Fire!

Well yesterday was another interesting day. My Dad used to say there was never a dull day in Elk Park. That was the case yesterday. I was busy taking care of some e-mails and bills around 9:30 am yesterday and I looked out the window to see how what the smoke from all the fires here in the Northwest was doing.

I noticed a finger of smoke coming from up on the ridge line behind the house. It was like “Oh Shit” that looks like the start of a fire. I went and looked out the spotting scope my folks have in their front room. Yes it was definitely a fire! This was likely started by lightning. We had some pretty vicious lightning and there was one the night before this showed up.

I got with Mom and we called the Forest Service and got them notified. Then we started calling the landowners and neighbors that had property/places in the general vicinity of the fire namely my cousin John and the family that has a cabin with small lake/pond behind the folks house.

About a hour and half later there was a helicopter flying over the area assessing the fire. Shortly after that a second helicopter with a water bucket showed up. He started dipping water out of the lake/pond and then flying it up the hill and dropping water on it. I guess they also had three fire fighters repel out on ropes to start putting a fire line around the fire. They named the fire the Big Gulch fire. The chopper made 5 water drops on the fire and that seemed to knock it down. It was fun to watch.

Unfortunately there is a lot of fuel in that area. Due to the pine beatle kill, there is a lot of dried pine needles in the area and also blown down dead trees. The area is very rocky and due to the dead trees it would have been difficult for fire fighters to walk to the fire.

We were wondering how many brook trout the helicopter picked up from the lake/pond. The pond has a lot of fish in it. So the three guys that got up there probably could have a fish fry. Anyway they got it contained and that is good.

Yesterday evening, I met Jim and Elaine and we played 9 holes at the muni Par-3 and then we went up and met up with Colleen to listen to my friend CD’s band “Slovie’s Love”. They were playing at the Milwaukee Tavern or some people may remember it as The Copper King Saloon/Opry House.

Nice evening to end a wierd day.