Two years.

It has just been a bit over two years since our devastating fire.  Now this:

At 12:35 it was just the County workers – white truck and the orange truck behind it.  There was a fire in the ditch right by the white truck.  This space is between an off ramp (behind the red fire tanker) and a looping on-ramp (by the orange county truck).  Two workers were trying to put it out.  The wind was more than about 20 MPR from the southeast.  Right now you are looking to the southeast from our front porch.

See the red “Wrong Way” sign to the left of the truck?  At 12:45 the flames traveled that far, the two workers were working backward going up the hill when it hit a thick patch.  The flames went over their heads; I dialed 911, and by the time Dispatch said; “What’s your emergency?” it had jumped the road (off ramp from I76) and was heading our way!!

My seven-year-old grandson was here with me as I was talking to dispatch.

“Someone needs to get here fast – these two guys alone are not enough to handle the fire with this wind!” Pretty sure my voice was shaking.

I love our fire and police persons in this county!!  They were here within minutes and used their vehicles to totally block the fire from leaping to our home/farm.  Yes, I was scared to death all over again!

An Officer came up and said that we needed to get out.  Can’t I told him, just called my sister and she’s on her way here.  He said ok, but be ready to leave at any moment.  It was all I had to hold back the tears.  We just got our home back!  I was not prepared for all of this to happen again.

I told my grandson to come with me.  We each took a duffel bag, and I grabbed an extra for my sister.  I told him to pack some clothes in it and anything he valued most.  Pretty sure his computer went in before his clothes (lol) (FYI – mine went in after my clothes – lmao).  We got the essentials packed up and ready to go.  My sister got home and did the same.  Then we watched and waited.

It quickly moved from the southeast toward the northwest.  If not for the for the road, the fire trucks and the quick work of our public servants; I’m pretty sure we would have lost the home and more this time.

The place where the flames are in this pic is just a bit to our north – our neighbors cow pasture.  He has several cows with calves in there.  There is also a huge barn with hay, a couple of wagons and some of his equipment.  I told all of this to the Police Officer and gave him the neighbors name.  He said he would pass along the information and try to contact the owner.

Several of the trucks, men, and a couple of tankers went up into the field – Thank God!

Now that it is all over, and I have calmed a bit, I drove past our driveway and looked over the field.  The fire got right up to his trailers (you can’t even see them in this pic due to the heavy smoke), and his first pen fence – but our guys got it!

Moral of this story:
Always pay attention to your nose – it was the first thing that alerted me to this mess!
Note: Our fantastic guys hung around for hours after making sure ALL the hotspots were out – I am so thankful for them and their quick response!  Kudos people!!)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin