FIRE!

First of all, I want to apologize for not being better at keeping up my blog. When I think of things to post I'm at work without pics, when I'm at home I forget! I will try to get better so you will visit often! I think this will make up for it. . .

Friday February 1st, 2008

I was at work, having my usual day. I had been sharing with my co-workers that when I was driving home yesterday there were four cotton bales in a cotton field near my property that had caught on fire and had just been put out by the local volunteer fire department. They just looked singed on the outside. I asked if they knew if cotton spontaneously combusted, they said it did. Next morning three of the bales were removed and the fourth one had been broken down.

3pm. I get a call from my neighbor, Robert, telling me that the field beside my property is on fire and to get home quick. Luckily I only live about 15 minutes from work so off I go to find out what's going on. Seeing the smoke from the freeway, knowing it was at "my house" is kinda scary. I did my best not to speed, but was so anxious to get home. I had called Jerry who luckily was at work and he was also on his way.

I arrive to bunches of vehicles parked outside my house and people going every which way. My first reaction is to go over to see what's going on with the alpacas. I was met by my alpaca caretaker, Cindy, who told me that the smoke was really bad, we needed to evacuate all the animals. The smoke was so thick you could barely see the alpacas, it burned your eyes and made it hard to breathe. I didn't even look around me to see what was going on, just focused on the alpacas.

Just as we were getting the females all moved into the center of the barn for haltering, the wind changed direction. It was amazing, within less than 3 minutes all the smoke had cleared. I also noticed that the field all around the alpacas was on fire, flames leaping 4-6 feet in the air.
Jerry arrived at that point and said there was no need to evacuate the animals, the wind had changed and they weren't in jeopardy. On the right here is a pic of the area after the wind changed direction.

More and more fire trucks were arriving, it was amazing how the word got out and they rallied around to save "us". I wish I knew each and everyone that came but some I did notice I'd like to mention, Trent, Sweetwater, Roby/Rotan, Mulberry Canyon and I think Tye Volunteer fire departments. The workers all seemed so well orchestrated, I felt useless. So what did I do? I went and got my camera. I needed pictures of this event that could have changed my life!

This is the view of the back side of the barn, to the north. The dark line in front of the fire is our poop pile and the edge of our property. At that point the flames had come around from the west and were headed towards the poop pile. Those large flames in the center of the picture were about 7 foot high at that point out in the grassland. (There are no alpacas out in the field north of the barn).

This is at about 4:30 pm at the end of our driveway, after the fire had been contained in the mesquite thicket. Jerry thinks they parked the big trucks between the mesquite and our pine trees (can you say fire fuel?) so avoid the flames jumping over. Whatever they were doing they were certainly doing a great job of containing the fire.

About 5pm the Forest Service pulled up two great big bulldozers and asked if they could move out some of the mesquite trees to give us a bigger fire break. Since it was not our property we really didn't have any real say in it. They said they were going to move it back about 20 feet to give a bigger space between the thicket and our property. That was fine by us.

Now, since then Jerry and I have realized that we were not in full acceptance of the situation we had been in. WE COULD HAVE LOST EVERYTHING!!! So. . . what did we do? We went out to dinner!!!!

An hour later when we returned, it was dark and those bulldozers were just finishing off their job of pushing back about 30 feet of trees and bushes back into the thicket. We found out the next day that the fire department had to come back in the middle of the night as some of the hotter spots that had been pushed back had caught fire again. These wonderful volunteers were out there until 2am making sure we were safe whilst sleeping in our bed!!

Saturday morning of course we had to go out and see actually what had transpired the day before. Now we had a short expressway where the county road had been. It looked so bare without any trees on it. There was still smouldering in the thicket and our poop pile was doing it's share of smouldering too. Jerry went and moved and covered the poop with dirt to keep the fire hazard contained. Things were quite calm that day and the water truck only had to make two trips to water down some overactive warm spots.

Sunday morning there was still three hot spots in the thicket and it did take three visits from the Trent fire department and their water truck to douse these areas to avoid any more fire!

We were so impressed with the professionalism of everyone involved. We were so impressed with how our neighbors rallied around to help us in this time of need. We cannot thank everyone enough for being there for us! Hooray for Texas!!! And for the wonderful people that live here!