Henry Rifle Forums

Well it finally happened, we’ve been very lucky until yesterday. After weeks of no rain and high temps yesterday’s wind was too much and the area exploded with fire. The biggest is a town called Medical Lake which is southwest of Spokane but not far. Several houses in the town are leveled and more in the surrounding area. Closer to me is another fire that caused my son and DIL to show up on my porch at 1:00 am. They were evacuated as a level 2 which means be ready to go at a moments notice. The Spokane City police officer (20 miles out of the city but helping the Sheriff’s deputies with evacs) told them it’s best to leave now because if the evac notice bumps to a 3 (leave NOW) he would not be able to return to give them notice. Good thing they left as now their home is a level 3 evac. They have a retired firefighter neighbor who stayed behind and as of now their home is still standing.

It’s a big mess around here and a huge thank you to all the first responders who are working tirelessly to help.

Hoping everyone will be safe. It's been a tough summer for so many.

Hope all goes well Hatch and your family doesnt go through any loss by fire.

Good they evacuated when they did. One of the thing they have really been pushing here in Aus is make the decision to stay or evacuate early well before it is forced on you.
A lot of lives are lost with people fleeing at the last second. Here in Aus we now have emergency updates via SMS that are sent to every phone within range of the tower, not perfect but much better than anything else.
If you elect to stay and fight you really do need to be properly equipped, have backups for everything and know that you are on your own emergency services are not going to be able to help.

You have my sympathy and prayers, having gone through the fires here in Aus a few years ago can fully understand what you are facing in feeling.

Prayers for your family

Be safe out there! Been a really wild summer in a lot of places. I expect to see homeowners insurance to take another hike for all again next year.

Bad times right now for Spokane County. a good friend has almost certainly lost his big shop building, tractor, 300 yard shooting range and a 1976 FJ40 that he and his dad were restoring. No house on the 20 acres, but the shop is within feet of the heavily treed area that burned, and it is located at the top edge of the Elk fire burn area.

Check out this thread, good luck, stay safe, breathe easy.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forum ... good-ones/




John Davies
Spokane WA

Doesn't it feel like the whole planet is on fire.

The Wiz wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 20, 2023 8:56 am

Doesn't it feel like the whole planet is on fire.

Well, the way the people of the planet are acting these days, it can't be long til it will.
Per say the Bible.

RP

Hoping for the best outcome for you Hatch. Thoughts and prayers for yours and your loved ones' safety.

John E Davies wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 19, 2023 9:54 pm

Bad times right now for Spokane County. a good friend has almost certainly lost his big shop building, tractor, 300 yard shooting range and a 1976 FJ40 that he and his dad were restoring. No house on the 20 acres, but the shop is within feet of the heavily treed area that burned, and it is located at the top edge of the Elk fire burn area.

Check out this thread, good luck, stay safe, breathe easy.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forum ... good-ones/



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John Davies
Spokane WA

John, my son just showed my that app yesterday. That’s the best fire watch app I’ve ever seen.

Just spoke with him and he was actually at his house feeding the chickens and bring more stuff out. His neighbor who has stayed in place has a good view of the fire line from his house and reported there has been no advancement in their direction. Says that he has had some ash falling but no embers. Light winds today without any big gusts. According to the fireline on the app John linked the the fire is about a mile from my son’s place. Fingers still crossed.

Thinking about you. Stay safe.

graywolf wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 20, 2023 10:23 pm

Thinking about you. Stay safe.

Thanks, just spoke with my son and it looks like they are still evacuated for today. We have some rain (hopefully) coming in tonight and tomorrow and that could make a huge difference on the fire suppression.

Sadly it is looking like the other big fire burning in the area has destroyed at least 150 homes. Entire neighborhoods are gone. That’s very unusual for this area but now it’s happened twice in the last few years. The first time an entire town burned up, a small farming community south of Spokane.

Good news, my son’s place has been downgraded to a Level 2 evac and he and his wife and dog have returned home. No damage for them or any of the neighbors. The fire did not get to their side of the county road. Containment is progressing well and between the half inch of rain they got on Tues and the clear skies allowing the Fire Boss planes and the helicopters to fly and dump water things are looking positive for son and DIL. Over 80 structures including many homes have been destroyed in the fire and another 200+ in the fire burning south of Spokane a few miles.

We have to deal with hurricanes. I think a fire would be a lot worse. Hopefully everything is still standing.
Jake

Hatchdog wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 24, 2023 11:18 am

Good news, my son’s place has been downgraded to a Level 2 evac and he and his wife and dog have returned home. No damage for them or any of the neighbors. The fire did not get to their side of the county road. Containment is progressing well and between the half inch of rain they got on Tues and the clear skies allowing the Fire Boss planes and the helicopters to fly and dump water things are looking positive for son and DIL. Over 80 structures including many homes have been destroyed in the fire and another 200+ in the fire burning south of Spokane a few miles.

Great news but stay vigilant, 2 and half weeks after the fires started here and a week after it burnt half a million acres in less than a day we were back to the lowest threat level. Everyone had returned to town, a change in weather saw it take off again and we went from the lowest to the highest level in minutes.
Our highest threat level is seek shelter as fire impacts do not attempt to evacuate. As you can imagine it was pandemonium most peoples fire plan was to evacuate at the first warning we had none. Very few people had anything in place to defend themselves or property.
Luckly the 50mph winds that were driving the fire just stopped and crews were able to contain it a mile from town.
Took 2 months before the fire was officially declared out.

The two fires are no longer actively burning and the outcomes are terrible. The fire south of Spokane at Medical Lake destroyed 240 homes plus numerous outbuildings and one person died in the fire. It is now 85% contained. The other fire here in my part of the county that evacuated my son and DIL destroyed 126 homes and again numerous outbuildings. And sadly another person lost their life from the fire. This fire is now 41% contained.

No cause has been released for either fire.

Seems like these fires follow the weather patterns. Couple years ago Colorado was on fire everywhere. Now its up your way. Glad it all worked out for your son Hatch. I cant imagine losing everything to a fire.

We're so lucky that wildfires are pretty rare here in Western North Carolina. Must be because it rains a lot. I sure feel for those that experience/experienced, the terrible fires as often as they do though. I know they can be devastating, and have been for so many this year.