especially good for animals that live best with young plants, like deer who like low bushes and bears who eat berries, and birds make homes in dead trees.

Even that day the fire in Banff was being watched, but not being put out. That forest was being affected by the red pine beetle. It was attacking lots of trees and killing them. The fire was being left to burn in the hope that it would kill the red pine beetle and keep it from spreading. The trees would die but they would grow back after the fire. Hopefully the beetles would be killed and not spread to other forests.

Sir Charles learned that decisions about fighting a fire were tricky. It took a team of wardens, weather reporters, fire cews, foresters, animal biologists, and government official to make a fire plan. And they had to monitor the plan to be sure they had made the right choices.

That is why the Fire Warden was so busy. He was especially concerned with the fires to the south and the north. Sir Charles was a big help. He did look out to the west however and notice a large thunderstorm.

All of a sudden he saw lightning flash from the bottom of the cloud. It hit the ground and Sir Charles noticed an orange glow beneath it. A fire! Sir Charles tugged on the Fire Warden’s sleeve and said,”I am not trying to be bossy, but I think there may be a fire out to the west!”

The Fire Warden turned and trained his binoculars on the patch of orange. “Good job, Charlie!, that is a fire and it is very near a campground! This is one we have to fight to protect the buildings and people that might be there! I am going to call it in!”.

Sir Charles knew that with thunderstorms around, he and the Merry Men had to get off the mountain as the hike down would be as long as the hike up. He told the Fire Warden he had to leave, but as he left he said, “Sir, I now know that you can’t become a Fire Warden in one day. What should I do if I really want to be one?”

The Fire Warden said, “Charlie, remember what you saw here  today. We work as a team to fight forest fires. We need lots of kinds of people to help make decisions around forest fires. We need people who understand about animals, and plants, people who understand fish and birds. We need weather people, we need figher fighters on the ground and pilots in the air, we even need computer people who can make models of how fires work so we can try out a decision on a computer model, to see if we have the right plan or have to change it.”

“My advice to you is to do your best in school, and work especially hard in science and math.

All of your hard work in school will pay off if you grow up an decide that fighting foret fires is what you want to do. And please, try not to be so bossy”

Sir Charles thanked the Fire Warden and went down to the picnic area. He woke up the Merry Men who were sleeping, wiped off the peanutbutter and jelly from the messy ones. He raised his hiking stick and pointed down the trail and gave the command to start.

“Tally Ho!” he shouted.

“Lets go!, shouted the Merry Men.

And off they went.