FIRE!

[gouch]

I live in town right next to the city limits. Right next to us is 60 acres of county owned land we refer to as "The Feilds" It is nothing but tall grass, brush and weeds. The county tells private landowners to keep that sort of stuff mowed down because of the fire danger but says it is too expensive to keep "The Felids" mowed. So, over the years there have been a few fires out there. This morning I was awakened at 4:00 AM by a text from my daughter, saying that "The Feilds" was on fire. It turned out that the fire was on an adjacent property in a small patch of timber referred to as Sherwood Forest by the sheriff's department, because of all the illegal activity that goes on there.

Now, we are less than three years removed from our own Maui experience and with all the news about Maui along with the constant warnings about how bad the fire danger is right now, people in the neighborhood got a bit excited. Not quite a panic but close. I told the wife that it was cool, the humidity was around 55%, no wind and crews were already on the line. Nothing to worry about. The fire is out now, but she is still out there running around getting all worked up about it, with all the neighbors.

"The fields" has burned in its entirety three times in the last 40 years and each time everyone gathered to enjoy the show. A little community entertainment on a hot summer's day. Now everyone is put into an emotional state of fear and dread by a little 5-acre burn. Funny how that works. I guess that is what happens to a person's perspective three years after your house along half the town burns down.

 

[Nameless Range]

There's more than a few folks on Hunt Talk whose homes have burned down. I think there's definitely a dissonance by many regarding how easy it can happen. I'm quite paranoid myself. I would wager if a home of mine had burned down in the past, I'd be living in a brick fortress surrounded by decomposed granite.That said, you are right that it doesn't take much for a modern community to become hysterical.

 

[Hem]

We had a prairie fire start about a mile from our house one dry summer.
Brush hog was the culprit.
Light wind accelerated in the afternoon which put the fire in motion. Without a doubt had the wind directed the fire towards the subdivision it would have taken minutes to reach our house.
I booked it home from work to watch and prepare. Fortunately fighters suppressed it with air support.

 

[FairWeather]

One of the very few benefits of living within city limits is knowing it would take a pretty extreme situation for a fire to reach my house.

Nonetheless, we still got the house resided with cement boards after the holiday farm fire.

 

[gouch]

There's more than a few folks on Hunt Talk whose homes have burned down. I think there's definitely a dissonance by many regarding how easy it can happen. I'm quite paranoid myself. I would wager if a home of mine had burned down in the past, I'd be living in a brick fortress surrounded by decomposed granite.That said, you are right that it doesn't take much for a modern community to become hysterical.

Before the fire my yard had a lot of vegetation. Living in town I didn't worry about wildfire. Now my front yard is concrete and decomposed granite. The back is better than half decomposed granite and concrete. The rest is grass and garden that I keep well-watered. But I now know only too well that under bad conditions there is no such thing as a defensible space that is reasonable to maintain. A few years ago there was a fire in the Columbia gorge on the Oregon side. You have I-80, four lanes and a median, railroad tracks surrounded by rock then the Columbia River over a mile wide. Seems like pretty reasonable defensible space but that fire jumped all that into Washington.

 

[JEL]

My biggest fear this time of year is a combine fire in the harvest field. Had one that started on the neighbors 3 years ago and holy crap that thing covered ground in a hurry. Luckily our crop was cut but it took all our residue. Thursday night the crew was shutting down and my son noticed an odd noise on the combine. Found a bearing had gone out and it was throwing sparks. Dodged a bit of a bullet there.

 

[FI460]

Before the fire my yard had a lot of vegetation. Living in town I didn't worry about wildfire. Now my front yard is concrete and decomposed granite. The back is better than half decomposed granite and concrete. The rest is grass and garden that I keep well-watered. But I now know only too well that under bad conditions there is no such thing as a defensible space that is reasonable to maintain. A few years ago there was a fire in the Columbia gorge on the Oregon side. You have I-80, four lanes and a median, railroad tracks surrounded by rock then the Columbia River over a mile wide. Seems like pretty reasonable defensible space but that fire jumped all that into Washington.

The conditions were awful that day. Those hot winds were terrifying.

There was a fire off of Eagle Mill right in the Almeda scar last month. The neighbors got worked up but FF response was lighting quick. I wasn't worried that day. Calm wind, comparatively cool. I hate red flag days anymore though.

 

[mdcrossbow]

Fires are the worst. I had a shop fire almost 10 years ago. Was able to move to a new location and was up and running with-in 3 months. I had long term customers offering to lend me money all my customers were very patient with us getting there furniture restored. With over 50 jobs in the shop we only lost 3 small jobs.

 

[Redmt]

Tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of the SCU fire. It was the 3rd largest fire in CA history. It was started by lightning and ignored by Cal Fire until it was too late and horribly out of control. We had lightning this morning. Deja Vu .

 

[FI460]

Mom was about 10 miles from home when she got turned around due to the Head Fire. Wild range of reports, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's over 1k acres at the first mapping.

 

[FI460]

Mom was about 10 miles from home when she got turned around due to the Head Fire. Wild range of reports, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's over 1k acres at the first mapping.

I was entirely too conservative. Forest supervisor is estimating 3000-4000 acres.

 

[FI460]

It was roaring the first day. Hanging around 3500 acres. I know of 4 confirmed homes lost in our community, and I suspect 2 or 3 more. 1 fatality.

The ponderosa in this photo is on the corner of the lot of my childhood home. So far things are ok there but dad just called and said it's getting aggressive again. He's a volunteer with the local fire department but now that there are federal and state resources on site he says he'll head out if it comes over the ridge.

 

[Hunter4Life78]

It was roaring the first day. Hanging around 3500 acres. View attachment 288253I know of 4 confirmed homes lost in our community, and I suspect 2 or 3 more. 1 fatality.

The ponderosa in this photo is on the corner of the lot of my childhood home. So far things are ok there but dad just called and said it's getting aggressive again. He's a volunteer with the local fire department but now that there are federal and state resources on site he says he'll head out if it comes over the ridge.

Prayers to you, your family, and the firefighters!!! Thin Red Line!!!

 

[FI460]

Prayers to you, your family, and the firefighters!!! Thin Red Line!!!

They're working hard. Last number I saw was just over 20 fires on the KNF since Monday. So far only one has blown up. 2 others that are concerning for Happy Camp and Horse Creek. A lot of resources are moving downriver now though.

 

[gouch]

Hope your family is all right, but damn, that fire looks awfully close.
Less than 1/4 mile visibility through the smoke right now. I was hoping to get through the summer without the smoke this year. No such luck.

 

[Paul in Idaho]

I hope your family stays safe and no more homes in your community are burned.

 

[LuketheDog]

One of the very few benefits of living within city limits is knowing it would take a pretty extreme situation for a fire to reach my house.

Look up the Marshall fire here in Colorado, it burned over 1,000 homes, the vast majority of them were in subdivisions. Nobody saw that one coming...

 

[Hunter4Life78]

They're working hard. Last number I saw was just over 20 fires on the KNF since Monday. So far only one has blown up. 2 others that are concerning for Happy Camp and Horse Creek. A lot of resources are moving downriver now though.

We've had firefight the hotel I work at for about two weeks. We have fires north of us west of us and south of us. Been trying to buy them boys drinks when I see them. We did breakfast for them last week. I learned that I can roll 171 sets of silverware in about an hour and half. Bless all those men and women for what they do!!!

 

[Redmt]

We dodged the bullet yesterday. Cal Fire was out on recon yesterday afternoon. We had a thunderstorm roll through around 4 PM. We got .55 in. rain in 25 minutes. There were 9 verified lightning strikes in our area one of them about 250 yds from the house. Had it not been for the heavy rain I might not be writing this. This is the Cal Fire strike map. It hit right at the horseshoe bend in the road which is right below the house. The strike map is overlaid from Google Earth taken after our last fire.

 

[JEL]

A neighbor had a field fire this afternoon. They figure it was started by static electricity from the combine. Not ideal since it was 95 degrees with 40 MPH winds. VFD and all the neighbors showed up and thankfully got it out before it made a big run. Combine suffered some damage but fixable. Supposed to get a change in weather and possibly some rain starting tomorrow.