This reminds me of something that happened with us several years ago. My husband (who once seriously considered a career as a forest ranger, and he would have been good at it) had driven one of our sons back to college and was returning home through a rural and sparsely populated part of the state. While driving a back country road he came upon a fire in a road side ditch. It appeared to be centered around a pile of brush in the ditch, and there was a house on adjacent property, but no one was standing beside the fire. My husband could not tell if this was an intentional fire or something that had started from a random cigarette butt flicked out of a window that just happened to land in a pile of brush by the road.
The fire wasn't exactly lined up with the yard to the adjacent house, and per above, nobody was around. It wasn't dry at that time- in fact we'd had a lot of rain, and there was no burn ban, but here was a fire in a ditch by the side of the road with no supervision...
... so my husband diligently and thoroughly stomped that fire out with his feet, ruining a pair of leather topsider/boat shoes in the process.
Just as he was finishing up, stomping out the last smoldering bits, this guy comes running out of the house on the nearby property. He runs up to my husband shouting, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
My husband, ever the Boy Scout/future Forest Ranger, says modestly, "Well, you see, this ditch was on fire and I didn't seen anyone around so I stopped to put it out..."
My husband was expecting to be thanked, get a hand shake and go on his way. Instead-
"YOU STOPPED TO PUT IT OUT? YOU STOPPED- TO PUT IT OUT?? I'VE BEEN TRYING TO BURN OFF THAT PILE OF BRUSH ALL WEEKEND LONG! IT'S BEEN SO WET I COULDN'T GET IT TO LIGHT! I FINALLY GOT IT BURNING - I JUST WENT INTO THE HOUSE FOR A MINUTE TO USE THE BATHROOM- AND YOU COME ALONG AND PUT IT OUT! YOU PUT OUT MY FIRE!"
My husband couldn't think of a thing to say except, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, there was nobody here, and and and..."
And then he got in the car and drove home. While that guy tried to get the brush fire re-lit.
And we had to buy him another pair of boat shoes.
The End.
