Thank God it was a Frenchman! After a sprinkling of rain assuming one can burn a bit of crop off your fields after months of dry weather is nothing but madness as one French agricultor discovered [too late!] managing to burn 12 hectares of fields and woods and a hangar full of hay stored for winter. The fire was deemed so potentially serious that 71 pompiers from all local departments were deployed and 22 fire department vehicles.
We saw the flames and smoke here in Varen and the next day our French cleaner who is married to a pompier was full of the tales of horror. There were no injuries however though 3 houses were narrowly missed by the flames which were being swept along by the wind.
The unfortunate or foolish farmer has now been presented with a bill from the fire department for 6,260 euros. So beware of burning that bit of rubbish as you may end up with the bill even if you don't burn your house down.
