From my front porch

[Love Life]

Looks like summer is here in Nevada.

[quilbilly]

it is way too early for this kind of thing. Hope you didn't have to evacuate

[Love Life]

I was lucky and didn't have to evacuate. The wind changed directions and we were spared. About 45 minutes before I took these pictures it was at the end of my street and headed my way. I would have taken pictures then, but I was helping my neighbor get the horses loaded up. You should see it now at night. It is beautiful with it's raw power.

[SciFiJim]

Do they have any idea yet what caused it? We get fires in the mountains here. A lot of times it is caused by idiots being idiots. I would like to see the punishment increased for causing a fire. Like making them personally liable for the entire expense of putting it out. A lot of fires cost millions to fight.

[a.squibload]

The Hewlett Canyon fire (CO, this week) was started
by a camper's stove. Wonder how they managed that?

[Love Life]

The wind isn't helping. As of this morning it was still heading north east down through smith valley. It has been a very dry winter. Homes down there have been evacuated. Below is a link to a news story on it.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/54171189-68/fire-homes-burn-authorities.html.csp

[Hardcast416taylor]

I heard today that we have a forest fire in our U.P. at Seney state park. This is on the South/East side of Lake Superior and about straight up from the Mackinaw bridge. Right now they are blaming lighting as the ignition cause. Real dry for this time of year.Robert

[firefly1957]

My area in Michigan is dry too not even getting a good dew in the morning which is not normal.

[leadman]

There are several large fires burning here in Az.
Just about all the open land is closed to shooting and other activities.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

it would seem like more places would try and create fire breaks around developments and houses like 100-300 yard wide no vegetation strips between houses and the hills

here we have a lot of brush fires in rural areas , our firemen spend more time on brush fires than house fires very different from the city firemen around here who almost never see a brush fire.

the local firemen use a lot of back burning , i don't hear much about this being used in other places maybe it is and i just don't hear about it

they also do a lot of controlled burning here in the spring it burns up the previous years vegetation and while making for better prairie a large effort is put on restoring our native prairie it also removes that tinder dry material from burning at worse time


glad you didn't have to evacuate , it just seems in all our modern marvels and millions of dollars spend fighting fires each year more would be done to limit were they can burn to , again maybe it is done and i just never hear about it.

[sparky45]

[QUOTE=GREENCOUNTYPETE;1720822]it would seem like more places would try and create fire breaks around developments and houses like 100-300 yard wide no vegetation strips between houses and the hills

here we have a lot of brush fires in rural areas , our firemen spend more time on brush fires than house fires very different from the city firemen around here who almost never see a brush fire.



Well, we CAN'T upset the greenies and we must protect the endangered Mice, Rats, and Snakes. Humans don't count for much these days.

[Hamish]

"it would seem like more places would try and create fire breaks around developments and houses like 100-300 yard wide no vegetation strips between houses and the hills"

The erosion problems far outwiegh the benefits I'm afraid.

In '72 part of my Scout troop ended up being helo'd off Mt. Charleston west of Vegas. The rest of us literally ran down the mountain looking at it coming at us from the side. Very cool stuff to a kid. Not so cool as a volunteer firefighter. Hope all are well LL.

[lbaize3]

I live in a brick home with a metal roof. When I bought my property, Hurricane Rita helped me push the trees (except for a few) to the back of my land. I am pretty sure we would survive a forest or brush fire here. There was a burn ban in effect most of last year due to the drought. I have no idea if we will need to have burn bans this year.

Glad your property was spared!

[quilbilly]

This is going to be a strange weather summer all the way around. I do albacore tuna alerts for my coastal resort customers in summer and I have never seen the eastern Pacific warm up so fast as in the last couple weeks. On the other hand, the Arctic ice pack in the Bering Sea hasn't been this far south or hasn't been this slow to retreat during spring in the last hundred years. Who knows what the weather will do this summer in North America with a weird situation like this.

[firefly1957]

Earlier in the year I remember a news story about Alqueda (sp) putting out a booklet on the most effective time and places to start fires . If this was happening would it be reported??? OR WOULD OUR "FREE PRESS" cover for our "marginally documented" president?