Too Close For Comfort

The fire alarm went off for District 1....fire location:  mile post 40.  I jumped off of my bed, I was watching Sarah 101, and ran to the window to see if I could see anything.  I live right above mile post marker 37.  I couldn't see anything.  I went to the front yard and looked north....BLACK SMOKE, huge plume.  I called my mom because it looked like it was at the end of the alfalfa field.  Mom was upstairs so she didn't even know about it.  She went to the window and said "oh my gosh, I gotta go"!  That was enough for me.  I jumped in my car and took off.  As I got closer to mom and dad's I realized it was at the end of the alfalfa field but it was headed up the hill to my brother Jeff's house.  The wind was blowing from the northwest so the fire was booking.  I headed up the hill to the house.  When I got there mom, Briar and Nick were unrolling a garden hose.  I jumped out the car and helped.  Jeff and dad were in the firetruck right in front of the house, putting out a line of fire headed towards the house.  We found some shovels and headed down to the fireline and got ready to help put it out should it flare back up.  A gust of wind came and we booked out of there!  Just as we made it up to the house Jason came over the hill with a truck from Connell and got on the flareup.  That was way too close!!

Between Eltopia, Connell and Basin City there were 7 trucks and 2 water tenders at this fire.  The wind was blowing and fire spreading, but it was all contained before damage other than cheat grass happened.  There were at least 4 bulls in the field but they all headed towards the north part of the pasture.  At the south end of the fire was a field of field corn so that was pretty safe.

 Here's Jeff and dad going back after getting more water.

 Here's a shot of a group of volunteers waiting for another tender to get back, filled with more water, so they can go back and mop up the firelines again.

Thank goodness for these great volunteers!  Thank goodness Jeff's house wasn't burned down!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!!!!!!!