News from your ace Farmington correspondent. The second major fire this year burns out of control in the mountains above Farmington. These aren't just any mountains. These are my haunts. The hills I walk every day and write about often. The hills with my deer, rattlesnakes, fox, skunks and more.

I walked to the hum of many helicopters this morning. The Farmington volunteer fire department and the National Forest Service wouldn't let me onto my mountain. The Boys and I did learn a few things, however.

First, the cause of the blaze. It turns out that a ceramic insulator on a power line broke, causing the line to also break. Arcing, sparks and fire followed.

Second, the blaze was small for about three hours. It was dark. Fifteen of Farmington's volunteers waited near the radar towers, ready to hike down and stop the fire early. The Forest Service wouldn't allow it. Turns out that this was probably a good idea. Those mountains are treacherous in the best of circumstances. Dark with live high voltage wires. That's a bad combination.

Third, watching the helicopters fill baskets of water and carry them away to fight the fire was interesting. These were loaded right there in the neighborhood east of my house. The fire department placed two doughboy pools, each holding 6000 gallons, on the roadway. These were filled by the nearby fire hydrants. The helicopters carried 100, 140, 240 and 750 gallon baskets.

Last, the fire started about a mile from my home and about half a mile from the nearest homes east of me. The news media reported that the fire was never closer than 2 miles to the nearest homes. Wishful thinking on their part, probably meant to make us all feel better.

Some day soon I will get up there and check out the fire damage. Until then I'm left to watch helplessly, wanting that fire to be out........
9:35:07 PM    comment []