"Ash Devil"

[G.A. Heath]

People Please be mindful of the fire danger, especially if you are in drought conditions.

We recently had a small wildfire that burned over twelve hundred acres (almost two square miles). The day after the fire the editor of the local paper asked me to get some drone images of the burn scar, which would be shared with local emergency officials. Roughly eight miles out I observed what looked like smoke from another fire, considering there was a member of the VFD in front of me I felt no need to call it in. About three miles out I could see that the 'smoke' was behaving more like a dust devil than smoke and it was fading. When I made it to the scene I managed to catch this photo with my cell phone, unfortunately I was unable to properly launch the drone in time to get an image of the ash devil before it faded out.

[Grundy1133]

Yup. as dry as it gets out here I like to mow every week or two to keep the dry grass as short as possible to help prevent fire risk. that and water the grass surrounding the house. wont do much good if the trees catch, but it helps.

[G.A. Heath]

While 1200 Acres, or even 2 sections (2 square miles or 1280 Acres) really isn't a very big wild fire this one had potential to be much more damaging. The original call had been for a number of small fires along the side of the road, while the VFD was extinguishing others two grew, merged, and spread rapidly moving toward a power substation to the north and a residence to the east-north-east. The fire got within 1000 feet of the residence (possibly as close as 700 feet) and a comparable distance to the substation. The fact that the VFD was within a mile putting out other similar small fires and the roads are all that kept this fire contained. Overall the VFD is to commended for putting this one out, even if it was a matter of being in the right place at the right time (Just like I was for this photo).