More Fire Activity

It seems we've had fires for the last month and things aren't slowing down.  The Mt. McLean fire is threatening Shalath and Seton Portage but I think Lillooet is out of danger, or at least if the winds cooperate.  The fire that has us concerned, out here on the ranch, is the Della Creek fire (I'm not sure what the Forestry is calling it).  It's across the river from us and down a bit towards Lytton but one gets nervous when a fire is only about five kilometres away.

On Monday Sydney and I drove down and it looked like this:



But it's flared up quite a bit and this morning it looked a lot worse.



Those fuel tanks are in our yard, and although a long way from the fire, you can see why I'm a little nervous when I look up the mountain, it seems soooo close.  I'm hoping the forestry gets a control on it before it climbs over the ridge.

This afternoon Hubby and I took a drive down and I caught pics of the K-Max chopper dipping a bucket into fire retardant.  You can see the smoke from the fire in the background.  The forestry has set up a staging area at Ruddocks Ranch where the choppers can fuel up, get water or retardant, and fly off again.



The pilot leans into his window and dips his bucket into a large pail of fire retardant, although it sure doesn't seem big when they drop that little teeny bucket on the fires.



I was shocked when the K-Max turned and I saw how skinny it was, it hardly looks as if one guy can squeeze in there :)



While we were out on the highway we spotted the flames candling along the trees.  For us to see the flames from the road they have to be pretty darn big!



The size of the fire has sure increased since it started and I'm really praying for rain... and no lightning :)



Yesterday I drove into Lillooet and Dallas and I went into the CN Rail (formerly BC Rail) yard and snapped pics looking down at Ainsworth Lumber Mill yard.  One of the choppers is dipping his bucket into the retardant.



Just as we were heading out of the rail yard we spotted the Sky Crane helicopter coming from the Mt. McLean fire and heading to the Airport.



You should have seen Dallas and I, it was actually kind of funny,.  I slam the truck into park, we grab our cameras (telephoto lenses on), both doors whip open and we're hanging off the running boards snapping away on the dirt road.  We must've looked a sight!  But anything for a good pic, right? lol

So a lot of my time is watching the fire in Lillooet, and then looking in the opposite direction towards Lytton... it makes for a very smoky atmosphere around here.  The heat is almost unbearable and the weather report says we are not going to cool down much.  I think that Hubby is going to clean out one of my deep freezers and sleep in it soon if it doesn't cool off.

I put together a video of the helicopters dipping for fire retardant and if you can't view it at my blog visit YouTube.



I haven't been posting all the pictures at my blog (it would take forever to load) so for more pictures visit my Flickr site.