Burn Bans

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It’s dry here in the good ol SW MO.  We did get a nice shower over the weekend.  I’ve heard we received anywhere from 1/2 inch to 1.9 inches throughout the area, but I’m not sure what we got at home or what they received for sure at my parent’s house.  But for as dry as we are, for as below rain average as we are, things are dry.  We are in a county-wide burn ban, and for good reason.

A few weeks ago a fire broke loose about 7 miles from my parent’s house.  It not only took out grasslands but also took out a bunch of hay.  Hay that we really can’t spare around here these days.  Now if you know anything about hay bales, they’ll smolder for days on end.  Even if you drench them with water.  Not a good thing.

That was proven 2 days later when a second fire sparked up because of the smoldering hay bales.  It wound up taking out an entire Christmas tree farm, a few houses, and a bunch of fields in the process.

So after work last night I headed out to my parent’s house.  As I was driving down their outer road I passed by what looked like an older red fire engine.  Turns out it was a water truck.  Remember they live in the country, there aren’t fire hydrants around…

I thought, you know, that’s weird.  As I proceeded on, I was less than a half-mile from there house when I saw all kinds of fire engines around.  Oh CRAP!

Not really a sign you want to drive up upon.  Luckily, all that was burned up was fields and 70 hay bales.  No houses.  No neighbors.  No animals hurt.  Just fields and hay bales.  Even in the driest of conditions, those can be replaced easier than life, an animal, or really truly even a house.

One of the neighbors got REALLY lucky.  All around his barn and his stock trailer were burnt, but neither were touched.  There is also a berm house back in the timber, as far as I’m aware, it was ok as well.

The fire department asked the house that had the 70 hay bales go up if they could do a huge controlled burn so that if the sparks flew, nothing else would be able to catch on fire.  Carl gave them the OK.  Said burn it all, I don’t care, I just don’t want those bales to catch anything else on fire.

The funniest, if there is a funny to this story, part was one of the local Fire Chiefs was driving by on the interstate and was the one to call it into 911 dispatch.

It all started because a neighbor decided to burn a brush pile. He left it burning and went to town.  And this was the result.  So I’m going to say this people… We’re in a drought.  Don’t start a fire intentionally :).   Only bad things will come of it :).

Here are a few of the 138 photos I took.

Headed out to the backfield to do the controlled burn

 

This is the barn of the neighbor who was lucky his trailer and barn didn’t go up in flames.  There is black smoke all around both.

 

This was the furthest South it headed.  The house you see here, his whole backfield went up in flames.

 

This is where they started the controlled burn.  I was standing in the timber of my parent’s field right at the property line between them and Carl.

 

Once it took off there was smoke everywhere.

 

And if you can tell, the sun was basically blocked out.

0 thoughts on “Burn Bans

  1. Wow – how horrible and scary for everyone! So glad that no one lost any property or was injured! I bet that fire spread so fast – thank goodness they got it out pretty quick.

  2. Scary stuff, huh? We're in the midst of the worst drought here in over 50 years. There are fire bans in place. It was disappointing last week at the camp that we couldn't have a bonfire, but the risk of fire is very real here right now. 🙁

  3. Wow! That is awful. and that stupid person that burned their leaves!! Ugh.

    Cool shots and glad your parents and their land are okay

  4. People are so ignorant.
    The same thing happened in North Carolina a few years ago when some lady decided to burn her trash in her back yard during a burn ban.

    The worst though? In June, 20,000 plus acres burned when the Forestry department decided to do a clear burn on a windy day during a burn ban.

    Go figure.

    Fortunately (?) it was all in forested area, if I remember right, though they did have to evacuate families near-by.

    Glad to hear no one was hurt.

  5. Oh man…they are going after the person who started our fire with major arson charges even if it was an accident. There is MILLIONS of dollars in damage, so if the person is caught they are done for. Glad you guys didn't have any real damage!

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