A storm slowly made its way into the tiny sleepy town in the dead of night. The forecast for tomorrow called for a heap of rain, but for now the clouds took their sweet time rolling in. Outside one particular two-story house, the wind had just begun to pick up, and the branches of an old nearby tree swayed gently in the breeze.
It had been a dry last couple of months, but lately they’d had a number of strong storms pass through the area. It seemed the searing heat of summer, coupled with the oncoming moisture of fall, made for the perfect disastrous combination. In fact, just a few hours earlier during dinner, the father of the house had commented on that very tree’s age. He’d mentioned how it was weak, battered, and would need to come down soon, lest it come down on its own during one of these freak storms.
And so, the wind continued to picked up outside, and the tree’s branches began to scrape and bang against the side of the house. A few more hours passed, a couple more hours of howling wind, and slowly but surely one lowly little branch began to crack from all the pressure. The tree attempted to hold strong, but it was no match for the storm’s fury, and at last the tiny branch finally broke free.
Down it fell. Down, down, to where the backyard lay in wait to catch it. A couple inches to the right, and perhaps it would have landed on the grass and merely joined all the other debris that had fallen during the night. Instead, by some choice of fate, or some twist of chance, it fell down toward the patio deck and landed on the open grill. Thankfully, the grill’s settings were set to off, or so it appeared.
After having been on for hours, even at the lowest setting, the coils now glowed a bright orange from the heat. They reacted instantly with the branch that had fallen. The remaining leaves on the branch became singed black, and the edges began to curl in on themselves in a desperate attempt to get away. Soon, there was no stopping the assault, and the branch and the leaves began to smoke. Tiny red flames began to appear as the branch gave in to its fate. Soon the army of flames were moving and spreading to engulf the entire branch.
From there the flames jumped to a grease soaked rag lying nearby. The flames instantly fed off the welcome fuel. Another gust of wind blew the flames off the grill and onto the welcome mat in front of the back door. From there the flames now grew and reached their way up the house, welcoming the added food. Each second that passed, the flames consumed more and more ground, and looked to their new exciting . The storm had done its deed, and the rain wouldn’t come until it was too late.