Day 3: This is not news anyone wants to hear, or activity anyone wants to see. Yesterday afternoon, a fire started in Elbe Hills just over the other side of the ridge and roughly two miles to the north of me. It was a hot, windy day, and toward evening, it was determined that the risk of injury to firefighters was too great to continue battling it into the night, and the crews were withdrawn. This morning, the Dept. of Natural Resources sent them out again, using the pasture across the road from me as one of the staging areas for the incident. At least three helicopters are in use, two of which I've seen lift off dragging buckets, presumably to fill in a nearby lake for aerial drops. Several other pieces of equipment are also parked in the pasture. Ground crews and loading crews are operating from the area. The good news is that the wind direction remains such that it is carrying smoke and potential fire-spread away from my location. The bad news is that we have no precipitation forecast until the end of next week at the earliest. It is worth noting that I have recorded a mere 0.77" of precip, largely as fog/dew, in the last five and a half months. Months! That is a truly frightening statistic for the Pacific Northwe't. Although I don't expect the fire to spread this direction, I will have a go-bag packed in case Tippy and I need to evacuate.
No comments:
Post a Comment