Fires today.

[backhoeboogie]

North East of Granbury put out a lot of smoke today for several hours. We all knew the fires were coming. Calman has been talking about our fears here in the forum.

Sadly, a lot of folks probably lost fences/homes/barns/hay and their livelihood today. There was smoking heading south for hours and hours.

 

[Calman]

Well bhb we all knew it was going to happen just didn't know when.
Saw a pretty good bunch of smoke west of me today also.

Cal

 

[kenny thomas]

Sure hope you guys get some moisture but it does not look good. Jan. and Feb. don't look good either.
Putting my name on the availability list begining Jan. 1 so I will be bringing the first of our crews if anyone needs us.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Bad deal Boogie, its as dry as a powder house here right now. Wouldn't take much to have one heck of a fire a going.

 

[Calman]

Sure hope you guys get some moisture but it does not look good. Jan. and Feb. don't look good either.
Putting my name on the availability list begining Jan. 1 so I will be bringing the first of our crews if anyone needs us.

Thats certainaly appreciated Kenny.We will need all the help we can get.Last fire through here the grass was knee high and dry like now and we had 40mph wind.Just aint much stopping a fire like that. We we're lucky fire only got about 40 acres of woods and 30 bales of hay.Just as it reached our field the winds changed to the opposit direction and blew back over the already burned.

Cal

 

[kenny thomas]

Calman, boogie, or anyone that has been through this before. For some who have not seen this please give them some pointers on things to do that might save them or their property.
Calman, if I remember correctly in the winter of 2006, somewhere west of you the fires burned over a million acres in just a week or so. Sure hope this does not happen again.

 

[jedstivers]

Just remember fire has to have fuel. Get the grass down around the good stuff.

 

[kenny thomas]

Exactually. Disc around everything, the wider the better. Also along the roads between the road and the fields.

 

[kenny thomas]

FYI
Southern Area: Significant fire potential is forecast to be above normal through March over Texas,
western Oklahoma, Florida and portions of Georgia and the Carolinas. Below normal potential is
anticipated over central portions of the Southern Area with normal potential elsewhere. La Niña
impacts should result in dry conditions across the areas depicted as above normal fire potential.
Texas and Oklahoma will likely see periods of high fire potential during strong winds and low humidity
events that are typical during January and February.

Hope they are wrong.

 

[I luv herfrds]

fuel, weather and terrain. The fire triangle.

Get every water tank full. Portable ones with a pump and spray nozzel especially. Also any empty stock tanks. Sounds crazy, but it will save a lot of time drafting water into fire trucks. Wading pools are fair game too.
Keep grasses around homes as short as possible.
Like Kenny said do a fire break around your places. Keep it up.

Does not matter how short the grass is a good strong wind will burn hot and high in just a couple inches of grass.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[Angus Cowman]

Was out in western Oklahoma in the late 80s and we had some pretty good fires
I spent many hrs on a tractor and disc and a dozer cutting fire line trying to stay slow it down
they finally got it down without too many acres burning by plowing and dozing a a good bit of land in front and on both sides winds were hard enough the fires were jumping 1/4 of a mile sometimes
it was all started by a guy who parked his truck in some tall grass and the catalytic convertor started the grass on fire
he had no cell phone back then and by the time he walked to get help over 200 acres were on fire

so watch where you park

 

[backhoeboogie]

Discing would probably be detrimental right now because the wind would blow the soil away. Those sandy fields are bone dry. Each time a cow takes a step dust blows. I am split up by two paved roads and one caliche road that serve as fire breaks already. There are also some lanes going through with a touch of grass in them. The wheat I planted gave me one center field that was plowed. Burmuda filled in strong in the early fall rain and the wheat came up. There's not really enough "grass" to provide a huge amount of fuel and the wheat will not make much anyway now.

The disc is ready to go and strategically placed. The sprayer could be filled in a hurry and provide a spray of water. It is only a 150 gallon variety but that is a lot of water for a grass fire. The battery on it is charged and a spare deep cycle battery is available as well. Stored round bales are split up such that not all of my eggs are in one basket. I would hate to lose any hay at this point because I may have to feed it going into spring if rains don't come.

There are some old fences that still have cedar posts. It would be a shame to lose those. I have not used wood for fence posts since getting totally burned out in '90. If I did get burned out, I have places I could put the cows where there are no wood posts.

 

[Kingfisher]

Beat from the " black" and get a fire blanket.

 

[TexasBred]

TV just showed fire burning in Decatur, Tx right no. Looked like one house already gone up in flames and another burning in Johnson County (just south of Ft. Worth)

 

[I luv herfrds]

BHB fill your sprayer.

Had a fire started out here a few years ago that took out 2200 acres. re-ignited around 3am and took out another 300. Re-ignited AGAIN and take out another 10 acres.
That was the "Toilet Paper Arsonist" fire.

As soon as it is hot and dry nobody leaves any tank empty.

I've been to enough fire training to know to never take it for granted and t expect the worse.
Saw one fire down in Arizona that was used as an example in a class. It didn't look like anything would even burn there. If I remember it correctly it killed 2 people.