What a difference a year makes.

At about this time last year, Bladen County and North Carolina were in the midst of one of the worst droughts in history, fueled by six months or more of measly rainfall. Mother Nature seemed to have no trouble watering the Northeast or Midwest, but the entire southeast region of the country was nearly brittle as could be.

Here in Bladen County, the sight of smoke rising from a brush fire somewhere became common — especially from a blaze along the Bladen County-Robeson County line that firefighters couldn’t seem to put out for weeks on end and, at one point, actually began burning under ground.

Burning bans also became a regular thing.

To refresh your memory, here’s how bad it was: Then Gov. Mike Easley announced exactly one year ago that nearly 2,000 fires had been fought around the state over the first three months of 2008, and a total of 20,453 acres had been burned.

Thankfully, we saw a much different first quarter in 2009.

In 2008, this region was consistently in the red when it came to rainfall. In many areas, the state was often more than 20 inches under the average.

Not so this year.

Through the first quarter of 2009, nearly 10 inches of rain has fallen in parts of Bladen County, including last week’s deluge of more than 2 inches on a single day.

That’s kept things moist and the threat of fires at a minimum.

But don’t be fooled — the region remains susceptible to fires igniting if we are careless about where and when we burn. Springtime brings people outside to do yardwork and cleanup around the house. That means things will piled and burned.

Be careful.

Take precautions not to get open flames near low-hanging branches or near other flammable items,. Be sure also that the weather conditions are right — no wind, especially. And to be safe, have a garden hose ready.

We don’t need to see our firefighters scurrying from one blaze to another like we did in late 2007 and early 2008.