Spontaneous Combustion

After being here for only two weeks, I had quite an exciting surprise, a brush-fire! I had removed some weeds and tomato vines, from last year's crop, in order to make room for planting some oregano and sage plants. I placed all of this dead material on top of a pile of hay. The weather was in the high 90s all day and the combination of the temperature and the heat from the decomposition caused the brush-pile to spontaneously combust. I didn't actually see it ignite, I just looked out my window and saw a ton of black smoke. I ran out there and put it out with an extinguisher and a hose.



Here you can see what the garden area looked like right after the fire.

Here is one my poor oregano plants. I lost 5 of the 6 oreganos I planted, the sage looks like it is going to make it.