What's the worst that can happen, you burn the place down?

That is the common phrase we say when we are left to look after something for the first time, and none of us ever think it going to happen right? Well today was the first day I was solely in charge of the Delphi Salmon fishery and what did I do? You guessed it, burnt it down, sorta. The day started off as normal as possible, I checked all the tanks and filters, took out the rubbish from the lodge, and then started to get some paperwork in line for Monday as we were going to start stripping the fish. I went to make some copies and to clean all the coffee mugs from the office. At this point it had begun to rain which is nothing new because it rains a minimum of three times a day here. Well today’s storm brought with it something I had yet to see or hear in Ireland while it rained, yep, common thunder and lightning. And while it was only a couple shots it was violent and quit close, but none of us could have guessed how close. After making my copies, washing the mugs, and chatting with the ladies in the kitchen I headed back to the fishery. When I came over the hill I saw a lot of smoke and thought that’s odd. When I got to the fishery I could see it was on fire. I ran back and informed the staff at the lodge and then sprinted back. I started throwing water on it from the stream next to it. By this time the whole lodge staff was over helping. We got in out fairly quickly and I then went to shut the generator off, and had one of the regular staffers make sure that all the power was shut off to the fishery. There was a lot of damage, but nothing that can’t be replaced. After all this the fire brigade finally showed up, as it’s a 35 minute drive from Westport. They cleared it and said the building was safe to be in. They also said that the cause of the fire was unknown. It was amazing to see how some of the electrical leads were blown apart. It makes me thing that lightning struck something. Luckily no one was working today because it all occurred about 10:30 in the break room where we would all be gathered for morning tea. Luckily no one was hurt. There is a lot of damage but nothing that can’t be replaced. Now we have to wait ‘til Monday for an insurance adjuster, get and electrician, and start the cleanup. And for now, you’ll find me hand feeding the fish about every 15-20 minutes while the sun is up. And as my boss said, try and keep the place in order tomorrow, and well, at least you can’t burn the place down… you already took care of that today!”