The fire in Madliena on Thursday was a stark reminder of how susceptible Malta is, as an arid country in summer, to grass fires.

While it will be difficult to establish the cause of the blaze, the fact remains that in summer we have a problem. The long grass and flowers we see in the spring soon become dried out stalks and stems that become a tinderbox which go up in flames at the slightest spark.

The fire on Thursday was very hard to handle because the winds were fanning the embers each time the Civil Protection put the fire out. Luckily, no damage was caused to property, but some very old carob trees were destroyed. Whatever people might say, it is a sad loss. We sometimes hear of forest fires and bush fires in far off places, yet we experience them too.

But people do not seem to realise the full extent of their actions in Malta. We leave barbeques smouldering, we leave lighters in cars in the baking sun and we throw cigarettes every odd where.

We should, as a nation, be more in tune to what can constitute a fire hazard. In fact, only recently, fireworks were let off from a dry field full of long grass in Swatar. The police issued the permit simply because the owner gave his consent. Yet according to rules and regulations, any such activities are bound by law to have a fire engine on site. CPD head Peter Cordina told this newspaper that they were only called to the scene after fireworks had been let off which, quite obviously, set the whole field on fire. Lt. Colonel Cordina did not mince his words, saying that it had been irresponsible to let the fireworks off, especially when they were so close to a residential area.

The CPD warn us time and time again to be

responsible but, unfortunately, we are not. Luckily, we do not have that great a problem with arson, but ignorance and the plain “couldn’t care less” attitude can have exactly the same effect as someone purposely setting something on fire.

Of course, there is a problem, on the other hand, in that we do not have very many cigarette ashtrays. All it takes is a bit of sand in a bucket, but then again, as always we need an education campaign to go with it. The new littering law will help as it will discourage people to simply discard cigarettes butts any old way.

But apart from that, we should be more careful. Campers should make sure their fires are well extinguished. People should not just dump hot coals on to the beach and we should be especially careful when letting off fireworks from xaghriet (fields) during feasts. As was demonstrated in the Madliena fire, a whole section of a beautiful, picturesque valley has been destroyed, along with wildlife, trees and, of course, the view. It will grow back again of course, but those old trees are lost. Such a fire could spread to houses and streets – we should be more aware.

We hope that this fire started naturally, but we should learn lessons from it. We should be more careful and we should show more consideration. After all, the saying holds true: people who play with fire get their