We weren’t expecting to have a fire threaten the mill. The photos below tell the story.
I added this sketch of the firefighters after “Z” at Zeebra Designs called for folks to draw in her post Time Out For Art – YOU CAN DO THIS. Here you go Z!
The rain has been replaced by wind and dry conditions once again. Fire returned, only this time instead of in the woods, it was at the mill. With winds blowing 25 to 30 mph a fire broke out at the mill next door and was being blown right at our site.
It was all hands on deck. The crew poured in from all over the plant site to fight the fire.
Hoses were laid and water was flowing onto the fire. Soon, the regular fire crews arrived on scene.
We were afraid the fire would spread into the pole stacks, or God forbid, the chip pile.
Our dozer was building a fireline in case the fire tried to jump the canal.
The air tanker arrived ready to drop fire retardant.
The effort continued on the ground and we held the fire at the edge of our mill site.
Then the Helicopter arrived with the Bambi Bucket.
The helicopter was scooping water from the Sacramento River to dump onto the fire.
With the spread of the fire was stopped, mop up operations began.
Our crew moved fast to get water on the fire and the fire department responded quickly. Together we were able to stop the fire before it could get into our yard. As a result of everyone’s quick action this wasn’t a big problem for us. I’m not certain how the neighbors fared, but I think they did okay also.
This is just another reminder that we are in for a long fire season this year.