Thank God for good neighbors and rural fire departments

[sawman]

 Today we were out of town with mom and dad. When we got back home there was a message on our answering machine from my uncle that stated there had been a woods fire up on dad's place.
 One of dad's neighbors was driving by and saw the fire and reported it immediately. the first fire dept that was called out which is only 6 miles away had only a few show up so they called for assistance from our dept which is 17 miles away. Don't know for sure how they managed  to do it but they got the fire out before it got way out of hand. If it had jumped the log road along the top of the ridge we would probably still be fighting it. Conservation dept had a quick response time with their dozer as well,and did a very good job also. 
 looks like we lost only about 5 0r 6 acres. Like I said it could have been much much worse.
 
 The fire is suspected to have started by a carelessly discarded cigarette or something alongside the hiway.
           









                            SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FIRE DEPT[/font]

[WH_Conley]

They sure do come in handy.

Few years ago our local fire dept got their tax district established, I just owned a little place on the creek then, fish camp, had fire insurance. Tax bill $7.50, savings on insurance $100.00 a year on the premium.

I still can't see how some of my neighbors can complain about the tax, no insurance I guess.

Another thing, they are all neighbors, we just got 911, before that all the dispatcher had to have was a name, if they couldn't get any more the firemen still knew where to go.

[sawman]

 I think dad said he pays $30.00 a year for rural protection. The departments that responded have a mutual aid agreement with each other that when one needs help, all we gotta do is ask for it
 If you don't subscribe to the rural protection the cost goes way up. I think they charge something like a flat rate of 500.00 to respond, and some even charge so much an hour for equipment and manpower on scene.
  Decided several years ago that $30.00 was a bargain.

[Quartlow]

MAn you guys where lucky, it could have been way worse, We are lucky here are volunteer fire dpartment is huge and our full time fire chief is alway campaigning for state and federal grant money.

[sawman]

 Talked to one of the guys on the first dept that responded he said they only had 2 or 3 to respond, not for sure how many went from our dept. but we have 15 members. Hard to find all them around all the time though.

[SwampDonkey]

WOW  I didn't realize the woods was so dry already. I know in mid April we sometimes get fires here that go wild from unattended grass fires. I keep an eye on my woodlot in dry falls and springs. 2 years ago a guy bailing straw on the farm lights the stubble afire and leaves it. After dawn, I was up to the farm and seen that fire getting close to the woods and got out to put the fire out. If that stuff gets into a softwood plantation it's like pouring on karosene.  I had already told the bone-head not to light the fields afire.

[Norm]

This is the worst time of year for fires here in Iowa. A couple of weekends ago in western Iowa they had one go six miles and burn down 4 houses before they got it under control. The lead fire department said if the farmers had not helped out by bringing in their tractors and field cultivators it would have been much worse. The wind that weekend was blowing near 40mph, once it got started in old field stubble it just kept burning. We had the same thing happen about 2 years ago here, guy burning trash while the wind was blowing hard. got to within a 1/4 mile south of us. Again it was the farmers and local coop that stopped it, the local fire department just didn't have enough equipment to fight it.

[OneWithWood]

Sawman,
I am glad no one was injured and no buildings were damaged.  The up side of this is that any oaks that were suffering in the understory now have a good shot at becoming dominant.  A little fire at the reight time can be a good thing if it can be controlled.

[Quartlow]

.  I had already told the bone-head not to light the fields afire.

I never understood why some guys do this, all your doing is depriveing the ground of organic matter. Which is just stupid.

[tnlogger]

Sawman you were lucky and yes suport your local fire dept.
 our dist 8 gets the grand total of 6000.00 from the county each year to support our equipment.
 we are blessed in that the people of the dist give till it hurts so we can survive. unlike most residents in the county it is one of them things that people dont think about untill they have need for it.
 Here is a link to our little home on the web if you care to have a look its not been updated in awhile but it'll give you an idea of what we do.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Forest/1881/

[farmerdoug]

Our township collects 1 mill for fire, trash pickup and several other things.  We work with the fire dept in the township south of ours.  We have a hall with trucks and equipment but do not have our own force yet.  So volunteers from both townships work as one.  If we have a fire in the township there is no bill to the owner or insurance.  Yet most of the surrounding townships including the one we work with charge 500-1000 dollars just to show up.  Our insurance is lower here also which others cannot seem to understand.  It does help that we have a large power plant here and were going to have two nuclear ones also but they dropped them after the 3 Mile Island incident.  You know that we also seem to have less fires in this township than the surrounding ones do too.

[SwampDonkey]

They been working at shutting our nuke down because of high cost of maintenance and it's pretty much lived it's life. Unlikely they'll build a new one.

[farmerdoug]

With the price of fuel rising like it is I would not be suprised if there is not another push for it.  After all France produces a large amount of their power from them. 

[Ernie]

Sawman  sure is great to have good neighbours.

Reminds me of the farmer who had a big fire going in the dry corn field next to his house, the town fire department came out and worked like mad all around the edges of the blaze, he was in danger of losing his house. Along  came the local volunteer fire brigade, drove straight into the middle of the inferno, pulled out the hoses and with a frantic burst of activity, managed to douse the blaze.

Immediately the farmer grabbed his cheque book and wrote out a cheque for $500.00.  Presenting it to the volunteer chief and thanking him profusely for saving his house, he asked what thay would use the money for.  Quick as a flash came the reply.  I think that the first thing we will do is get the brakes on the DanG truck fixed. 

Ernie

[tnlogger]

  gerry clower lives in newzealand 

[sawman]

nice site tnlogger
 guess we'll wait and see how the oaks do, hopefully they will become dominant and do good 

[thecfarm]

We had a woods fire here about 15 years ago.I was cutting down small fir trees on the other guys land so the fire wouldn't get in my big pines. The fire was feeding on all of the old slash.Got to my land,where it hasn't been cut,nothing for the fire to feed on and it went out.Was a sight to see.But the local fire dept came,2 towns and did a super job.They even back packed a 2 inch water line in.You can burn your fields safely.My father and me did it for 40 years and never had a problem.Pick your night,and it works good.We use to do it every spring to kill all of the weeds and other unwanted junk.Use to burn a little at a time, like 40 feet at a time.No wind is the answer.Fire will make it's own wind no matter what.

[tnlogger]

 thanks sawman were proud of it .

[Frickman]

I've been pretty busy this past week after a fire, so I'll finally get around to sharing the story. I'm just finishing cutting a little piece of timber, whose owner is a former logger. He's been helping out in the woods every day he can. Last Tuesday the ground thawed around 11:00 AM so we quit for lunch. He went back to the house to discover it was on fire. Some faulty wiring in the basement caught fire and it spread from there. Five local fire companies responded, plus the ambulance service. They had it out in less than five minutes, those boys just charged in there and put it out. My friend the firechief said that in another three or five minutes they would have lost the house. I was impressed with how professional these volunteers acted, and how well the different companies coordinated their efforts. Thank God for local, volunteer fire companies, and the fact that the ground thawed when it did. I don't have the time to volunteer, but I help make sure that the boys that do have the equipment they need.

[asy]

What a great story...

Well...  Not good at all that the fire happened, but good outcome under the circumstances, but you know what I mean...

I don't have the time to volunteer, but I help make sure that the boys that do have the equipment they need.

I think that's key.

I think everyone who lives in a rural community has an obligation to support their local Rural fireys (or CFA, (Country Fire Assn) as it's called here)..

I have often said, there are two currencies in the world...  Time and Money.

You can pay for something with your time, or your money. For example, if you want a job done, you can do it yourself, or you can pay someone to do it. You just have to figure out which one is more cost effective for you (in both the time cost and the money cost).

I think this is the same for the Community or Rural Fire Brigades.

You can Join them and give your time...  OR  You can support them with your money (or goods)...

Both are required.  There's no point having 100 volunteers standing around a garden hose...  But then there's no point having a state of the art Fire Engine and only one guy to run it.  It's a balance.

For example, I know there's NO way I could join the CFA, I'm not fit enough...  They'd have to have the ambulance follow me around and that would defeat the purpose. But I believe that to live in a rural community, ya gotta pay your dues, and support the guys.

When my kids are old enough I hope they'll get involved.

asy

[sawman]

  Well put Asy, I've been on our department for soon to be 7 years.
  We have a pretty good mix of fellows, from the young and energetic to the older ones that have alot of experience.  we try to get everyone trained to at least know how to run the truck and make it pump water. The younger ones seem to be more than willing to learn and are generally eager to put what they have learned into practice.