Christian Message Boards: Spring Burning

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Posted by Caretaker (Member # 36) on :

Every spring we burn miles of the native grasslands, here in the Flinthills of Kansas. After the burn the blackened rock-covered hills are covered with the green haze of the new grass within days. Within two weeks the cattle are turned-out on the pastures. Here is a link to several pictures of small controlled burning on Emporia State's Ross Reservation. It is about 5 miles to our SE, and has much of the terrain which we cover in our Wildfire controlled burns, and in fighting those fires which are out of control.

http://www.geospectra.net/kite/ross/fire.htm

We responded mutual aid this afternoon, to one of three simultaneous wildfires in adjacent Lyon County. The crew on our wildfire truck extinguished the fire just as it was approaching a home, and I followed with our tanker and refilled them. It looks to be a very busy season with phenominal thick vegetation, extremely tall, and much boggy ground in the pastures. Much of the grass is between 6 and 8 feet tall. With a 15-25 mph wind one could be facing a ten foot tall wall of flame several hundred feet in width.

The toughest fire I was on about 13 years ago was ten miles wide and was tracking SW to NE at 25 MPH. It ran about 15 miles north before we were able to stop it just 4 miles from Council Grove. It topped the ridge over looking an elderly gentleman's farmhouse, just as we pulled into the yard. He had a quatermile of tall CRP grass within feet of his house. With three trucks we torched the CRP, ran a 2 mile backfire, and shut down the main head of the fire. We kept working the westward flank until we had shut it down to the southside of a major creek. It was eight hours from the time we rolled out of the station until we pulled the trucks back in.

Just something which we are involved with this time of year. It is a beautiful sight to see miles of flame moving slowly across the nightime horizon
illuminating the night like luminous snakes.

Celebrated 15 years as a volunteer firefighter last fall. God bless.

Posted by Bat Elohim (Member # 3739) on :

that's so cool [Smile]