Fire Too Close to Home

We have lived in these woods for almost 13 years.  In those years we have had a few forest fires.  I can really only remember two and they weren't really that close to us.  In the past 2 weeks we've had 2 and then another today.

The fire today is on our land, in our hills or to be correct on our ridges.  We own portions of 2 ridges.  Big T and Little T Ridges.  The House on the Hill sits on the eastern slope of Big T Ridge and the Little Old House and J's Little Barn House sit at the base of this slope.

 The almost square above is our 42 acres.
Top and right lines -  borders of the Talladega National Forest
Black dotted line -  fire road

The little spring with no name is the little blue line that comes down between the 2 ridges into the V shaped clearing.  Our old falling down barn sits in that clearing at the base of the western slope of Little T Ridge.  

When I take pictures of morning sunrises or misty hills from the House on the Hill it is this western slope of Little T Ridge that I am taking pictures of.  It is this western slope that I see out my living room windows.  Right now that slope on Little T Ridge is burning.

Somewhere near the top of Little T Ridge is the property line.  Our neighbor is the Talladega National Forest.  The fire started on the eastern slope of Little T in the National Forest.  J and I drove to a little clearing in the Forest about a mile down the road from us.  We take the Girlies fishing here.  If you look across the creek you can see the rocky outcrops that make up a lot of this very steep side of Little T Ridge.  They are beautiful but they make fighting a forest fire on this slope almost impossible.

J and I were able to stand in this clearing and then walk along the path that borders the creek and watch Little T Ridge on the Talladega National Forest side burn.  As it follows the creek this is probably about 2 miles from our land because the ridge and the creek curve in and out. 

We didn't go look to gawk.  This was too close to home.  We needed to see what was coming our way.  We thought it would be several hours before it would reach the property line and were hoping and praying for rain.

I wish I had adequate words to describe being this close to a forest fire.
 

The smell of the smoke.

The sounds of fire.  The snapping of branches breaking and falling.

The popping, crackling and hissing of the hungry fire.

The waves of heat you feel from it.

 Seeing swirls of smoke surround things like this brave tree growing out of the top of a rocky outcrop.

Steep slope and rocks means no fire breaks

with years accumulations of pine needles and fallen leaves to feed the fire.

We had a lot of wind today and that really spread the fire.  Fast.  The smoke went from bad

to badder,

to baddest. 

We headed home.  As we were walking up the trail this log tumbled down off the ridge into the creek and went floating away.  It was still burning on the other side. 

We ran into town to buy a spigot for J's outside water line so he would be able to wet down the ground on the hill in front of his house.  We were only gone about 15 minutes and  drove down our road and saw this.

The fire had already moved close enought that we could see it from the Little Old House. The farthest mail box, the gray one is ours and sits at the entrance to the new driveway we put in for the House on the Hill.  It took less than an hour to move that far.

A forestry helicopter dropping water on the fire from a big bag underneath it.  J called it a Bambi bucket.

Look close at this shot, you can actually see the pink glow of the fire right in the middle of the tree line.  The wind was moving this blaze super fast.

I dropped J off at his house and we saw that the Forestry Service Fire Crew had already been by his house and bladed the fire road on their way up to the top of Little T Ridge.

I headed on up the Hill, I thought it was time for M to come home.  From the porch I turned around and saw fire all over Big T Ridge, almost above our old barn.

I have to be honest and say I squelched a wave of panic I felt rising up in the pit of my stomach.

I took these pics, grabbed my gloves and headed down to the barn.  J was already there with Big Orange digging a fire break at the base of the slope.  The photos stop here because the camera did not go with me to fight a fire.  I wish it had because I didn't have to fight any fire.

There was a Forestry crew of 6 and a big 4 wheel drive vehicle (like a Mule or a Polaris) at the base of the slope meeting with Josh when I got down there.  They were joined by another crew with another dozer (there was already one up on the ridge)  and I was just in the way.  About ten minutes after I got down there Mother Nature took over and the rain started.

I can still see the fire burning in little pockets tonight all over the western slope of Little T Ridge.  But the wind has stopped and the rain soaked the ground pretty good so we are hoping that it will just fizzle out tonight.

I will probably be up most of the night sitting alone in the dark living room and wondering why we are having so many fires now.  And watching Little T Ridge.  Just in case.