Follow up on the fire

Just to close out yesterday's story about the woods fire, as night fell the temperatures on Elk Mountain dropped into the 30s and the humidity rose to 45%, a combination that helped the fire go to sleep for the night.  By that time, a fireline had been dug with bulldozers and hand tool crews completely around the perimeter of the fire and the fire was allowed to burn itself out.

Many firefighters were involved in the effort, including 7 stations from Buncombe County and 3 stations from Asheville city.  (Several other county stations were also called to backfill the Reems Creek station.)  A large number of wildland firefighters from the N.C. Forest Service also responded.  Some of the special assets that were called included a state police helicopter that circled until the fire was contained.  The ground crews were having trouble seeing which directions the fire was spreading because of the large amount of smoke, but the helicopter crew was able to tell the crews where the fire was headed and which houses were in danger. The Forest Service also brought in bulldozers to plow a fire line across the ridge top to keep the fire from blowing over to the other side on the mountain.  Crews using rakes and chain saws worked the left and right flanks of the fire to clear fire lines to keep the fire from moving laterally. Engines were also sent to each of the threatened houses to clear perimeters around the homes. Those crews were also prepared to coat the houses in fire resistant foam if the fire moved their way.  In the end, the fire was stopped by the fire lines before it got to the houses.  The terrain was very steep and rugged, posing extra risks for the crews working the lines.  Buncombe County EMS deployed their special ops medic team, trained and equipped with special climbing gear and back-pack carried medical supplies, up near the fire lines, but fortunately they had no firefighter injuries to treat.

Luckily for Norris, he arrived a little late to the party, but was assigned the job of helping to establish the incident command post.  Buncombe County sent one of their command buses to the site to house the incident command team and Norris was assigned the job of establishing the communications nets.  Separate radio nets were set up for the structure protection units and for the fire line units. Complicating the communications problems were the combination of city, county, and state resources, all using separate radio systems.   Except for the Forest Service crews, all the Buncombe and Asheville units were cleared from the scene before 10pm.  The Forest Service crews were back on the scene this morning doing mop up.

Here are some links to TV stories related to the fire.  The first story covers the Wednesday fire:
7 acre wood fire

The video was taken fairly early in the fire before it reached its full size, but you can see that several large homes were not far above the fire.

This second video was done today following yet another woods fire in our area (which really isn't mentioned much in the story).  It features some footage of the Reems Creek FD and some brief comments from the chief about the dangers of burning when the temperatures are warm and the ground cover is so dry.
fire danger from dry conditions

This would have been a more interesting blog post if Norris had been able to take some pictures of his own, but things were pretty busy for him until later in the evening when it had gotten dark and pictures wouldn't have turned out very well.

These are not clouds....

Just as Norris was leaving work today, Cheryl overheard the RCFD crews, with a lot of assistance from other departments, all heading to a brush fire on the other side of Elk Mountain from where we live.

From our house, it just looks like some nice clouds over the mountain

But listening to the people in charge of the vehicles and crews, it's obviously not so peaceful over there.  There was a helicopter visible about 20 minutes ago, and they have just called for another 5-man crew to be on standby nearby. One of the problems is just getting the firefighters and equipment to the location.  Earlier they were concerned about two residences but they think they have them secured.

Norris may have a long afternoon - there is a good breeze here today and conditions have been dry.

When you improve one area...

... then you have to fix up another. Our screened porch expansion this summer meant steps we formerly used to get from the front to the back of the house wound up under the deck and needed to be moved. But we didn't just move the steps, we upgraded to stone.  In the foreground are the steps that go from the top of the wooden curved set up to the level of the raised garden - in the background is a new stacked stone retaining wall and more stairs that take you to the level of the back of the house.

We have to admire the expertise of the landscaping crew that moved these huge rocks and positioned them to be level and spaced for an easy climb.  To honor the work of these young men, here are some additional views. There is also a lot of new shrubbery, but all you can see right now is the mulch that was blown in yesterday.  In the upper right of this next photo you might spot our relocated witch hazel. Its February blooms should brighten up this area a bit. To the right of it, behind and to the right of the raised garden, are five new itea, and a pair of new beautyberries.  Only one itea is visible on the far right here. To the left of the witch hazel are some ten new winter blooming jasmine, and 20 ferns right along the new retaining wall.

Here's another view from the top of those stairs. Our landscaper now has a talented designer who is responsible for the plant choices and locations. She also added another American Beautyberry to the slope next to the big retaining wall - and one of the displaced clethra moved to the same area.

Let's have one last shot of the back, with our original stairs to the logging road and view of the back steps. The large flat rock next to the porch stairs conceals a large drain.

The angle in the next photo shows we displaced a lot of plants.  The rhubarbs had to move to make room for the steps, and an entire row of shrubs in front of the studio on the lower level found new homes around the yard to make room for the stepping stones that lead you to this new stone hardscaping.

This is how the path from the front door looks today.

While we're here let's pause to appreciate the fall color of one of the St. John's Worts. These went in as little plants no more than 8 inches high just over four years ago. This one has been pruned to about a third of the size it had before the landscape makeover started.

Here's that purple beautyberry at the top of the driveway. The color really stands out in the bleakness of the late fall.

The curved set of wood steps are now bordered on one side by many of the clethra that formerly lived next to the deck or in front of the studio, and on the other by a new row of diervilla, also known as  bush honeysuckle. They are very green here, but are a deciduous plant.

One final view down the stairs.  We hope the diervilla will serve as a pretty border between the meadow and the steps.

For now, we're looking at a lot of mulch and the bare wildflower meadow - we'll just have to wait to see how it will develop next spring and in the coming years.

Thanksgiving Refugees

On his way home from work tonight, Norris ran into a gang of over 20 turkeys on our street.  Since there is no hunting allowed in our neighborhood, we think they were looking for a place to lay low until after Thursday.  There were even more turkeys along the road than what would fit in the picture.

A campus tour

Cheryl's sister Joyce has been making campus tours with her daughter Niki and this weekend, with the region enjoying 70+ degree weather, they came to the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Cheryl met them at their hotel near the airport a little before noon, and we headed to the campus for the official student-led tour.  Since we were early, we walked around and acquainted ourselves with the beautiful and historic Horseshoe where the oldest buildings on the campus are, and found the Student Union which is an impressive and modern building half a block away. Here are Joyce and Niki waiting for the official tour to begin.

The tour started in the McKissick building at the tip of the horseshoe. The building, constructed by the WPA in 1937, originally housed the university library, not that we learned that on the tour. Although the tour was recommended in a regional guidebook of ours because the school,established in 1801, has a lot of history, our guide concentrated only on the academic strengths of USC and the positive aspects of life on campus for prospective students.

This building is now a museum, and the impressively large, mostly underground library nearby, was part of the tour.

The Longstreet Theater is where Niki would perform, if she chooses to attend USC with her business major/dance minor.

It was the only stop on the tour that our guide was prompted to give any historical information about, informing us it is rumored to be haunted because it was a morgue during the Civil War.  What Cheryl had recently read in Civil War history was that the school ceased to function when the students all went off to join the army, and the entire campus was turned into a Confederate hospital. The official USC history says that the theater housed both Confederate and Union hospitals, and an arsenal. It is named for the University's President of 1857-1861 - not the famed General who served in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

On Monday, Niki will meet with school officials in both the business and dance departments and will take a dance class. She has three other schools she is considering, but we would be happy if she chooses USC. The campus is only three hours away so we would enjoy seeing her performances and perhaps she would come and stay with us for short holidays.  Norris planned to make the trip, but he has been under the weather, so he stayed home and watched football.

A bright spot of white

Work on landscape improvements started on Monday. Two of the guys did some pruning and cleanup, and yesterday, some huge rocks were delivered. You can see that some of them were too heavy for the pallet they were on. More are stacked next to the pressure-treated wood that used to hold up the screened porch roof (we replaced them with cedar when we had the porch expanded.) The wood and stone will both be used to add more steps around the porch addition and raised garden..

 
The equipment to move the stones into place is also parked off the turnaround end of the driveway.

Progress is slow since it was snowing yesterday and there's a very cold rain falling this morning.  No one showed up at all.

But looking out over the landscape, we are cheered by this bright spot on a gloomy day.

 

(Please ignore the root-waterer and hose).  This is also an American Beautyberry.  One of those that were planted in this area next to the walkway to the Thoughtful Spot was not healthy. Obviously, the replacement is not the same lovely purple, but white is nice too! 

 

The berries on this shrub are more densely clustered than on any of the purple ones.

The Good Side of Frankensnow

Although this was not a great fall for color, and we are past the peak, it's a treat when you get snow and leaves at the same time. Cheryl took a lot of photos this morning on her walk through the neighborhood.

Chester Bear wears a snow cap while the PJM Rhododendron is still in its second bloom for the year.

 

The American Beauty Berry lives up to its name.  It really is this beautiful shade of redish purple.

Cheryl's favorite American beech are in various shades of orange, yellow, and green in the understory next door. The reds are other trees and shrubs.  The beech are the trees that will keep their leaves on through the winter, gradually fading to nearly white before falling off just as the new leaves set on.

 

Here's more of that unique mix of green, and yellow from the beech, orange and brown probably from native oaks, and the beautiful contrast of the white snow on the rocks.

This is a view of our house and the slope behind it.  The walk was noisy, with the melting snow dripping from the trees.  The snow is still visible on the tall pines between the camera and the house.

But if you get a view higher up, the trees are still completely snow-covered.

We were happily surprised to come through the storm with almost no incidents, just a 20-30 minute power interruption early in the day yesterday.  It is not that the trees weren't affected.  Here's one, arching over our neighbors' driveway.  When trees get like this, they don't stand back up. Hard to tell from the photo, this one is probably going to brush the roof of our neighbor's Jeep and he'll have to cut it down.

 This picture shows a similar tree, but this one didn't make it.

Norris is on the Home Owner Association board of directors.  The lame duck president has already handed him the job of calling the snow removal contractor.  So Norris was out early yesterday, checking to see if any of the neighborhood roads needed to be treated.  He and a few other neighbors were able to move the downed tree out of the road by hand, because it had shattered into pieces.

No snow removal was required.  With the temperature right about freezing, the asphalt was never in danger of being covered. The Bradford Pears here are still completely green.

The colorful trees in the mid-ground in this next picture are also Bradford Pears. They are actually a little lower down on the mountain, but they don't enjoy the same shelter.

 

This little log cabin predates the development. The background of fall colors behind the melting snow on the tin roof is not something we would have seen in our Virginia and Maryland suburban neighborhoods.

Here's another view of Chestnut Knob.  Even with the sun this afternoon, the higher elevations like this are still snow-covered.  There's almost no snow left at our level.

 

One final shot of the snow and green trees.

Frankensnow

Although we are a long way from Hurricane Sandy's landfall, its spinoff moisture collided with the big cold front to bring us more than 5 inches of snow overnight (as measured on the deck table).  Fortunately the ground temperatures are warm enough to keep the snow melting in the streets (it was 75 degrees here a few days ago).  This is an exceptionally early snow for us.  We are thankful that the forecasted 50 mph winds never materialized here.

Since it's a wet snow, its sticks to the trees in that photogenic way.  But the weight of the snow has prematurely brought down a lot of our leaves.

It's still snowing lightly and we are supposed to get more snow overnight.

Animal stories

Yesterday, Cheryl went to the annual Southeast Animal Fiber Fair (SAFF) at the WNC fairgrounds to enjoy mingling among the fiber-addicts.  While there, she looked for the Lost Penny Farms alpacas, the ones she visited last year in September - follow the link to see the see the face of the same brown and white youngster as in the right foreground in this photo.  In that first year, a baby alpaca is called a "cria." 

 

Lost Penny Farms gave part of their booth space to the local Alpaca rescue organization, so these three were getting out and about as ambassadors of the species.  The white one is an 8-year old gelded male and has a lot of experience with crowds. He was humming when I took the photo.

Closer to home, Cheryl was in the studio with Lilly when her peripheral vision caught a large black creature moving under the deck. Norris swiftly grabbed the camera and ran to the front door just in time to get a photo.  The bear was making a path beneath the deck and the eaves of the house to get out of the rain, but then walked casually down the sidewalk past our Welcome Bear -

 

And then to the end of our driveway.  Norris had to run back upstairs to get this next photo through the screened window.  

The bear nosed around a bit then turned and walked away across our future neighbor's property.

Norris might have gotten better photos but Moki was out on the deck by herself when the bear walked beneath her.  With the door closed because of new fall temperatures, she had no escape back into the house. Norris had to let her back in before racing around to take the photos.  This time she was scared and remained on edge for quite some time afterwards.

This was a rare bear sighting for us:  no bird feeder was involved. We have not even tried to feed birds for weeks now, as this has been a terrible year for the bears to find other sources of food.

New Training Academy for Buncombe County

This past Tuesday, Norris attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for our county's new Fire and Police Training Academy facility.  The county has been without a real academy facility for several years as the old facility was small, old, and the buildings had started to crumble.  As an interim, small classes were being taught in various fire stations and college classrooms around the county, but a lot of courses could only be taken in other counties across the state with better facilities.  The new Buncombe County Academy is on 50-some acres of land and has (so far) cost $15M.  Most of the facility is now complete, although an additional classroom building (another $6M) has not yet broken ground.  This gives Buncombe county what we are told is the best such facility in the state of NC and one of the best in the Southeast US.  The ceremony was held inside the academy's "fire station," which isn't a real fire station but will serve as one for training purposes.  It also includes facilities for vehicle maintenance training and several large classrooms.

This aerial photo gives a good overview of the grounds and labels each of the features.  Click on the photo for a larger view and to better read the printing.

This is a view of three of the main training buildings.  The building on the left is the high rise burn building, the higher building in the center is the high rise training tower, and on the right is the residential burn building.  The sloped concrete pad going down into the ravine is for practicing auto extrication on embankments.  

This shows the pumper testing area.  It has a large underground cistern that allows pumpers to pull water into the intakes on both sides of the pumper.  As the water is pumped out the discharges on the pumper, it is funneled back into the cistern, forming a closed loop system that doesn't waste any water.

This is the High Rise burn building, which includes a simulated restaurant in the basement level and offices and apartments in the upper levels.  Live fires can be set to burn either normal combustible materials or to burn propane.  

Inside the high rise burn bldg, movable partitions suspended from tracks in the ceiling can be moved around to create a variety of mazes to test fire fighters ability to find victims in a hot smoky environment.

The building also includes a simulated elevator for training on removing victims trapped in their elevator.

The residential burn building can also be set on fire, but has some additional features.  The sacrificial wooden roof can be burned off or sawed through for ventilation training.  It also has access to the metal attic trusses for training on attic fires.

The high rise drill tower is not a burn building, but is used for ladder training, rope rescue training, and use of sprinkler and standpipe systems.  It also has hatches through each floor that go from roof to ground level to simulate rescues from deep pits.  The tower also features a number of different types of interior doors that will be used for forcible entry training and will be used by the police for hostage rescue training.

This is the Urban-Wildland interface simulator.  Each of the four small "houses" can be covered with burnable/replacable wall panels and the area between houses setup with hay and straw to simulate brush fires encroaching on houses. This area will be be used for practice in coating houses with foam that will hold up long enough for the brush fires to pass.  One of the "houses" is a actually a jail cell that will be used in police training.

This is a car fire simulator, with doors, hood, and trunk that open.  

The "car" is piped with propane to various areas on the car that can be lit off separately or in various combinations.

Propane is also piped to the "Christmas tree" that will be used for drills on extinguishing flammable gas fires.  This area also includes pits for training on flammable liquid fires as well.  The tower to the right controls the flow of the flammable gases and liquids to the various training props.

This is an overview of the driver training track.  It includes a skid pad, oval course, railroad tracks, speed bumps, and other features to challenge driver trainees.

Norris is looking forward to actually being able to attend classes soon at the new facility, and being able to get his training closer to home.