Our family homestead survived the Wallow fire in 2011 but just barely, me and 2 of my brothers at the 3 different homes kept spot fires out that were starting from falling embers out of the sky. My whole pasture burned and it came right up to the house but luckily stayed out of the tree tops. When South mountain burned just west of our homes you couldnt see it because of the heavy smoke but it sounded like a jet taking off - scary. As that mountain burned we were loading up horses, dogs, sister in laws, wives and my mom and rushing to get them out of town. My brother lost one horse but it wasnt due to the flames but due to old age and loading her up and hauling her 100 miles away, she just couldnt take it. The first day we got a wave from the west and the next day it came from the south.
We're on red alert again now but I'm hoping that the old fire scar will help slow things a little. There are 4 fires just 10 miles SW of us totaling about 3500 acres right now...too close for comfort. Hard to sleep at night and when I wake up I look out in all directions and hope I dont see that ominus red glow. I've got hoses attached to all hose bibs around the house with nozzles on them and have a few things packed up and ready to go just in case.
Good luck, I was in the area for Rodeo/Chedeski. I know the feelings.
And of course, there's living here too.
