Monday, April 19, 2010

FIRE

A fire started in the Natural Grasslands behind our house somewhere between 3 and 4 PM. I was just putting hamburgers on the BBQ when I noticed a whole bunch of people gathered in the school parking lot...I looked to my left and Holy Shit! The fire was only about 200 or so yards away..the wind was blowing at an angle away from our house, but in the direction of all the houses that continued along the road to the west of us..which meant they were in immediate danger. Some fire fighters had to be called from the Wanuskewin fire to get this one under control.


Dale was at work and I had already called him to tell him about it...he said not to worry, it sounded like our house was not going to be affected. Once the flames were getting to about 20 feet high and closer to our house, I frantically called him back and told him to come home...I was panicked and worried....I had begun to throw clothes into garbage bags and was thinking of everything I needed to salvage. In the meantime I still had food cooking and didn't know whether to feed the kids or get them out of the house. I wasn't thinking straight. Thank goodness Jason showed up to see how we were doing...he got the hose hooked up and started to water behind our fence. I phoned Cindy and Steve and they immediately came over as well.
Finally a firefighter walked our way and told us that they figured the fire could come close to us, but the worst that would happen is that we'd have a melted fence and not to worry. Finally, Dale arrived home...the boys went on the roof to keep an eye on the fire.




This picture is of the fire about 3 houses away from us and just in front of the Meewasin Fence. This is what they were battling first along with the area further west of us.....that's why they hadn't come anywhere near us...these houses had the fire right up to their fences!


The firefighters then came back to our fence and told us that they were getting 911 calls from the other side of the grasslands....the fire was now blowing in that direction...he told us that if the fire got to the creekbed just in front of us, we were to call 911, give our house # and he'd know that they needed to get back to us right away; if the fire got past that creekbed and hit the bigger trees right in front of our neighbours house, then our homes would be in great danger.


Here's a picure of the wildlife moving away from the fire.



Here's our buddy Steve Shannon making an on-line broadcast to his radio station to describe what was happening.






We were just coming back from a quick bike ride to the school to check things out there when we saw this fire truck pulling up in front of our house. Dale yelled to us that the fire had hit the creekbed, so he had put the call in to 911. Within seconds of his phone call, the truck was there and the backhoe had made it's way over to dig things up and smother the flames.


These pics are about 50 yards from our back fence.






Thank goodness everything turned out alright. The flames are out, but alot of the natural grasslands is now charred black. Thanks to all the great firefighters...they saved alot of homes and thanks to my wonderful, wonderful friends who dropped everything to come to my emotional rescue.

Kristy, if your husband was out there, then personally thank him for me...if he wasn't on duty today, then tell him to thank all of his co-workers out there that did such a great job!

5 comments:

Kari said...

Tammi if you need to come to our house today... I hears all the comotion at 6am... and the radio said it had started up again.... phone me on my cell... if you need a reminder of my code to get it....

Anonymous said...

Wow! Ryan wasn't at that fire yesterday he was at the one @ Wanuskewin all day. He worked overtime and was pretty darn tired when he got home...I'll give him the message though.

Anonymous said...

Holy shit is right! I would be freakin' out! So glad you and your family are all okay and your house too! The secretary at Jay's work lost their house last year in a freak fire accident (fertilizer in a rubber maid bin ignited) and lost everything! So sad! They are looking at the bright side and building their dream home now, but wow!

Laura

Jenn said...

Wow Tammi! That is just crazy! I would have been freaked out too! I`m so glad you`re all safe. Despite all the chaos you got some fabulous pictures and a story that will last a lifetime!

Jerri-Lea said...

Glad that everything turned out okay!! What a frightening time for you and your family.