Winter Fire

Late Monday morning as Jeff walked from his parents’ house, through the tree rows, and over to the shop, casually looking over his right shoulder out the western horizon. The wind was howling that day and would have whipped him right in the face.  A few moments later, Jeff and Tom noticed a plume of smoke to the west on that same horizon which had previously been clear.  The power had flickered off and on several times in that time frame and they began to wonder if the smoke and flickering power were connected.  They called a few neighbors and discovered indeed there was a grass fire to the west of Tom and Carol’s place, started by a five or six power lines that had blown to the ground due to the strong wind.  When they came back outside and looked to the west again, the small plume of smoke had blossomed into a mushroom cloud. With 50-60 mph winds, a grass fire could get out of hand very quickly. They loaded up and headed a few miles north and west to help fight fire.

By the time they got there, several other neighbors and volunteer fire fighters from the area were there to help control the blaze. Jeff said later it was the largest fire he had ever helped fight. As a team, they got the fire under control, and shortly after a snow squall hit to punctuate the extinction of the fire with heavy, wet flurries. Power north of Joplin, however, would be out for much of the night. 

Jeff estimated that the fire burned several hundred acres and can say with certainty that it did cross into northeastern Hill County, though the bulk of it was in northern Liberty County.  The fire did make it as a blurb onto the evening news, which you can read here:http://www.krtv.com/news/fire-burns-100-acres-in-liberty-county/  If you ask Jeff, he’d tell you that the blaze was actually slightly more west than indicated on that map and larger than what the Liberty County Sherrif reported.

The ferocious wind dissipated the smoke cloud quickly, but the smell lingered.  When I left work that day in Gildford, MT, which is probably 50 miles or more from where the fire was, I could smell smoke through the ventilation of my vehicle as I drove home. 

Grass fires are typically not something we are concerned with in Montana this time of year, but with the extreme wind events we have been party to lately, it seems anything can happen. Structures that have withstood heavy winds for years are finally succumbing to stress. Farther west of here at the base of the Rocky Mountain Front, in towns like Browning, Cut Bank, and St. Mary, gusts were recorded over 100mph. There were and continue to be many reports of wind damage to property.  Thankfully, the fire near here did not hurt any people or property and the worst disaster anyone suffered was power outages.  Mother Nature will continue to teach us to be ready for anything, winter or not.

Fire

With harvest mostly in the bag, and football coming up this weekend, it's feeling a lot more like fall than summer.  We haven't mowed our lawn in well over a month and it hasn't needed it.  The grasses are all browns and tans and crackly.  Everything is. You can feel the dryness just by looking all around.  It seems to me like a strong bout of wind would dissolve everything into dust before my eyes. The air is already so dusty and smoky that the sky looks a pallid tone of whitish gray.  Last week's rain has been sucked into the ground or evaporated and we are again under severe Red Flag Fire Alert.

Which is why I was nearly as alarmed as Jeff when he stomped into the house just a few minutes ago and immediately picked up a phone book.  I asked him what was wrong.  Fire. To the south of here, he said. Sure enough, I looked out the window and a column of black smoke was rising to the sky maybe 8-10 miles south of us.  He was trying to call some people who live in that area to see what was up, if he was needed to help put it out.  Turns out, someone was actually doing a controlled burn of some grassy CRP, presumably so they could reintroduce crop to that land at some point either this fall or spring.

But seriously?  Today, of all days? I actually heard on the local radio station this morning that Hill County is also under a fire ban with its Red Flag Alert.  I mean, to me, it makes sense that you should NOT burn anything when the fire risk is so high.  At least it's not windy (for the moment) so chance of the controlled burn getting out of hand is low.  It still just makes me a little nervous.

Red Flag Alert

Carol is out of town, so that means I get to take care of the boys again.  We are right in the thick of harvesting spring wheat, and with rain in the forecast tonight and tomorrow, there could be a small hitch before we get it completed.

Our landlord and his wife have been helping Jeff and Tom with harvest and it has made a huge difference in getting it cut as quickly as possible.  While the forecasted rain may slow harvest a bit, it does help lessen the fire danger.  Lately, we have been under red-flag danger alert for forest fires.  To be more accurate, out here it would be a prairie fire (I have heard it said about this area that "There is a pretty girl behind every tree...).

Iowa is unbearably humid during the summer, so thinking about fire danger is something I am getting used to.  Wherever the guys are working in the field, whether swathing hay, baling, or out in the combine, this time of year, the water pickup is close at hand in case of fire.

In the country, people wear many hats in order to provide the same services and necessities that are taken for granted in cities and towns.  Everyone is responsible for taking preventative measures against fire, and in the event of a fire, everyone is on-call to help fight it out.  So far this summer, there haven't been any fires in our area, so I guess the preventative measures are working. Or maybe we've just been lucky.