Not like wildfire

Fires are a very common thing here in Hyderabad. People sweep leaves & debris into a pile and just set fire to it. You see little flaming or smouldering piles at the side of the road all the time. This picture was taken from our balcony and is at the tent village next to our apartment building. The guy who lit it stuck around for a little while before wandering off. You can see from the scorch marks on the wall that a fire here is pretty common.

If someone wants to clear some land, or get rid of weeds at the side of the road, they just strike a match. Most of the time, there’s nobody around at all. This one was also taken from our balcony. They obviously wanted to clear the weeds from the strip between the road and the field of grapevines behind it. We see things like this all the time.

At first, I was a bit alarmed by all these fires. In New Zealand at least, fires have a tendency to get out of control, especially in summer. And here it is very hot and dry (it has rained only 3 or 4 times in the past 4 months, and not for more than an hour each time) so you’d think it would be an even bigger problem here. But it isn’t. Nobody is at all bothered by all of these fires – they are very common and everyone just ignores them.

I think one of the main reasons why fires aren’t such a problem here is due to three things. Firstly, the foliage is just much less dense here. Grass and shrubs here are very sparse compared to New Zealand, and so fire just can’t spread as far. And secondly, there is MUCH less wind. New Zealand is very windy compared to Hyderabad, and less wind means that fire is much less liable to spread – it certainly doesn’t do things like jump over roads or even small gaps. Finally, building aren’t made of wood, they’re made of concrete or brick, and so aren’t vulnerable to fire the way New Zealand houses are.

So now - apart from holding my breath when we drive through the smoke - I just ignore the fires too.