The Day After the Brush Fire

After a light rain of .11 inches during the night and early morning, there were still plenty of smoldering hot spots in our back yard from the controlled burn.

Photo taken from the back porch this morning - this same view shows up in the night time photos with a serpentine of fire following the line of the swale that ends in the rock lining you can see in the lower center of the photo.

View of our steps to the logging road.  We saw this being cleared in the night time photos.

A view up the slope showing the clear line of the burn and the areas that were protected by the water.

This is the fire break the B.R.I.D.G.E. team cleared as it cuts from our property line up across in back of the neighbor's house.  The path is about three feet wide.  We watched the Fire Service ignite the area to the left with drip torches last night just after midnight.

Another view of the line of burned/cleared and leaf debris up the slope from the last photo.

In the foreground of the next picture is the clean cut of a sapling that was sacrificed for the cause.  The small tree on the other side of the path was only trimmed and could come back. The slope is every bit as dramatic as it looks - it was muddy and difficult going after the rain.

This photo shows a large rock outcropping on our neighbor's property that was used as natural fire break.  The cut line is visible on the right.

Unlike our house, they did not burn close to the neighbors' houses - our next door neighbors' blue siding is barely visible through the trees left of center.  Nothing exciting going on here - but it shows the contrast between their property and ours.

Some trees show no damage.  In this photo is a singed old oak the loggers left when they cleared the slope decades ago.

The only evidence that might indicate tragedy in the animal kingdom Cheryl noted was this toasted snail shell. In contrast, she was surprised to see a healthy-looking squirrel coming down the steps earlier today just like any other day.

A smoldering log continues to contribute to our smoke-filled air.

This next photo clearly shows a very dead and decaying tree  - the fire was not hot enough to ignite the rotting wood.

 We knew there was a lot of rock on our property, but we've never been able to see much of it before this.

A nice pocket of unburned leaves surrounds a tree far from the house.

In this photo, Cheryl is looking down on the old logging road crossing the photo from the lower middle/left to the upper right. The logging road here, compared to other places, slopes rather dramatically up and did not break the fire.

Notice the beautiful leaves of the American Beech mid-ground.  The cul-de-sac is in the background on the right.

 Up close to a smoldering stump. Watching it from the house, this one periodically belched smoke or lept back into flame until early afternoon.

This is the view back along the gully that leads to the back porch of our house.

The Fire Service came back and used our back yard and steps to get to the scene for mop-up operations. On the steps is our Reems Creek neighbor Chris who is now a Fire Service employee.  Far behind him to the right is the B.R.I.D.G.E. team.

Cheryl greeted them, "Nice to see you today!"  Most of these young men did not bother with the steps.

At this time, most of the hot spots have stopped smoldering, thanks in part to the rain.  The neighborhood and the inside of our house still reek of smoke.  We hope in a few weeks the smell will be gone and new greenery will be visible.

The official measured size of the fire was 98.5 acres.

Hawks Landing Fire - continued

Here are some more photos taken during our brush fire yesterday.  The first four pictures were taken by one of Norris's fellow firefighters who was in different locations than where Norris was working. The first one shows the NC Forest Service helicopter dipping its water bucket into a pond near our neighborhood.  The helicopter made many trips between the pond and the fire.  The water is a supplement to the hard work that is done by the hand crews that are raking and digging fire lines to contain the fire.  The purpose of the water is to slow the fire's spread so that the hand crews have a chance to get the lines raked.

This photo shows a crew from the Reems Creek FD assisting a Forest Service bulldozer in getting to the top of the mountain above our house.  Although the dozer can knock over smaller trees in its path, the Reems Creek crew assisted by chainsawing down the larger trees that were in the way.

After getting to the top of the mountain, the dozer plowed a firebreak trench across the top of the fire and then down the right hand flank.

This was the view from the top of the mountain near the point where the dozer went in.  The smoke shows how far away from the fire the dozer had to go to find a reasonable access point to get to the top of the mountain.

When the fire started getting closer to our house, one of the engines that had been summoned to the fire from neighboring communities was assigned to our house to do structure protection.  Here the Wildland-Urban Interface engine from the Swannanoa FD (on the right) sits next to one of the smaller brush firefighting trucks from Reems Creek FD.  The Swannanoa crew had no responsibility to attack the fire in the woods, just to be prepared to keep the fire from getting close to our house. The Swannanoa crew was in our driveway for several hours before being released and replaced by a crew from Reems Creek. Norris joked with the Swannanoa crew that this was his karma payback for spending the night doing structural protection in Swannanoa several years ago on one of their large brush fires.

Earlier in the afternoon, the WLOS news crew had interviewed Norris as he was serving structure protection duties at our neighbor's house. Here is a link to the 11:00 PM news broadcast that included some snippets of Norris on-camera:
http://www.wlos.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/crews-battle-brush-fire-buncombe-county-20318.shtml#.VRm2F_nF8z4

The same news crew came back to our driveway later in the evening to tape an update to the earlier story. Here Norris (silhouette in the middle) is chatting with the news crew just before they set up.

As the night came, the temperature dropped and the humidity went up, slowing the progress of the fire.  Here is a picture Cheryl took as the fire crept closer. 

Cheryl also took this photo showing the fire crew using rakes to drag the fire toward the edge of our retaining walls to try to hasten the progress of the fire in moving past our house so it could hit the edge of the firebreak line to our south.

Another photo of the same activity.

Norris took this one from our driveway.  At this point, the Reems Creek FD has assumed the structural protection duties for our house and Norris was part of that crew.  It was a unique experience for Norris, who has been on many such fires in other neighborhoods, to end up playing this role for our own house.

Another view from our driveway,  At this point, the fire is directly behind our upper retaining wall.

 Norris took this picture from the top wall as the fire went past us.

Another picture as the fire burned further to our east.

Cheryl also made a short video of the fire as it burned in our back yard.  Click on this You Tube link to see the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zZ8KTJQ9ik&list=UUMtZP7MPYb1nmLDdXEZGwnw

Cheryl took this from the dining room - sorry about the reflection on the glass. Norris would be one of the crew in this photo.

This was the situation in our driveway just after midnight.  All these vehicles and the ATV to the right were part of the RCFD contingent at our house.

As the fire had moved past the house, Cheryl took this photo from our deck.  The Forest Service crew had decided to use our steps going up the logging road as a firebreak in order to keep from charring the timbers that make up the steps.  You will see in the subsequent morning-after post that the fire did indeed burn up to the edge of the steps and that the crews had raked and blown the leaves away from the steps to help stop the progress of the fire.

Although it is hard to see, the lighter colored figure below is Norris directing a hose stream toward our landscaping to protect it from the heat of the passing fire.

The B.R.I.D.G.E. crew had started hand-clearing a fire break from the line plowed by the bulldozer going towards our house.  The RCFD crew started at our steps and worked to clear a line towards the B.R.I.D.G.E. crew and the two met up on the logging road above our house.  Here the B.R.I.D.G.E. crew (16 in all) is seen coming down our back steps as they come out of the woods.

It did move closer

Here are a couple of views taken from the guest room window above the garage at our house.

The brush truck and two RCFD members standing by and watching from the steps.  The house in the background is up the driveway you saw in my shots of the cul de sac.

Dorry couldn't see the flames - I think they show up now that they are closer to our place. I left these photos a little larger so you can see.  This is taken from the same window, aiming just over the heads of the two nice gentlemen in the previous photo.  The green of the Rhododendron to the right of them is the same as you see in this photo. 

And now we have some members of the Swannanoa Fire Department on standby in our driveway.

I just took the shower I might have taken hours ago.  Norris has told the firefighters they can use the restroom here  -- the RCFD guys have been here since 1:30.  So I thought I should not be as grungy as when I was thinking I would take a nice walk today.

UPDATE - here's a photo now that the sun is going down - the retaining wall is ours.

 

Norris  was just here to look for missing gloves and said they are going to set fires on the ridge above our house and burn - it will make it safer for us.  Oh - and the firefighters got some real food not long ago.

Here's what a North Carolina firefight looks like from our deck

Shortly after my last post, the fire department got new help.

This is the first B.R.I.D.G.E. Crew unloading - they will be helping with the fire break labor.  (this link includes an explanation on who these young men are http://www.ncforestservice.gov/fire_control/bridge.htm )

Now I hear the steady noises from the fire helicopter and the spotter plane.  I got this photo of the helicopter as it headed away....

Did you see it?  Here's a better one.

Norris hoped I got one of it dumping its cargo - there are too many trees and too much smoke for me to see it then.  I'm seeing them coming and going less than 5 minutes apart.  They stock up at the "carp pond" just down the Reems Creek road from our development.

Zoon in on this one and you can see flames through the trees.

Norris came home and said mostly the wind is helping, blowing the fire back onto itself.  But sometimes it twists around. The road is serving as the fire break on this side.

A second bridge crew arrived -

Remember - this is not the dry west.  I'm fine, not gathering up the photos or anything.

The last hour in Hawks Landing....

Sometimes you make plans for the day, but then, they just don't work out.

Norris is up on the ridge behind our neighbor's house right now.  I got inside because the smoke got too strong.

The date/time stamp on this photo was just about 1:20, after Norris got a call from our landscaper.  Our neighbor's yard was on fire and no one was home.  Norris told him to call 911 and got his gear on and headed out.  I took this photo of the smoke while he was getting ready.  Blog readers will have seen this before - the driveway with the trees is our new neighbors' place.  They are between us and the house the landscaper was calling from.

(as always, click on the photo for a bigger view)

 The fire was spreading quickly - hard to tell from these photos because it's on the other side of that ridge in the foreground.

 Eight minutes after my first photo, this truck came uphill from where the rest of the crews were getting out to assess the situation.

 It stayed in the cul de sac for about an hour.

 Meanwhile, the fire was picking up some steam.  I headed over to the neighbors to offer if the smoke got bad, they could come to our house (the prevailing winds do not bring the smoke or fire this way)

 But the homeowner had headed up the slope behind his house and disappeared.  While I was waiting for him to come back down, Norris and a younger firefighter showed up in the fire department pickup and were off loaded at the neighbor's garage, and they headed up the hill.  The other guy was out of sight when I got this picture of the ascending Norris 20 minutes after I took the first photo.

 When it was obvious the neighbor was not coming back, I headed down to the cul de sac and talked to long-time RCFD member Carlton, who had driven the pickup. He knows he's too old to be out there fighting the fires, but he does other essential jobs - including bringing food and water for the firefighters to the scene.  It's usually peanut butter or cream cheese on crackers.

I headed down to the neighbor's where the first signs had been reported.  New crews were arriving. 

This shot shows the homeowner - I don't know if he'd just gotten home or was there all along.  Norris' Jeep is parked in front of his garage.

 The Polaris in this photo is getting ready to bring up more firefighters to follow Norris.

 The smoke is all you can see here, but if I cropped and blew up some of my pictures, the orange flames were moving around in the woods.

 Here's another view up our neighbor's drive.  I was standing in the cul de sac with our neighbors from the other side.  I had gone up the neighbor's driveway when he came back down from the ridge, just to offer a place out of the smoke again.  But a little later, we saw him head back up the ridge with a rake.

 

The tanker did head up the driveway - you can almost see it up there I think.  This picture was taken from the deck, at 2:34.

While I was uploading photos, I took this one - and that part is still burning but no one is raking fire lines on the downhill/downwind side.

As many fires as Norris has gone to in the valley, sooner or later, one of them would be in our neighborhood.

Norris or I will post an update later.  I'm hearing the helicopter for the second time now.