It’s not every day that you see a burning bush on your way home from church, but that is exactly what happened to Andrew and me this evening. Not for us any voice to take our shoes off as we were standing on holy ground, nor did this appear to be the Holy Spirit at work on the Feast of Pentecost – no this burning bush had a much simpler explanation.

You see, Belfast has been suffering enjoying somewhat of a heat wave in recent days. This means that many people have been enjoying barbecues. Now, what do you do with the remains of the hot ashes when you have finished? I’d suggest that you leave them to cool down and then put in your dustbin.

Sadly this appears not to have been done by some residents near the Albert Bridge. For we came across the burning bush and on inspection found that there was rather a lot of hot charcoal ash around the bottom. Not being able to extinguish or dampen the flames without actual water (or having any receptacle to get water from the Lagan which was right beside us), we did what any responsible adult would do, called the Fire & Rescue Service.

We waited until the firemen arrived and directed them to the fire. One of them said to us,

Thanks for calling us, it’s better that we’re dampening down this than have it burn all the greenery around and have the smoke disrupt the traffic. It’s also better than being called to half a mountain on fire.

Our good turn being done, we carried on home. It seems that many people need to be reminded about the problems of dumping hot ash in places where there is combustible material. Fires can cause real damage to property, and had this ash been put on greenery nearer the houses of the Short Strand, we could have been in quite another situation this evening.