Fire!

View of the smoke from my front porch

I ran down the street to see where the fire was coming from and then, of course, ran back to get the camera. I was planning to hose down the house and plants if it looked like it would come this way, but thankfully the wind was blowing the opposite direction and there were only vacant fields in its path.

At first I thought that the construction workers must have been burning cement sacks and it got out of control, but the fire was behind the fence surrounding this property, so I don't think they started the fire. 

The fire may have been started by someone else burning trash behind one of the houses. In the past six weeks, we've only had about five minutes of rain. Everything is incredibly dry.

This fire was northeast of our house. The wind blows from east to west almost all the time, but for the past couple of weeks, the wind has been blowing from the west. That was lucky because there are some houses directly to the west of where this fire started.

It looks like evening because of the smoke, but it was only 9:30 a.m. on a bright, sunny morning.

The fire trucks arrived amazingly fast, less than five minutes after I noticed the fire. One crew worked the fire from the west and this one from the south. I can't imagine how hot they must get in their fire uniforms. I had on a t-shirt and shorts and I was sweating. 

The fire was spreading very quickly across the dry grass fields. It looked like it might reach the farmhouse to the east before the fire fighters could put it out.

You can see the fire fighters in the center by the fence line. The hose didn't look like it would have much effect on such a large fire, but they quickly got it under control.



This photo is of some of the bystanders. One neighbor was complaining that the farm owner hadn't mowed their fields.




I mentioned that the construction guard starts a fire almost every night and that it is very dangerous in this dry climate. Someone said they would tell the home owner.
The television crew arrived a little too late.



This is the aftermath about three hours later. That fence line is the same one where the fire fighters were working earlier. I hope the fire fighters will make sure that all those smoldering areas are completely out before they leave.

This photo is looking to the east. The fire fighters are still working in this area. The fire got very close to the farm buildings.