The quick action of Nick helped five people escape a fire on Hope Road. Nick said he usually left his house about 5:30 a.m. to do morning exercises, but that day he decided to stay at home to get his daughter ready for school. As he looked at his neighbor’s house, he realized that it was on fire. “I saw smoke and flames and ran over and started beating on the side of the house shouting, ‘Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire!’” Nick remembered it was at about 9 a.m. that the firefighters put out the fire.

Beverly Penny and her husband, Clark, along with their younger daughters, were sleeping in the living room, next to the kitchen, when they heard Nick beating on the walls. She opened the bedroom door and black smoke came in. She managed to get her kids out. Her dog tried to hide under the bed, but Penny caught it by the leg and threw it out of the door. However, chickens in one of the rooms weren’t so lucky.

Firefighters got the call at about 7:05 a.m. “When we arrived with our fire trucks, there were heavy flames outside on the house,” Jerry said. He called Nick a hero, saying that without his quick responses(回应) the result could have been much worse. “The firefighters were fast,” Nick said. “They arrived here within about three minutes.”

“They did a great job, and I can’t thank them enough,” Penny said, then looked at what remained in the house and shook her head as tears rolled down in her eyes. “Everything I have is gone. Luckily nobody was hurt in the fire.” She said the fire could have been caused by an electrical problem. “We’ve been having problems with mice, so that we could have had something to do with it,” she added.

How to prepare for a wildfire

Before you can effectively prepare, it’s very important to understand how wildfires operate. Many think wildfires destroy homes because a wall of flames(火焰)moves across the landscape. 【小题1】. Now that you know what a wildfire is, here’s how you can protect your home and your family.

【小题2】

Creating a defensible space around your home acts as a barrier against wildfire flames. Home hardening involves constructing with fire-resistant materials. Investing $10,000 to $20,000 in these measures significantly reduces the chance of a home being ravaged by a wildfire, lowering risk by 75%.

Similar to dry or bagged leaves, dead tree branches are dry, which means they, too, can catch fire quickly. If you have any hanging from trees or laying in your yard, remove them ASAP. The same rule applies when removing dead tree branches: 【小题3】.

Families should go over an evacuation plan and practice it well before an emergency actually occurs. Knowing when to leave and being able to go quickly is crucial during an evacuation scenario. 【小题4】. Then plan your primary and alternative evacuation route, and assemble emergency supplies and store them where you can get to them quickly.

【小题5】. Fix metal gutter covers to reduce leaf litter and windblown debris. This will ensure that things don’t burn in them and spread fire to your home. Don’t pressure-wash gutters; it can damage them or pull them off your house.

Tens of thousands of honeybees in Spain’s Canary Islands can now add “survived a volcano (火山)” to their wish list.

A report on Saturday told the story of five hives (蜂箱) of honeybees that were left unattended after the eruption (爆发) of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma, which happened on September 19, for about 50 days (their beekeeper had been forced to leave the area). When the beekeeper returned, he found the hives covered in volcanic ash (灰) .

Inside the hives, however, the situation was completely different. To the beekeeper’s surprise, he found tens of thousands of live honeybees, who had managed to carry on despite the heat and harmful gases released by the volcano. They may have also gotten lucky because they were covered with light ash with small holes, which allowed air to pass through the hives.

Not all honeybees on La Palma were so lucky, though. Spanish news service EFE reported that a group of hives closest to the Cumbre Vieja had been covered completely by lava, hot volcano matter, which killed them.

Antonio Quesada, a spokesperson for the GranCanaria Beekeepers Association, said that a key part of the bees’ survival was propolis (蜂胶). Produced by bees, propolis is a sticky thing made from resins (树脂) the insects collect from plants. Often called “bee glue,” propolis is often used to smooth surfaces or cover the space in hives.

Quesada said the La Palma bees managed to seal (密封) themselves inside their hives to protect themselves from the volcanic gases, which can be harmful to people, animals, plants, and buildings. The bees also thought about food an date from the honey stores they had inside their hives.

“It’s unbelievable how such a tiny animal that has been around for hundreds of thousands of years can have that ability to survive,” Quesada said.

That’s not all they did, though. Although they sealed themselves in their hives, they made sure to leave a very small pathway to the outside so they could get out one day.