What Happened to Earth Month?

I was walking Maddie outside my apartment today when another neighbor and I spotted smoke rising out of the mulch surrounding a tree. As we got closer, we saw flames starting to build due to the strong winds. Long story short, the mulch was on fire and it was going to spread. I called the leasing office and they sent two maintenance men right away.

Well, they were pretty unprepared because they asked to borrow my bucket to smother the flame.

Their response? "We had a whole apartment building burn down last year because someone put out a cigarette in the mulch."

OHHHH that's comforting! Considering EVERY building here is SURROUNDED by mulch. You'd think they would have made some preventative measures by now? I'm pretty sure the aviation industry is not the only field that should learn from their mistakes!

I'm now officially paranoid.

Photo: the white patches you see was where the fire had spread. The flames had gone out but it wouldn't stop smoking.