Feeling better.........

I did not take this picture, I'm not sure of the photographer but it's from our local newspaper - for a fire it's a beautiful picture. It is from last Sunday when they were dropping tons of retardant around the Onion Mountain fire lookout - this area also has all the towers for emergency services including 911, it was high on the list to protect.

This evening, even though being dead tired, we went to the town hall meeting on the fire - so glad we did.  All presenters from different agencies did a great job. We learned exactly where containment lines are (now 20% contained), learned where fire lines are in, where contingency fire lines are, where hose and water containment devices (is that the right word? they look like portable swimming pools and are dropped in by copter) are being dropped (areas that can only be reached on foot due to terrain and no roads) and what the plans are for days ahead. This is all stuff we usually can read about online on a daily basis........when ODF, Oregon Dept of Forestry, is the lead agency on the fire.........but the feds are lead on this one as they've held the fire on federal land so far........they are not good with getting information packed daily updates out to the public.  But they did great tonight.

So, I'm feeling much better about the fire. There are no guarantees because if it crosses the lines to the north and goes into the canyon it will have a direct shot at hundreds of homes including ours.....but I'm feeling much better, information is power. And those fighting the fire are feeling very positive at this point. The temperatures are going back up to the mid to upper 90's and dry so this weekend will be a real test of the lines they're putting in.

Hopefully things will stay under control here and my fire updates will come to an end and I'll get back to normal (hah, whatever that is) life soon........

Lesson learned this evening - don't be out on the road trying to get home when the day shift is heading back to the fire camp.....truck after truck after truck of hotshot firefighters, making a left turn is almost impossible.......