Prairie Fire

Two weeks ago, Kev and I had run down to Mom's to work on her yard project. On our way home, we saw smoke northeast of Ashland. We knew the Englewood Volunteer Fire Department had already been on one fire that day, and we wondered if they'd get called out again...they did.

As we drove closer to home, the smoke kept getting bigger and bigger and darker and darker. There was also lightening occurring around us, and we're guessed the fire was started by lightening--always a risk on the prairie when it's dry...and it has been. We passed the Bucklin Volunteer Fire Department headed south to the fire, so we knew that it was a big fire.

We knew that any fire over here was going to be tough to put out. Lots of pastures, lots of canyons, and areas where you can't get a fire truck to, and lots of oil wells and storage tanks full of oil.

Sunday, we drove down through the area where they fire had been. It burned 4400 acres before the fire departments got it under control. I'm not even sure how many fire departments answered the call, but I know they had guys come from far western Kansas and Oklahoma. (Rural firefighters are great at helping each other out. They thrive on grass fires and get excited when they get called out.)

The day after the fire, this area got between 3 and 6 inches of rain, so it's already greened up nicely. I took these pictures on the Mt. Jesus road in Clark County--just north of Mt Jesus and just south of where we lived when I was a girl.

I did have to laugh at the fence. A brand-spankin' new fence...hedge posts...A nice tight fence...


The top of many posts were there, as were the bottoms...just nothing in between.

In a few weeks, you'll never know that a fire went through here...well, you won't unless they don't get that fence fixed!