The Fire Continues...

This morning I woke up to heavy smoke coming up the valley and no information as to where the fire was. I called the Forest Ranger office and was told the fire was in Leetonia and to evacuate. As usual this information was not correct. But not knowing this I started the usual panic of what to take what to leave can I keep the cabin from burning.

I looked around the cabin and realize that even though we are in a fairly open area I have a lot of burnable stuff near the cabin. I heat mainly with wood and there is 6 cords of season wood and 10 cords of new logs in the front lawn, there was also a lot of dry brush in the ditch along the house before the creek. The hopelessness of realizing there is little you can do in a short period to change your fire risk was overwhelming. I set the sprinkler on to start wetting things down and took a trip down the road to evaluate how much time I had.

The fire was not in Leetonia in fact I drove 5 miles to Mine Hole road before I found fireman from the various departments of Avis, and Trout Run who barely knew where they were let alone the status of the fire. As a permanent resident of this woods this is nothing new when it comes to fire. The ability of the State to get information to us and volunteers is paramount to a disaster waiting to happen. We can't get local television, nothing is on the radio, the firefighters and the Forest Rangers know nothing and this places much of us and our property in danger. I am not sure how this can be solved but it needs to be addressed before lives are lost. Mountain girl, Paula, fired UP!

Fire on the Mountain

This afternoon Lee smelled smoke in the air, normally something we get used to in the winter coming out of the chimney. But today it was 80 degrees and we didn't have a fire in the stove. We didn't think much of it until we got a call from Cedar Run and Howard Bradshaw, one of the guys whom I am doing work for.
"Are you all right up there?" he said.
"I said sure why?"
"Well, I am watching a fire going all the way up the mountain towards you guys and its been burning all day."

Not much scares this mountain girl, but fire and for good reason. During the 30's many people lost their lives up here in forest fires in and around Leetonia. Some stubbornly sticking with their homes until it was too late. We only have two ways out of here and fire can have a way of cutting you off. We checked out the fire at 11pm on the 19th. and estimated a fire line running up from Cedar Run across the West Rim towards Leetonia of at least 10 miles. Fortunately it seems to be moving slowly and is at least six miles away from us at this point. As much as I love this place there isn't anything here that can't be rebuilt and we will be moving out quickly with the dogs if needed. On a good note rain is called for in the immediate forecast. This is good because they aren't attempting to put this fire out right now it is in a very steep area that would be almost impossible to work on so they are letting it burn and establishing cut off areas. I will know more by morning and promise you an update unless I am forced out before then. So don't any of you worry the mountain girls don't take chances with fire. Mountain girl, Paula, logging off, and praying for the best.