La Vida Loca!: Welcome to Hell & Good Morning Sunshine! Updated pics

Friday a little after lunch, a fire was started by a trailer blowout/wheel bearing just east of the Trinity line over in Polk County. This thing has mushroomed like no tomorrow. Over 14,000 acres have lit the skies. We have had a lot of great help with this immense fire that refuses to die. Even an Army Ranger just passing through on his way from his home in Port Arthur to Palestine to visit family on leave stopped to see if he could help. He leaves for Afghanistan in a month. Thanks Michael for all you do.

There has of course been many rubberneckers who need to just stay home for their own and the safety of emergency personnel. But even greater than the issue of gawkers, there have been many who have rolled up their sleeves and gotten down and dirty in doing what they could. Our official and unofficial volunteers rock! Without them, we'd be up a creek with no paddle.

There were reports yesterday afternoon/evening that this fire was burning yesterday at a rate of 200 acres per hour. I'd believe it with the winds the way they were and are again, today.

Here are pictures that I could get:

Friday Evening trying to find the blooming thing as we had absolutely no knowledge but knew it was close. These pics are around, behind the fire. In the first one, you can see the hood of the truck and headlights. That wasn't even fifty feet from the front of the truck.

(06/17/2011)

Damages less than 6 miles from the house as the crow flies. The trees on the plantations look like poor scarecrows standing there.

(06/18/2011)

Starting Point on Highway 287

(06/18/2011)

Flaring Back up Close to my House

(06/18/2011)

Pics through Saturday, June 18th, 2011. It has been pretty nerve wracking through the day. At times, we were like, "should we bolt and run" and then later it would be "think we'll stay and wait it out longer." The winds are in our favor for the most part. It is a very unfortunate thing for anyone, human or otherwise to be in the path of this storm.

These pictures are from my front porch or back yard:

(06/18/2011)

These pictures were taken last evening before dark. It was really crazy. This whole weekend, I haven't wanted to leave as badly as I did last night. After darkeness came, you could see the glow of the flames, really strongly against the clouds. I just wish my camera hadn't broken so that I could of been able to take pictures of the flame clouds. They were very pretty but terrifying all at the same time. We rode it out, anyway with folks on standby if I needed them to help me haul animals out.

These are some of the smoke clouds that the flames reflected from. Please mind that the lens on my cell phone is cracked and so presents a haze in photos.

(06/18/2011)

Okay, Sister did manage to get a pic of the glow last night, though the pic was dark. I did what I could to make it more visible. These are some EXTREMELY hot fires. This pic was taken right behind my house.

(06/18/2011)

This morning, the sun rose with the promise of another extremely hot day. I fear for our firefighters who are already exhausted.

The view el Sol gave me this morning was promising to say the least. The fire in the sky was a heavenly fire that gave hope that the earthly fire was gone.

(06/19/2011)

As I write, the northern end of the county is still on fire. Some roads are closed. So, if you are reading this, please keep these folks in your thoughts. Hopefully, the personnel gets this stopped before it jumps anymore county lines.

Here is a link to one of the volunteer firefighter's personal videos. He has some others that are mind numbing but I don't know where to access those.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9vrBoD-xw4

I will post more pics as I get them.

More pics from yesterday evening retrieved from Sister's phone: