Hey Greg, thanks buddy. Yesterday the neighbor ran up and told us to look up behind the property- sure enough, a big black column of smoke less than a mile away. We thought we might have to evacuate, and my wife was packing while I ran up the back road toward the fire in a Jeep with the neighbor.
We found the fire, no one was there yet except two other local guys with shovels. About half an hour of running around cutting and shoveling on the edge of the fire to try to stop it, was enough to convince us to get out of there and that it was futile. By that time retardant and a lot of water was being dropped above us; when we got back into the open DNR and fire engines from all over were arriving.
We stayed and talked for a minute, during which time we saw that a couple of structures were going up, back where we had been. We went home to bring the news that the fire was being blown away from our homes, uphill and to the NE.
All afternoon we were clearing around the house, and wetting things down, I was dragging propane bottles well away from the house, etc. 12 air tankers and 5 choppers were continuously flying the fire- it was like Sea Tac in the sky here until dark.
There were evacuations in the direction it went, as the fire grew from about 2-300 acres when we arrived to around 1500 acres by the evening. They hit it so hard that, coupled with the fact that we are now getting rain, the fire is now contained and mostly out as far as I can find out.
It was exciting to say the least... I was damn worried about my shop, no insurance and my entire livelihood in there. Rest assured that our fire preparedness level will be very thorough the rest of this season.
Thank you for your concern! I just hope that my friends that were in the path of the Carlton Complex fire yesterday evening came through it all right- I haven't heard what happened yet.
