There’s a saying here in the Shasta Valley, that we have four seasons—Fall, Winter, Spring and Smoke. The last few days we are living up to that saying. On July 5th the Klamathon Fire broke out. Pushed by high temps and winds it rapidly consumed a major portion of the town of Hornbrook before breaking out into the surrounding wilderness areas. At one point the fire was about 11 miles away from us and the first night the ominous orange glow of flame lit clouds was easily spotted over the mountain to the north of us. In the last 3 days the CalFire crews have been able to get a line around the southern perimeter of the fire but new evacuations continue to the east and we are about 3.8 miles from the next evac perimeter.
Living in close proximity to a fire has a lot of impacts besides the constant worry—monitoring information channels, worry each time the wind direction shifts. We have 3 fire fighting helicopters bedded down at night in the fields to the north of us. Each evening the copters come back around 8 p.m. for their evening rest. In a way it is comforting to have them here, between us and the fire. At least we know that they would not be parked in harm’s way. A little before 9 they start lifting off for their day of water and retardant dumping.
The town has become the usual fire town, population swollen by the fire crews, trucks and service vehicles. Everywhere you go people shopping for supplies, or in the case of the evacuees, clothes, personal essentials, pet food.
The smoke has been on again, off again. This morning clear and cool enough I could open the windows and cool the house down, listen to bird song. But the air is tinged with the smell of smoke and it looms ominously on the northern horizon.
Hopefully in the next few days the fire crews can make good progress. Right now the fire is at 35,200 acres and only 30% contained. Fingers crossed that we have some good luck with the weather....
I was going to add some images but Google does not recognize my photo album....*sigh*
