On Friday evening, 9/30 our area was hit with a dry lightning storm!
The clouds had been building all afternoon and around 3 p.m. the winds kicked up and blew the storm in!
The photo below was taken after I got home from work while sitting outside with the hubby and daughter.
Shortly after the photo was taken all hell broke loose!
There were lightning strikes hitting all along the mountain range directly in front of us!
We actually saw the strike that started the fire on the mountain in front of us.
The wind picked up and the south end of the valley turned black from dirt that was being kicked up.
We actually had food on the grill and had to grab everything and make a mad dash indoors as the wind howled up our valley like a freight train!
The hubby was almost knocked over as the wind turned violent and closed in on us!
There was nothing we could do but wait out the wind storm and listen to things blowing away outside!
At one point I heard a loud crash coming from the back yard section outside.
Shortly thereafter our daughter's dog showed up on the front porch.
I said that I thought the dog kennel had blown away and hubby told me he didn't think so.
I was right!
The photo below shows where the dog kennel used to be!
And where it ended up...upside down!
It narrowly missed hitting our electrical box, the box to our well and the trees!
The dog was less than impressed that his house blew away!
The dog kennel photos were taken the following morning...after the furry of the storm had passed!
After the winds calmed a bit we ventured outside and the only thing we could see was the glow coming from both fires that had started on the mountain range in front of us!
A big, bright orange glow filled the night sky for hours!
There was nothing to do but go to bed and wonder what we would see come morning!
The daughter and I had to be up early and in town for a horse show that our county 4-H program was hosting. After doing chores and taking photos of the wind damage, we headed out of the valley.
This is what awaited us at the other end!
The fire was on our side and coming down into the valley! The flames were clearly visible and there were no fire crews in sight as they were on the other side fighting the fire that had, at that point, turned into a monster!
This is the view from our vantage point at the county fairgrounds where the horse show took place.
The view progressively got worse as the day went on!
The storm actually started over 25 fires in our county in a matter of an hour or so on Friday night!
The air fire tanker in the photo below was headed to a fire that was burning to the east of town in Eden Valley! The fire tankers didn't hit our fire until late Saturday and early Sunday!
This was the view we saw while driving home on Saturday afternoon.
At this point the fire was burning over 20,000 acres and had jumped Hwy 95 and was heading toward a housing area known as Paradise Ranchos!
A shot of what the fire had already burned as we headed home, back into our valley!
Hubby took this photo mid afternoon on Saturday.
The fire had picked up speed and actually jumped the ridge line and started burning down onto our side of the mountain directly across from our place!
This shot shows the hay pivots at Sand Pass. The fire was less then 1/2 mile away!
Saturday night hubby took a tractor and disk down to the pivots and made a fire break around the hay stacks! I went to pick him up around 11:30 p.m. and the sight of the fire burning at that time was amazing!
I wish I could have taken photos, but my camera just doesn't take good night shots!
Countrychick took the next two photos on Saturday evening from our front porch.
The fire was burning directly in front of a neighboring farm at this point!
This was the view from our front porch on Sunday morning!
The fire crews were finally able to attack the fire on our side of the mountain late morning on Sunday.
The helicopter flew in and out of the valley dropping water on the fire and the planes dropped the bright red boron on the highest most peaks to stop the progression of the flames.
The flames were finally put out around 5 p.m. on Sunday evening.
As of this morning, 10/3 the official word from BLM on the Sand Pass, China Garden fire is 21,068 acres burned! Full containment is expected later today, October 3, 2011.
