Fire, Fire!

The neighbour's woods have been fired. Fortunately the fire brigade was there promptly and closed off the area, called in the helicopters and had it out in next to no time. They stayed on for a further 8 hours though, to ensure it was well and truly out.

There are two questions being discussed in Monculi: who did it, and what should be done to him when he is caught. Invariably it is a he; indeed it is almost always a young, or very young, man. The land belongs to the Church, and we had noticed roughly woven crosses of twigs and small branches, dotted along the road and on the verges. In ancient times pilgrims walked the route above the marshes from tiny monastery to tiny monastery, and there is a long tradition of reverence for these woods. Might some boy have become distressed by the sale of plots of land, and dachas going up on property given to the Church in perpetuity? Was it just attention-seeking or the thrill of watching all the resources against an ecological disaster being mobilised instead of fainting with boredom in the long, still, hot afternoons?

Fire setting around here is unusual; the criminal associations of the reforestation grants and building permissions have never been able to assert themselves under local, watchful eyes. But as the absolute ban on any building continues, perhaps the line will not be held. There is a need for more understanding of family need for land for housing, and less ecological pretension to untouched woodlands and forest.

The firemen say this was a classic, lone fire setter with personal problems who will doubtless be given up by his relatives and acquaintance if they fail to control him and he does it again (this was the third fire). What is to be done with him ranged from execution through exile, institutionalisation, a beating, to cognitive therapy.

Exile appeals. He could have burnt the village to the ground.