Well my little village of sleepy hollow was not so sleepy last evening....actually it was all a bustle and became rather scary at a few points.
For me it started around 6:00 pm last evening....I was over at my in laws on their deck, when I noticed a big cloud of smoke coming southeast towards us. I thought it odd, who would be burning right now, especially as the Qualicum winds had picked up and were blowing a good 20 - 30 km/hr. I watched and then went home....I went about my business watering my plants and puttering around, when I heard the sound of a helicopter. Now helicopters are rather frequent in these areas as grow ops are rather abundant and they frequently do aerial searches of the properties looking for sites. Last night was something different.....they flew over..and rather low I might add....then they came back..... the whirling of the rotor blades on the helicopter stirred up the smoke even more....so that and the winds started to make for a bit of a mess...and gave grounds for concern. Hubby went into the truck to go have a look.
Twenty minutes had passed and he hadn't returned....I started to make my way up the drive...as I was walking down the road one of the neighbours came driving by...he told me that the property above us was on fire. While he was telling me this hubby came flying by us like a bat out of hell....what's up? You see the gates to get to the property were locked and hubby had the number of the owner of the property...or so he thought....he couldn't find it....we needed to notify him that his property was on fire.
It was all a little unsettling as this property is only approximately 600 meters from us....with the winds blowing the fire was moving rapidly and the fear was that is would make it's way to the power lines, and if it did that it would have been a catastrophe. The helicopters flew over dropping buckets of water, but this took time, they were flying to a lake near by to pick up the water...in the absence of the helicopter the local volunteer fire department were there, and finally the forestry fire fighters showed up.
We were on alert, I went up there with hubby to see what it was all about....my chin dropped...I was shocked, scared and saddened. The forestry fire fighters were there by this time. They were so calm and professional....it's amazing how they worked their way through the fire switching back and forth bringing in hoses and maneuvering their way around....They are an amazing group of people. Hubby and I stayed up there till about 10:00 pm and then made our way home....I prayed the wind would die down and give them a better chance of getting things under control. The smoke around here was bountiful last evening and through out the night.
Well we didn't get a knock on our door last evening so I had to assume that was all good news and that they got things under control.
I went for my run this morning and went up to the sight. The fire made it all the ways to the hydro lane...that is where the power lines are...the piles of trees and brush were still smoldering...there were plenty of hot spots...there was a truck still there watching the site....fire hoses were still laid out....what devastation....but if it hadn't been for the professional and hard work of those firefighters it could have been so much worse....those folks have my admiration ten fold!!!!
Here are some photos and a short video.......
This is a google map...the area in green is where the fire was....the right is where I live..it's approximately 800 meters...2400 sq. feet.
We were told that the fire started as a result of burning that was done about 2 1/2 weeks ago...the ground was still very hot and when the winds picked up last night it ignited the fire.
The video is a little longer than I thought....
