FIRE!

[Pitspitr]

[Abilene]

yikes!

[Major 2]

Your Place ? is contained yet ?

[Pitspitr]

Yes, Sorry, I should have supplied some context.

This was a Prescribed/Controlled Burn. It involved 5 neighbors. We burned about 1500 acres. We lit it Friday afternoon. (4-18-25) It burned nearly all of my pasture. It was nearly 2 miles long North to South and over 1 1/2 miles wide East and West. The perimeter was over 9 1/2 miles and took me over 45 minutes to drive around in my Kawasaki Mule.

I would consider it as a very successful burn. We got a really good cedar tree kill and (mostly) didn't burn anything we didn't want burned. The exception would be when it jumped the irrigation canal and burned some cornstalks. (shown in the 3rd picture) All of the GAF buildings and props were saved. The picture below is zoomed in and shows the GAF campsite from about a mile north.


Saturday afternoon some cow turds flared up and the fire jumped the blackline on the north end. My neighbor called me and I got there as soon as I could. When I got there, we had all the hotspots put back out in a few minutes.

As of last night, just before dark there were still a few fires burning out in the middle. Today is a Red Flag Day, so if we can get through the day without a flare up near the perimeter, we should have it whipped.

[Johnson Barr]

Gawd I miss those days! Excellent work my dear General. Within days the new grass will draw all the sweet grass grazers. Not called 'Elk Candy' foolishly to be sure. Top killing Cedar's always good. Greening the prairie with a lovely spray of long dormant wild flowers will be the ultimate reward. Please post pics next week. -J.Barr; prior paid arsonist (Mitigation Ignition Specialist) for the Government; NPS, USFS, BLM, BIA and my homely Texas Forest Service and Nature Conservancy.   

[Pitspitr]

Not called 'Elk Candy' foolishly to be sure.

Speaking of---I think I saw one while patrolling the perimeter yesterday evening

It's so dry, I hope it greens up that soon. We really need some rain

[River City John]

Cool!

[Drydock]

Be interesting to see the changes when I get up there in a few weeks.

[Major 2]

I wonder if that was what Del was experiencing and kept him hunkered down 
Looking forward to the new growth pictures.

[Sagebrush Burns]

Congratulations.  It is always sweet when a planned/prescribed fire works as planned.  They don't always (ask me how I know - 20+ years on wildland fire crew in Colorado).  If we weren't putting them out, we were lighting them!

[Abilene]

Congratulations.  It is always sweet when a planned/prescribed fire works as planned.  They don't always (ask me how I know - 20+ years on wildland fire crew in Colorado).  If we weren't putting them out, we were lighting them!

Well that sure explains your alias!     

[Major 2]

Congratulations.  It is always sweet when a planned/prescribed fire works as planned.  They don't always (ask me how I know - 20+ years on wildland fire crew in Colorado).  If we weren't putting them out, we were lighting them!

Testify, Years ago, the Fla. Forest Service had one get away from them.
A drop in humidity caused a controlled burn near I-4 to turn into a wildfire.
  Smoke choked I-4 and caused a massive pileup; some 70 cars trucks & Semi's involved.
The ensuing wreck cause vehicle fires which killed 4 and injured 30 more.

I fellow I worked with was involved in his Pickup.
He had two broken legs and an arm; he had to be rescued from the truck with a Jaws of life.
He returned to work 14 months later, a mear shell of his former 225 Lbs.
But, later had to retire due to disability. 

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2008/01/11/state-s-role-in-i-4-pileup-questioned/

[Pitspitr]

Thank you Andy and Mark. Congratulations wishes coming from guys who used to do this for a living really means a lot. BTW, My hat's off to you guys. I don't think I could do this for a living...at least for sure not at this stage of my life, maybe when I was younger, but not now.

I can't take much of the credit for the success. We have a really good team of guys who burn pastures around here. They seldom have one get away from them. They work really hard at it and know what they're doing. But as you say, everybody loses one once in a while.

Yesterday afternoon was a Red Flag Day with gusty winds and low humidity. It did flare back up, but it was out in the middle, so it was just a matter of keeping an eye on it.

I'm pretty sure everything is out cold on my place except for a few acres north of the deer blind. We're supposed to get rain this weekend and IF we do, I'll be a happy camper!

[DeaconKC]

Congratulations on a successful burn. Looks really well executed!

[Johnson Barr]

Coloring within the 'lines' is pretty much mandatory. Bonus acres are frowned upon. 

[Sagebrush Burns]

I'm way past it now, but it is intensely interesting work.  Very satisfying (and very frustrating) work. Also hard, dirty and potentially dangerous work.  It helps if you are (like me) a raging pyro.  I always loved being close to the flames...

[Pitspitr]

I'm way past it now, but it is intensely interesting work.  Very satisfying (and very frustrating) work. Also hard, dirty and potentially dangerous work.  It helps if you are (like me) a raging pyro.  I always loved being close to the flames...

It made me a "Nervous Nellie". I wanted so badly for it to go right and not cause problems. I would add exhausting to "hard, dirty and potentially dangerous" I work up before my alarm Friday morning thinking of all the last-minute details I needed to take care of before we lit it up. When I went to bed "that night" my alarm had gone off and quit playing Saturday morning. I got a few hours of sleep and went back out. It was 1:30 Sunday morning before I got any more sleep. I can't imagine fighting a big fire like you guys did where that was the schedule for weeks on end.

I helped with a couple of others this spring and they were more "enjoyable," but still, I can't say that I "enjoyed" them. As you say, I do get a sense of satisfaction from it though.

Coloring within the 'lines' is pretty much mandatory. Bonus acres are frowned upon. 

I guess somebody had one get away from them up by Valentine/Johnstown this weekend and burned 14,000 acres. The last I knew it still wasn't under control. 

[Abilene]

A month ago the "Crabapple Fire" just north of Fredericksburg, Texas burned 5000 acres. Lasted a couple days.  Mike Harvey said it made it to his fence line.   

[Pitspitr]

More on the Johnstown fire:

https://sandhills.newschannelnebraska.com/story/52711585/prescribed-burn-breaks-containment-near-johnstown-burns-1200014000-acres

https://outdoornebraska.gov/about/press-events/news/crews-working-to-contain-escaped-fire-west-of-johnstown/