I grabbed the phone, recognizing my brother's cell number as I picked up.'
"What's up, bro?"
"Look out the window toward my house and tell me if you see any smoke!" My brother's voice crackled with anxiety.
"Oh no. Yes I do. What's on fire?"
Turns out one of my brother's neighbors had a brush fire on his place. A brush fire on a dry day with a high wind advisory is never good news.
As my brother sped home from his Roanoke office, I watched from my window as the smoke plume grew larger. I found the Botetourt dispatch on the Internet and listened as volunteer firefighters responded to the blaze.
"10-4, it's jumped the road down here."
"We need the tanker from Station 4."
I own property over there, too, and called the people I rent to in order to be sure they were aware of the fire and were safe.
That fire is out now, thank goodness, but another burns in nearby Craig County. Over 200 acres are burning there; the smoke rises high above the mountains.
We're about 5 inches short on rain this year . . . are we headed toward another year of drought? Let's all be careful when we're playing with fire, shall we?
Here's a story about the fire near my brother's place from The Botetourt View.
I drove through a lot of smoke on 220 yesterday. With those awful winds, I was concerned about that smoke. I'm glad to hear they got the fire out.
ReplyDeleteI drove through a lot of smoke on 220 yesterday. With those awful winds, I was concerned about that smoke. I'm glad to hear they got the fire out.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood what possesses people to burn anything when the high wind, dryness and fire warnings are all over the news. Just beyond me.... but I guess stupidity abounds.
ReplyDeleteI came here by way of Leonora, and I'm glad I did.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I hope you're all OK down there. Scary. I'm with Snappy, what in the world were they thinking?!
I'm sure that was a scary situation. Evidently there were brush fires all over the state yesterday. Henrico county had several fires and Dinwiddie county had a 200 acre one.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know that there was no harm to your brother's place---I know that must have been mighty scary for him. We have wildfires here in the N.C. mountains, too, several of which have threatened houses. Burning bans are in place, but, as always, there are those who are foolish enough to flout the law.
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