The next Chappy Community Center potluck supper will be on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. Bring a dish to serve eight.

The annual Chappy ferry captain and crew appreciation potluck supper will be on Wednesday, Dec. 11. The CCC holiday tea is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 15 from 2 to 4 p.m.

This past Sunday, a very industrious Chappaquiddicker was using a lawn tractor and sweeper attachment to gather fallen leaves. The leaves were very dry and fluffy. Debris came into contact with the hot muffler and ignited, the fire eventually consuming the tractor completely. The dismayed homeowner ran back to his house for a fire extinguisher. Fortunately, this all happened out in an open area close to a dirt road so that the fire department could put out the smoldering tractor remains and the surrounding leaves.

This guy is pretty light on his feet and probably fetched the fire extinguisher in mere minutes. None the less, given all of the various quite flammable parts of a lawn tractor, those few minutes were still enough for the fire to spread over the engine and fuel tank.

The lesson here is to keep an extinguisher at hand when operating internal combustion powered machinery such as a lawn tractor, walk behind brush cutter, chain saw and the like — especially during these high fire danger days which we have been experiencing. It may be a challenge to find a good spot to mount it, but even a small extinguisher bungeed to a riding mower or lawn tractor will give you a big advantage when the hot engine or muffler ignites the oily crud or dusty grass clippings that inevitably accumulate in the hard to reach places.

This homeowner was very lucky that he wasn’t out in the woods or right next to his house. As the fire department has warned for many years, brush fires will likely become house fires and house fires will likely become brush fires. Given the very dry conditions that the Islands are now enduring, this is an ideal time to Google Firewise USA. The website provides lots of useful and simple techniques to minimize the risk of home ignition from brush fire by careful landscaping around residential structures such as thinning trees and brush and choosing fire-resistant plants. You may be pleased to find that you are already doing some of the preventive measures.