TFD (Thai Fire Department)

It's been a while since I posted some interesting culture tid-bits, but a couple experiences that I had in the last 2 weeks reminded me that I do indeed live in Thailand, where they do things differently. :)

Have you ever walked home to find black smoke coming from behind your house? It's a little disconcerting. My friend Zach and I were walking home from lunch one Saturday afternoon to see just that, and when we walked around the townhouses we found the neighborhood "wilderness" to be ablaze, and quickly moving towards the houses. Because it is cold season, and therefore dry season as well, the tangled mess of plants behind our row of townhouses was perfect bonfire material. "Where are the marshmallows when I need them??" Our neighborhood guard was hard at work with fire extinguishers (but it appears that there were only three in the whole mubaan [reminder: we need to invest in one of those!]). A quick call to the fire department was made, and meanwhile the whole neighborhood began pouring out of their homes to help in any way... grab hoses, clear out flammable trash... (the wilderness had become a bit of a dump). In about 10 minutes the Thai fire department arrived -- all geared up and ready to..... oh wait. No. Sorry, let's try that again. No gear to be seen... on any of the firemen who jumped off the truck and ran out to stop the fire wearing flip flops... and smoking cigarettes. Yep, that's right. "Let me put out this fire while I take a smoke!" (it was later determined that it had been a tossed cigarette that started the fire in the first place). This is Thailand. The fire was eventually put out, and all was well. :)

Here's some photos I snapped on my phone to document the adventure.

That last one I took out my bedroom window. Later that week they ended up plowing the rest of the field to remove the fire hazard... so now instead of a wilderness we have a desert. I like those too. :)

More to come later!