We got called to a fire that ended up being about 12,000 acres before we headed in for the night. I've been on duty from 7 this morning and it is 11:03pm now - we just got to the hotel in the next town over and are going back to the fire line in the morning to try to get it contained tomorrow. It jumped our dozer line today, but we did manage to save most of the the town of Wheeler, TX - only 3 structures burned and 10 or so were damaged. The winds were horrific!! You could try to lay down against the wind and it would hold you up. We had up to 60 mph gusts - not good for trying to contain fire!!
Now, the shower is calling my name. Thank the Lord for protecting us out there today!! 3 local fire fighters were hospitalized, but will be fine. All our guys got out uninjured!! You can see that most of the fuel is tall, fine grass - the fire moves so fast through that!! We saved a bunch of cows and got to see a huge herd of deer run to safety. All in all, it's been a good fire, so far...
Smoke columns off the fire that jumped the river.
Kind of cool to see the sunset with the smoke columns going up...
The fire is RIGHT behind the hotel - we dug line in around the back of it and all the other buildings on that side of the highway.
Headed our way!!
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