Property not looking good to avoid wildfire

[Hatchdog]

Yikes! That would scare me.

Us too, glad I didn’t witness it personally. The fire is on the hill right above our place and had it continued to burn towards us it could have crossed the road and burned the guy who took the pic’s place too. For now this part of the fire is not active. Thumbs up here!

The Crown Creek fire and the Blackhawk fire to the north have burned together and now is considered one fire. There’s another large fire about 50 miles south too. This picture shows the two fires that burned together and the circle and arrow is our place. We’re on the fire side of the road. The orange circles show fire growth and it looks like there was some growth just south of our place.

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[220]

Hopefully weather continues to be kind to you and they can get it contained.
Fire we had in 2020 took 10 days to grow to 30,000 acres and then when we got catastrophic weather conditions grew to over 1 million acres in less than a day.

[220]

Any update Hatchdog? from what I could find online it does dont appear to have grown much over the past 24/48hrs, hopefully that means you are still safe.

[Hatchdog]

Hopefully weather continues to be kind to you and they can get it contained.
Fire we had in 2020 took 10 days to grow to 30,000 acres and then when we got catastrophic weather conditions grew to over 1 million acres in less than a day.

Man I remember those fires in Australia. That was awful.

Good news for me, the guy across the road called me yesterday with an update. He has remained at home except for one night and is keeping an eye on things. He told me that the day before yesterday he could see lots of smoke behind out place but no fire. Then that night he could hear blasting coming from the area behind us. Never heard of blasting for fire control. Also I’ve been watching online the community meetings the fire incident team has been holding. There is another one tonight. It looks like the team has a real solid fire break in between the fire and our property. I’m real interested in seeing what happened on the hillside behind us. Of course I’ll wait until the proper time to go exploring.

Overall due to favorable weather conditions and lots of hard work by the fire fighters the fire is getting under control. Stats show that as of yesterday it is 15% contained. My neighbor knows of one person who lost everything and another who lost his shop and all its contents.

[daytime dave]

Hatch, my thoughts are with you during this time. I hope it goes well for you.

[Hatchdog]

Thanks for the good wishes everybody, it looks like they may come to fruition. I look at the title of this post from just a day or two after the fire start and remember my emotions then. The fire was moving very fast right at our place and if it wasn’t for a fortunate change of the wind direction it would have burned the place up. We sure are feeling a lot more positive today and are thankful to both the weather and the awesome firefighters who have created our positive thoughts.

I watched last night’s update from the incident team and other than a couple of hot spots the fire is not gaining any more ground. Sadly the current report is 47 structures have been lost but this includes barns, shops and even chicken coops. To date seven homes have been lost but the inspection is not complete. For the size of this fire that’s a fortunate low number of homes but even one is too many.

I was scrolling thru some pictures this morning and found this picture from last September. I know exactly where this was taken and I’m sure this area is burned up. We use these roads for grouse hunting as this is on timber company land. I’m sure the firefighters used them also to access the fire and that had to be a great advantage for them.

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[Hatchdog]

I received notice from the Stevens County Emergency folks that the evacuation zones are starting to be reduced. Our place is still in level 3 Go Now but it’s just a stone throw from the dividing line between level 3 and 2 Be Prepared. That’s great news. The road is still closed due to high fire fighter traffic so I won’t drive up there just yet.

[daytime dave]

Still hoping the best for you.

[Hatchdog]

As of Friday our property is no longer in a level 3 evacuation. It remains in level 2 but that’s just due to the proximity to the actual fire line. Unless something drastic happens it looks like we are spared. As are all the folks who live in the area full time. Can’t express how grateful we are to the firefighters who worked so hard to control the fire. Current numbers are 14,000+ acres but only a few homes lost and additional outbuildings. Thankfully this is a pretty remote area where most homes are located on the main road with some up in the mountains living off grid.

[BigAl52]

Glad you were spared Hatch. Now get to plinkin an grillin

[Hatchdog]

Glad you were spared Hatch. Now get to plinkin an grillin

Now that’s some good advice.

[Hatchdog]

During the site issues we made a trip up to the property and took a drive into the burn area. It was nice to find a nice wide green area between out place and the fire line. However, the area that burned 14,000 + acres sure is devastated. Here are a few pics I took. Interesting right in the middle of the burn a couple hundred yards from the non-burned area I saw a grouse walking. Nice to see that! The only bright spot we saw.

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[220]

It will surprise you how quickly everything will bounce back.
Immediately after the fire we were in the middle of in 2020 that burnt well over 1 million acres you would have thought everything was gone forever. Kangaroos and wallabies that we had in the 100's were just not to be seen, but were back to similar number in 2-3 years, the winter/spring 6 months after the fire saw the most deer we have ever had and the best hunting.
3-4 years after we started seeing animals that we had never sighted locally previously.

[Hatchdog]

Yes, it’s going to be interesting to see the regrowth of the area. Already I saw some re-growth in the brush we locals call buck brush. I believe it’s a form of willow.

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[Hatchdog]

We took a ride into the burn yesterday and are very impressed with the clean up that’s happening. This is mostly timber company land so they are well equipped to do the clean up. Lot’s of trees cut for the mill and lots of junk piled up for some pretty impressive slash pile burns in the future. Some of these slash piles are as large as a two story house. Here’s some pics from yesterday.

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[brm4450]

Hoping for the best for you and everyone else in the vicinity. Being a firefighter for 25 years, I’ve fought grassland and forest fires, I’ve seen the results of those fires, so I wish you all the best.

[markiver54]

Pretty scary stuff Hatch. So glad you are safe.
Thoughts, prayers and thanks to all the brave firefighters.

[DsGrouse]

That was a fascinating read.

[Redthies]

That fire was a big one. We could see it from my house. We had a few much closer to home, and got a bit of an air show with a group of 5 Fireboss aircraft skimming water off the lake in front of our place. Their first fill they flew at about 100’ right over my property. There wasn’t much snow here this winter, so it’s going to be a scary summer. Already in the high 80*s here.

The view of Hatch’s fire from near my place:

[Hatchdog]

That’s a pretty “impressive” pic. Reminds me of my emotions during the fire. I too have had that 100’ overhead experience with the Fireboss planes. They are staged at the Deer Park airport which is about 3 miles west of my place. One day I was outside and like you five of them flew directly above me at a very low altitude. Impressive to say the least.


https://www.firebossllc.com/specificati ... rformance/