Flat Wild Fire threat and I have been Freaking out.
We are NOT in the evacuation zones, not even in the get ready, But I know how fast things can change. One hot ember and the game changes …. When the Flat Fire started Thursday, I saw the smoke column and realized that it was around the old town of Geneva. Knowing that there have been many fires in that area I knew that the fire would be fast and hot burning through light fuels. By Friday it took off as I expected, but I did not expect it to triple in size. On the way home from Bend I thought what if this really does head to my area, I need a plan. It is about 20 +/- from my home and has to cross though some rough terrain farm fields and a highway. Then more canyon BLM areas. but it is that sneaky hot ember I worry about. The thing is I have 4 vehicles to move, and which vehicle are we not going to move if things go bad. So I came up with a plan, if we do end up in an evacuation level 1 get ready, we will take the vintage motorhome and move it to a safe spot in town. (If need be, we can live in it….) Then come back and start getting ready for the next level of evacuation….. Hoping and praying it doesn’t get that far. This morning, I noticed that the deck had a lot of fine white ash from the fire…it looked like we had had a light snow, but I knew better. Time to make sure that we could move the vintage motorhome if we did go into a level one… We haven’t started that motorhome since we parked it in the new shed and when I tried to start it NOTHING…. At the same time I was dismantling my sprinkler system and manually trying to get my flowerbeds watered, finding out why some of the areas in my flowerbeds were not getting watered. Trying to change out sprinkler heads and faucet connectors….and making sure that leaky hoses were getting water to the waterlines…. and I was moving little things that could be fire hazards if an ember were to land in it and trying to move bigger things like the older Subaru which also hadn’t been moved in about 4 months. The older Subaru also didn’t start… and trying to get an update on the fire which is now over 18,000 acres but the web sites are still saying 3,300. The evacuation levels have changed, and the fire is within 10 miles of my home. Again, a long way away, but… things are not going right and I can’t get current information. My housemate has gone to Redmond and picked up a newer battery for the RV and some 20 ft jumper cables, I am running around trimming flower seed heads because they are within 4 ft of the house…. pulling weeds that have outlived their usefulness as a green fire resistive plant. Doing the watering the best I can with a system that works for general watering but not so much fire protection. I need to get the humidity up around the house. I photographed around the house showing areas cleared of brush and weeds around the base of the house later in the afternoon….. I have done what I can and decided that I could photo the beautiful sunset. Because what the smoke gives us is beautiful sunsets.
So now I am calm I have done what I can and hope that the fire stays contained up north of us. It is still just over 18,000 acres and growing.
Except… I got a call from a neighbor who briefly talked to the local Fire Chief. If things continue as they have the fire has the potential to move into the southern end of our fire district maybe bypassing our neighborhood but possibly moving into another neighborhood I had lived in for several years. I know that one hot ember is all it will take while the fire might move southwest the ember could float anywhere should the wind come up. A trip to Walmart and I came home with more garden hoses.
That was yesterday the fire has is now nearly 22,000 acres and we are as ready as we can be. I have watered my place around the house and done my best to raise the humidity level, hopefully slowing the chance of a fire at my place. I have made sure my important papers are in a quick to grab fire safe, and the motorhome is ready to go at the level 1 get ready be aware, and I have prayed to Mother Nature to keep the fire in its current boundaries….
To be clear this is not my first fire here in Central Oregon, and even to myself it is funny to watch me freak out, but I do it anyway. When I came here in the early 90’s we had a fire just half a mile from the house we were building and then the big Aubry Hall fire hit that summer. When I moved here permanently, I joined the local Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter. I have worked on many fires both brush and structure, and I know the game…. Still I Freak OUT
Deanne Dements Photography 