Saturday, June 23, 2012

Wild Fire

A wildfire began Thursday afternoon and then Friday morning the winds kicked up and things got crazy.  Today they report it burned 5,676 acres.  These pictures were taken from my upstairs window.  Thank goodness no homes were damaged and there was only one injury reported of a firefighter with minor burns.  Hope he recovers fast.  Big BIG shout out to all the firefighters who kept the fire away from our homes!
Time to panic & pack, 
or pack & panic...
How do you decided what to try and save?  
I just felt blessed to have the option!
I gathered all of Joe's irreplaceable items, then important personal and business documents, family pictures and finally ALL of my genealogy...everything else is replaceable.
My Dad & Joan drove down and took the truck home with them and Athena came and loaded everything into the RV and then took the car to her house.  Adam and Athena's neighborhood was also on standby evacuation, and neighborhoods around them were evacuated. 
Once I had the RV packed and I was ready to evacuated if needed, I was able to calm down.

 A couple of  hours later and they mandated more evacuations further north of where I live.  As of today 588 homes were evacuated--394 homes in Saratoga Springs and 194 in Eagle Mountain.  
 Flames!
 This helicopter worked all day long and into the evening.  
It would go fill up with water at the lake and then dump water on the fire.  Saturday morning, it was back on the job fighting the hot spots.
On Friday, there were about 300 people fighting the fire, 3 helicopters, 17 engines, 4 water-feeders, and 1 sky crane helicopter who was grounded at times because of high winds.
 Into the afternoon and the fire begins moving further south.
We were so blessed because the smoke kept blowing north away from us.  
In the evening it got a little smokey but not too bad considering how much smoke the fire was producing!
Sunset and the fire moves down the canyon.
  Sunset smoke.
 Thank you emergency personnel and firefighters!

About 10 pm and I cannot settle down to fall asleep. 
 I keep checking and the flames have me very worried.
Every couple of hours I woke up and the flames were still burning.
And then this morning a beautiful thing...
 ...no smoke and no flames just scarred land!  
The helicopters and small planes have been working all morning and it is comforting to hear the hum of their engines.
 Today around 12:30 the winds started blowing and the smouldering turned to smoke.
If it flares up I am ready and the RV is packed!
Thank you everyone for your prayers, calls and messages.  I appreciate your kindness and concern.

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