Grass Fire here

[Just Us N Texas]

Yesterday, our neighbor was welding a boundary line fence. A spark got away from him, winds were pretty high, and it set our large pasture of about 60 or so acres on fire. This pasture is full of horses! It had just rained the day before so the ground was wet, but the dead grass was not! The wind shifted, and they only burned a few hundred feet of the large pasture, and no horses were hurt. Then it came to the area where we have our barn, round pens, equipment storage, house, and a smaller paddock with 6 yearling colts in it. It got within 5 feet of the round pen with a yearling colt in it, and he became so scared we could not catch him. We had to just run him out into the open area. The driveway goes around one side of the yearling paddock, and we were worried about them too at the minute. Tina went in the paddock and tried to chase the yearlings out into the open area, I was holding the gate, and was beside myself that I couldn't get to the front gate to close the horses off the road. The fire was just on the other side of the driveway, and I couldn't get through it to get to the front gate. At that time, the fire dept. came! We closed the gate and just figured that we would have to cut the fence at the roadway if necessary. The little guys wouldn't come out the gate, it was too close to the fire. Tina's S.O. was here, and told us that the driveway would stop the fire from going there. Before the fire dept. got here (seemed like it took them hours, but actually probably only took 1/2 hour), we were gathering hoses from everywhere we could to try and get it to the fire. Hoses broke, the fire was so rapid it burned a couple of them, and we were pulling and trying so hard, we pulled a couple apart. It was crazy! We had 35 large round bales next to his fence, and they also burned. Anyway, the fire dept. got here in time to save the buildings, equipment, and the horses. The funny thing, I never once worried about the house. Just the barns, horses, and horse trailers.

The round bales are still smouldering, and today, the neighbor and Cliff are out there pulling them into the burned area, and letting them burn themselves out, with very watchful eyes. It was scary, but nothing of any consequence was hurt, or burned. Weren't we lucky!!! Our guardian angel was truly watching over us.

 

[luv2ridesaddleseat]

OMG, how awful! Yes, It could have been worse, but it was bad enough! Fire is so scarey! I hope your neighbor is more careful!!!!!!

So glad everybody is ok....

Joyce

 

[minisch]

Wow....... that was close! Bet the neighbor felt bad.

 

[Pepipony]

I am sure the neighbor feels bad, but, that doesnt excuse him from being an IDIOT. I too am in central tx, we are in a good drought. The welding crews that are out ( major gas drilling here) must have a few guys just for spark control. Not too far a guy is putting up a metal sign over his driveway and he had 3 people with water cans on standby. All I can say is TG TG TG!! that 'only' grass burned.

 

[TheCaseFamily00]

Fire is one of my biggest nightmares. My husband was on our local volunteer dept for years,very scary. I went to one grass fire,got the call on our way to town, i said never again! I am so glad everyone and thing was ok. I don't know how you could even prepare for something like that but it really makes ya think .

 

[Just Us N Texas]

Neighbor feels terrible. He offered to pay for the round bales of hay, or replace them or whatever. We told him not to worry, we have plenty of hay. We all feel very grateful that it was only hay and grass and nothing else. He and his wife stayed with the fire all day till dark last night, watching the hay bales to make sure they didn't get out of control. Today, my husband had to go to work, so the neighbor and Cliff are out there with it still. He is taking his tractor and pulling the bales out one at a time into the burned already field, and letting it burn up while they are there watching and raking. His wife worked so hard yesterday that they had to have the ambulance out to give her oxygen where she had inhaled so much smoke.

He didn't have water with him, and he didn't really have firewatchers when he was welding because it was such a small area he was going to weld. That is one mistake he will not make again!

 

[Mona]

WOW, very scary!! So glad no one was hurt!!

 

[SaddleTrail]

I am so happy your all alright! Fire is a horrible thing to happen.

My son in law is a wild land fire fighter and Ive seen pictures of him in bad situations!

I hate fires!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We have had 3 grass fires here in the last 7 years. We live next to a large area of land that is left "natural". I guess a flood would be as scary as fire, but I am not so sure. We are 11 miles from the nearest volunteer fire dept, so usually the neighbors end up dealing with fires, except for one really large one that 3 depts answered. We got a bill from one of them afterward for $110. When I went to pay it, they were surprised that I thanked them instead of arguing about the fee.

So sorry to hear of your fright!

 

[Miniv]

Okay.......You had my eyes bugging out as I was reading your description.......Thank GOD everything ended up safely. All I can say is...with a wind blowing, what was your neighbor THINKING??? I do believe you are right. Some Guardian Angels were very busy.

 

[Cathy_H]

Oh Carolyn, what a horrifying day. Enough to give you a heart attack! Good to hear everything that is treasured was kept safe! Take care.

 

[hahler]

We had the same thing here on monday

Kristi called us since we were on the road and said our east pasture was on fire

we made it home in record time mmost of our far pasture is gone and when the fire dept was almost here the dept of ag told them to go back

when we got home it was still burning in the trees as well as the grass the dudes in the truck said that "we will let it burn" so we ended up putting it out our selves

When i can we are going to buy a water truck ourselves and not relying on anyone around here for that

I was told that it happens all the time

we were under a burn ban but that didnt stop the morons here from burning their pastures for the spring

dawn

 

[wildoak]

Too close for comfort! It's extremely dry here in Texas, and doesn't take but a spark - as your neighbor found out. We had one a couple of summers ago that took the cake for stupidity. Another extremely hot dry summer, and some idiot was driving down the county road with a smoker behind him on a trailer, bouncing out LIVE COALS!! He started small fires all the way down the road, and of course never stopped....

It burned a good bit of my neighbors pasture (with horses in it), melted a good half mile of pvc fence, and came close to our land. No one injured, just scared.

Jan

 

[Sixstardanes]

Ever so glad no one got hurt.

What a scare!