Fires

For those of you who have been watching the news, you've probably heard about the fires in Texas that killed three people yesterday. That was about 30 miles from my house. It's been bone dry down here. There hasn't really been any measurable rain since Late September / First week of October. Everything is very dry and extremely flammable.

It was kind of interesting yesterday. The skies were very clear in the morning. My father-in-law and I decided to tackle a home-improvement project together. We added a power roof vent to my house. So, there we were up on the roof, cutting holes, playing with power tools and electricity, and liberally apply roof cement. It was a warm afternoon... about 85 degrees. It doesn't get much better.

It had been windy all day (about 35-40 MPH gusts) and when the sky started to haze over at about 4 PM at first I thought it might actually be a storm rolling in. In a sense, it was. The haze was a mix of dust and smoke from the firestorm up in Cross Plains. That fire must have been magnificently frightful up close. At 30 miles away you could smell the smoke and all the kicked-up dust. It clouded the sun. Supposedly, the flames reached 30 - 40 feet high and the fire moved at about 45 MPH over the dry brush and grass. The power of nature is simply amazing.