March 18, 2009

Still Burning

New fires popped up yesterday according to the local Fire Department, plus some are still burning and smoldering from previous fires around the area. The air is heavy with smoke, ash and dust.
Early yesterday afternoon our little valley was covered in white from downwind drifts.
I became concerned we may be at risk again from the ever changing direction of the strong winds and fires on the west side of the farm (Saturday's fires came from the north and northeast). I called the Fire Dept. for an update (used the non-emergency number). The very nice gentleman on the other end of the line reassured me that all was well for our little valley. The fires had moved on farther. He also stated that the Dept. of Forrestry, Dept. of Conservation plus many firefighters were in our area and would be on scene if any problems happened to arise.

The air quality is very poor.

If you visit Tonia over at All Natural Simple Life she has shared some photos taken out and about our area.



In the photo above follow the black top road to the far end... see the smoke? Look to the left of the tree...see the smoke? If you were closer you could see that the skyline in the photo is covered end to end in the grey white haze. Looking to the left of the photo find the red X. That is the general area of our farm. More fires are burning beyond the red X.

Last nights weather forecast predicts showers this evening.

7 comments:

Tammy said...

Sure wish it would rain! We are getting quite a bit of heavy smoke in our area too, some I think from the fires around your area and Bennett. It's not so bad though here, no ash or anything too heavy, just the acrid smoke that makes me keep checking outside to make sure there isn't anything burning! Stay safe and take care.
Tammy

Tonia said...

All day yesterday You could see the haze from the smoke. Our house looks out in that direction and we watched it all day yesterday.. That is the scary thing about living in the woods!! They have moved the rian off till Friday or Saturday now...Stay safe!!

Jennifer said...

I hope you, your family and your farm are safe and do not have any damage from these fires.

DayPhoto said...

So it was controlled burns. We get lots of them from farmers around here. More and more farmers are not grazing off the land durning the winter but burning. Makes for horrible breathing days for people like me.

We graze and till everything under, we like what it does for the soil.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/

Phill said...

You be careful, listen close to the news, and be ready to bug out if need be. This is scary.

Goody said...

It really scares the pants off me when they burn around here. The problem is you get these old timers that have been burning for years and think because they've never had a problem...well you know, they just don't bother checking with the weather service for conditions. Heck, I've seen people lose control of rubbish pits, much less a controlled burn of fields.

HEPA air purifiers do help quite a bit to get the smell out indoors if this is an on-going problem for you.

Oh gosh, please stay safe.

JK said...

Thank you all (hugs)

From what I am understanding, Saturday and Sunday fires were controlled burns that became out of hand.
Fires the last few days, some were of unknown beginnings, I heard that it may be possible arson.

Saturday when they were putting the fires out down in our bottom pastures I realized that we needed an evacuation plan for the future. A way to load the livestock quickly, safely and get the heck out of dodge when needed.