And then ... the fire

So, we're sitting in the rig, watching TV on Friday evening around 9 pm. Marg looks out the window and screams, "The mountain's on fire ... we have to call the police!"

For those of you who tend to worry about life's dramas, let me just say that everything is fine.

But we didn't know that at the time.

And I finally understood the concept of morbid fascination.

Our RV backs up to a small mountain, that ends, about one city block south, at a creek and a two-lane road. Cross the road and there's another ridge that's part of a mountain that goes on another 1/2 mile or so south. That mountain was completely on fire. In fact, by the time we saw it, the rest of the mountain had burnt to a crisp and only the ridge nearest us was on fire. And it was close. Separated from our part of the mountain, and therefore our home on wheels, by only a small country road, a creek, and some highly flammable tamarisk lining the shore.

Here's a photo:

Here's a video:

Note: The first rig in the video is ours.

The firefighters told us (and the group of campers that had gathered) that we had nothing to worry about, the fire wouldn't jump the road, and that they would be back-burning to stop the fire from advancing. Now I know what back-burning is about - the blaze suddenly tripled in size and looked twice as close (!). Yep, I learned about back-burning - starting another fire in front of the original fire so that they burn into each other and leave nothing for the fire to consume so it stops. Whatever, by morning, the fire was over, but for some isolated smoldering areas, nothing touched "our" mountain, and we didn't need to call the insurance company again.

So, we stood outside for a couple of hours and watched the burning, and worried, and inhaled enough smoke to cook a giant pork roast and a turkey. And, boy, did we smell.

But, our sincere thanks to the firefighters. I've never been that close to a wildfire, never worried about my property, and never truly appreciated the knowledge that professional (or volunteer) firefighters have that enables them to know when to spray water, or back-burn, or just wait it out. I feel safer knowing there's a fire truck just down the road.

Toby