On my way from work to the barn tonight I noticed a large plume of smoke in the sky. Unfortunately, not too rare of an occurrence here in southern California. As I drove along the freeway I started wondering where the fire was burning, and as I drove further along I started worrying that it was burning in the area where I keep my horses. After a couple of phone calls it was indeed burning very close the the barn! I couldn't get there any faster than the heavy traffic would allow, and it seemed like it was taking forever! As I got closer and closer the smoke cloud grew. The sky was filled with helicopters and planes. Six air tankers and five water-dropping helicopters were trying to halt the flames at a ridge top not far from the barn. Chad and I were ready to load up the horses at a moments notice, but as the sun set the fire seemed to lay down. At a press conference tonight, officials said we should be safe for the night because the fire was burning in the opposite direction.
The fire has grown to at least 250 acres, with no estimate on containment, authorities said tonight. More than 600 firefighters are battling the blaze near Morris Dam, the U.S. Forest Service said. But air operations have been suspended during the nighttime hours, officials said. The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
I am on notification duty...the electricity at the barn is shut off so no TVs or computers to get updates. If I get any updated information, I will call them and inform via cell phone. There are people that live on the property, so I am not too worried right now. We have been through this before and had to evacuate ALL 80 or so horses. I am hoping we do not have to evacuate this time.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Fire in the canyon
Posted by Five O'Clock Somewhere at 9:21 PM
Labels: Firefighter, Morris Fire
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7 comments:
OMG! I hope that fire stays far away from your barn!! That would terrify me!
You must be at witts end...and will not sleep a wink all night!!!
I can not imagine anything worse than this! 2 of my "adopted kids" had to evacuate their barn last year for the Chino area fires!!!
Very scary! Hope they get it under control soon. When you had to evacuate, where did the horses go?
calumBest of luck! it is so scary to have fires aound you.
Those plumes are ominous and always scary. Last summer there were so many fires up here it made our head spin. And then the helicopters with water buckets were flying directly over our house for two weeks. Ella learned her baby version of helicopter in two days... Keep your trailer hooked up and ready I always say. (if you can)
I hope they get that fire knocked down and you don't have to evacuate the horses. You're in my prayers.
Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts! When we had to evacuate last time the horses went either to Santa Anita Racetrack; a relatively nearby equestrian center than hosts large horse shows and has no permanent residents, and a large number of permanent stables, OR a private facility that had extra space. As they loaded the horses up on the trailers my trainer marked thier hooves with a magic marker the initials of our barn. Amazingly they all made it to safety and no one got lost! There were quite a few surrounding barns also evacuated so lots and lots of horses relocated, and it was amazingly organized!
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