Last night, I went to bed about 1130. At about 1140, just as I was falling asleep the power goes out. All went very quiet. No fans, no HVAC, no light from the alarm clock, nothing. I start getting concerned. There is no storm and no warning of a planned outage. I looked around outside, to see what I can see. Suddenly, 3 gun shots ring out coming from my neighbors direction. I had a thought... 'The police were probably chasing a bad guy, who lost control on the windy dirt road. He smacked into a power pole before fighting with the police, who shot at him.' That was my instant thought of the situation. I cannot see anything, and it wouldn't be the first time someone has crashed into a power pole on my road while running from the cops.
A minute later, my phone rings. It's another neighbor. He is in somewhat of a panic, and states "FIRE! Get there quick!"
I jump into my work clothes I had taken off minutes before all this. Grabbed my pulaskie and a shovel, jumped into my truck, and drove to where my neighbor told me the fire was. When I arrived, there were two other neighbors standing there, looking at the tree. The one who called me was screaming through the forest on his 4-wheeler, I can see his headlights coming down the trail. When he got there, we started working a firebreak around the fire.
The first fire truck showed up about 10 minutes later. They started putting water on the flames and stood shoulder to shoulder with us and helped us contain the fire. Within about 45 minutes we had the fire completely contained and mostly out. We let the fire crews, who were very numerous by this time, deal with the hot spots.
In speaking with my neighbors, I asked, "what was with the shooting?" A new neighbor who recently moved into the area didn't have anyone's contact info, so he shot 3 times, to signal distress. Kudos to him!
The fire started by a tree falling across the road, hitting the powerlines, sparking a fire. The mystery is how the tree fell. It was a healthy, live, large ponderosa pine. No cut marks, and snapped the truck about 6 feet up. No other trees seemed to be damaged. There was no wind. Maybe a large bear?!
We waited for the power company to come out before dealing with the tree. At this point, I went home. The danger was over, the fire was out. I heard the saw start up about 20 minutes after I got home. They ran for about an hour. By 7am, the power was back on. The fire burned about half an acre. Thankfully there was no wind. Everything is extremely dry and the fire spread fast. But we were quick and efficient, working by spotlights and headlamps. The quick response of the volunteer fire department, mixed with the willingness of the neighbors to get their hands dirty, the fire didn't stand a chance. Made for a very long night. But it does serve as a reminder that we need to be prepared. To fight, or run... or both.
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
Photos were taken after the fire was out. I didn't think about taking photos when I arrived.
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