April 9th Wildfire Pics

[forestryworks]

had several fires here in Montague county starting around 1:15pm April 9th.

the first fire was 400yds from my house and was headed to town. I ran home to turn on the sprinklers and get the dog and saws, and by then the winds shifted to from the south, and sent the fire north - bad thing. it had plenty of fuel as it headed north, and northeast.

two schools were evacuated, along with 4 or 5 towns evacuated. Around 60-70 homes or structures were lost and 42,000 acres burned.

and the fire got really hot in some places. the pics i took was in the area that got hit the hardest.

 

[forestryworks]

 

[forestryworks]

an area that wasn't thinned or burned. this is how badly choked the majority of the woods are around here.

 

[forestryworks]

 

[forestryworks]

 

[forestryworks]

 

[BC_Logger]

well you wont have to do any fuel management this season

any out buildings dammaged

do you know how it started

 

[forestryworks]

well you wont have to do any fuel management this season

any out buildings dammaged

do you know how it started

one was arson and a few were cause by arcing of powerlines that got blown down. winds that day were 50+ mph.

 

[mile9socounty]

Nice pictures Forest. 400 yards from your place? Hot damn thats close. Looks like ya'lls fire season has already started. Make that big money!

 

[2dogs]

Glad you got through it all OK.

 

[HS Climber]

Nice Pics
Sounds like you got away being a lucky one

 

[bogiemsn]

Yep, when you see all that white ash on the ground that's a good indication that the fire was very hot. Too, it would have to be to burn through that greened up brush. A lot of those trees are not going to make it. If you wandering around out there be careful of trees that have had their roots burned through. That area is gonna me snagtastic.

Even up here in WI we've had burn bans and a number of smaller wildfires. temps in the 50-60s with RH in the teens and twenties. It's gotta be a lot worse down in TX.

 

[forestryworks]

Yep, when you see all that white ash on the ground that's a good indication that the fire was very hot. Too, it would have to be to burn through that greened up brush. A lot of those trees are not going to make it. If you wandering around out there be careful of trees that have had their roots burned through. That area is gonna me snagtastic.

Even up here in WI we've had burn bans and a number of smaller wildfires. temps in the 50-60s with RH in the teens and twenties. It's gotta be a lot worse down in TX.

snags indeed. i always wear a hardhat when wandering around out there.

sadly, and ignorantly, not too many people are gonna want stuff cut.

will put an ad out and see.

the day the fires started, winds were 40-50mph, with a dryline, which had the RH at 5%.

add to the fact that no one does any fuels management or thins their woodlots.

 

[redprospector]

snags indeed. i always wear a hardhat when wandering around out there.

sadly, and ignorantly, not too many people are gonna want stuff cut.

will put an ad out and see.

the day the fires started, winds were 40-50mph, with a dryline, which had the RH at 5%.

add to the fact that no one does any fuels management or thins their woodlots.

Yep, I know all too well how property owners are in that area (or close too it anyway). There won't be much rehab done, unless you wanted to do it for nothing. Even then you'd probably have to beg the property owners to let you do it.
Might be a good time to consider a small saw mill.

Andy

 

[forestryworks]

Yep, I know all too well how property owners are in that area (or close too it anyway). There won't be much rehab done, unless you wanted to do it for nothing. Even then you'd probably have to beg the property owners to let you do it.
Might be a good time to consider a small saw mill.

Andy

considered that for a bit.

the only saw mill in the area mills creosote logs (telephone poles?)

and most people would rather go to ace and buy that stuff.

maybe it's time to move. or go finish forestry school.

 

[sILlogger]

what area are you in? i drove all the way across texas last week, el paso to texarkana, 850 miles in tx. and i seen some of the smoke. was i close to any of it?

 

[jimbo@stn23]

Thanks for the pics as well Forest. Brings back some memories of a good ripper that was close to home a few years back.

 

[Metals406]

Wow! Glad you came out okay on that deal! We're getting pretty warm already here... Makes a guy wonder if we'll have a bad fire season?

 

[forestryworks]

what area are you in? i drove all the way across texas last week, el paso to texarkana, 850 miles in tx. and i seen some of the smoke. was i close to any of it?

that's a hell of a drive ain't it?

i'm in bowie, about an hour NW of fort worth.

you were about an hour south of my fires when you passed through abilene, ft. worth, etc.

if you saw smoke in abilene then you saw some of the young county and jack county fire.

hope you didn't breathe that bad air!