Last night several fire trucks came up to my neighbors house. I assumed it was a false alarm, but when they were still there a half hour later I went out to see what was going on. One of them explained that the roots of a 4' pine tree had caught fire. They put it out, but were just spraying everything in the area for good measure. He said he had not seen anything like it in 25 years. This morning I see that there is a row of trees with one missing, and burn marks on a fence next to it.
It rained Tuesday, so everything was moist.
Was he putting me on? I mean, tree roots can't spontaneously combust, can they?
And why is spell check telling me that "combust" isn't a word?