I think of this song every time I see a fire or evidence of one.
We live in the West. There are fires here. Lots of ’em.
We couldn’t really see the mountains in the west or the Big Horns this summer because of all the haze.
Some of them are accidents or carelessness, like the ones Smokey Bear warns you about.
“Fifteen illegal, abandoned, or escaped campfires have been discovered in the last three weeks. Firefighters have responded to five wildfires in the Bighorn National Forest this summer; three were caused by lightning and two were escaped campfires.” ~Basin Republican Rustler, July 31st 2014
Others, and the most around here, are from lightning strikes.
(Lighting, Photo: Kasey Baker)
Then the others are from prescribed controlled burns. Those are our favorites. Those are the ones that we don’t really have to worry about. There are teams there. They are digging fire lines, the teams have a plan.
(late summer prescribed burn)
They let others know of the plan…
“The Bighorn National Forest, Medicine Wheel/ Paintrock Ranger District will be conducting some prescribed burning through September 26th. O Areas include Beaver Creek South Unit #2 on Sunlight Mesa (44 38′ 56.84″N by 107 41’36.90″W) at about 400 acres. On September 25th and 26th we will be burning Mill Creek Unit #3 near Freeze Out Point in the Cold Springs area (44 22′ 1.43″N by 107 24’29.40″W) and will be approximately 400 acres as well. Smoke from both burns may be visible. Any questions may be directed to the Lovell Forest Service Office or the Medicine Wheel/ Paintrock District Fire Management Officer, Marvin M.”
I appreciate fair warning.
It’s the dry lightning that gets me every time.
(Dry Storm, Photo: Drew Mahr)
The spring rain made the wild grasses and plants grow, by mid-summer everything is dead if it is not irrigated. Dead, dry grass and plants make for excellent tinder. When storms are brewing and going up the mountain, there are some serious lightning and thunder that happens but we rarely get the rain.
By late July this summer we had already had three fires really close to the ranch. All but one was started by lightning.
(Volunteers. Photo: Kasey Baker)
Most of the time our great intern staff would be super close and could put out the fires with shovels and dirt. One 19 acre fire in the state park near our ranch required many, many volunteers, the BLM, and helicopter dumps.
One early morning Wooster had gone out to check humidity and moisture of wind rows around 3am. I wasn’t sleeping. He was on his way back around 4:30am and he saw a lightning strike just ¼ of a mile from our house on the ranch. I ran up to the intern house and got them out of bed. We walked out and saw the fire and smoke.
They jumped into trucks, got shovels and worked their way up to the fire.
The fire was in such a tricky spot that many of the volunteers couldn’t reach it without hiking in. No trucks, tractors or other vehicles could get to it. The BLM was called in with their more specialized wild-fire equipment with longer hoses to help put it out.
(Juniper Fire, Photo: Kasey Baker)
The fire was contained to just five acres. It took a great amount of time for it to burn out and be contained.
For more information about some of the fires, go to this great source and article:
