Happenings at The Homestead

The fire danger in Kommiecticut (actually most of southern New England) has been anywhere from "High" to "Extreme" with RED FLAG WARNINGS for the past few weeks. I receive the daily fire danger alert from the state via email. If there is a day of rain, the danger may go to low for one day, but on the next day it goes back to "HIGH" and continues up until the next rain. There have been many fires in the region and several I have personally worked. There was a 700 acre fire in Rhode Island that looked like a fire from out west that required help from CT & MA. Our fires never get into the trees like that requiring air drops, but that one did. The next couple of photos are from one my department fought along a town hiking trail. When we got the call it was reported as 10' x 10'. I was on duty that day and got there first with our brush truck, finding an area that was now 100' x 100' with a roaring fire spreading fast. We put it out with a total of six guys and 2,000 gallons of water from two of our engines. When all was said and done it was more than an acre. Normally a dirt strip will stop it, but as you can see it went right across the hiking trail burning both sides. In the last photo, the fire was on a hilltop a few hundred feet in off the road. Smelly, dirty, and soaking wet when you are done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My house is surrounded by woods and for the most part has a wide WUI (wildland-urban interface) barrier except for the west side facing the road. That is a thin strip of grass and in the summer also has a thick lush green area of ferns and ground cover. However, everything is just starting to grow so the ground is still covered with dry cured fuels that burn ferociously.

Our front porch which sees lots of use in warm weather

Looking down the steep hill from the porch towards the road.

The front of the house from the driveway

 

As you can see, the woods are pretty close to the front of the house. All it would take is some fucktard driving by to flick a cigarette butt out the window to light off my front woods. Under normal conditions that is not an issue. Once the tree canopy shades the forest floor, the ground cover holds the moisture and prevents fire spread. Right now, the sun is shining right through and baking everything on the ground making it super flammable. Therefore, once in the morning and once in the evening, the entire area 20-30 feet from the grass line out is wet down with what we in the fire service call "The Green Line" meaning a garden hose. Doing it twice a day will allow the water to soak through enough to slow if not halt fire spread. This coming Sunday we are supposed to get significant rain, so with this area pre-wetted down, the rain should really soak through and not just run off down the hill. Luckily we have not suffered through the decades of drought like Kommiefornia and are allowed to clear and mange our forests. I have a pile of stuff to burn out back once the fire danger lessens.

In yesterday's post about my Rhodesian Ridgeback Eli's birthday, I mentioned he won a dog show. The official photo came in the mail. I cropped it out for SafeSECS to eliminate the judge and my wife's faces, but there is my Handsome Boy in a show stance.

We normally keep our dogs lean, so you can just make out their ribs. But my wife was told that judges don't care for that look, so we have upped his meal portions to bulk him up and it seemed to work this time.