Forest fire: Close call

[Jim Kountz]

Yesterday my wife and I along with my mother went out for the day shopping at various stores, having dinner, all the usual stuff. We came home and as we got closer to the house we started seeing fire trucks and personnel from many of the local Vol FD. I live on a dirt road and when you are approaching my house you cant see the house for my shop that blocks the view from the incoming road until you are ready to turn in the driveway. When we started down my actual road I saw what looked like a scene out of a movie. Fire and rescue trucks everywhere, even parked in my driveway! BUT I still could not see my house yet only my shop. So needless to say I was freaking out and my wife started crying immediately thinking the worse and saying "what about the pets?" We had to park about 1/4 mile from the house and I ran down the road where I was greeted by several familiar faces (small town) and was told right away that I could breathe, it didnt get my house or shop.
WHEW!!
What happened was the lady who lives over the hill from me decided to burn some brush although the wind was blowing and it got away from her. It burned about 1/3 of my 5 acres that I have here taking out the beautiful Mt Laurel that covers the forest floor and a few trees. Over all the damage was minimal but it still really (excuse me) pisses me off now that Ive had time to think about it. My neighbor lost a pet. They had one of those pot bellied pigs and a burning tree fell on its pen and killed it. Nice huh? When I look down through the woods this morning it actually doesnt look so bad, mostly the underbrush and stuff like that got burned and very few trees.
We had 5-6 Vol Fire Companies that responded and they did a hell of a job. Some of my cousins and relatives were on the job and really went above and beyond to save the woods and houses. I dont know what we would do without people like that.
I wanted to ask what would be an acceptable donation to make in a case like this? I want to show my appreciation but I have no experience with this kind of thing. Do I make a small one to each responding company or one large one to my towns company or?? What do you guys think??
Im one thankful woodworker this morning, my heart hasnt beat that hard since High School prom night!!:D:D

[Brian Effinger]

Glad it turned out OK for you Jim. I couldn't even imagine the fear you had pulling up to your property.

As for a gift, what about making them each something. Maybe a plaque with a folded flag, or one of your turnings. Something that can be displayed in the fire station. I've gotten to know one local fire department over the last few years (I worked on their sub-station renovation & addition) and I'm sure that they would appreciate it immensely.

[Gene Howe]

Possibly a letter to the editor thanking them all and announcing a donation to a charity on behalf of all the fire companies that responded.

[Don Carter]

Jim:
Glad to hear it was not as bad as it could have been. Down here, in the South, we tend to say thanks with food...it's a Southern thing. I would organize or host a fish fry or something similar. I guess a barbecue would be in bad taste.:rolleyes: You could say thanks to the volunteers and you might raise some money for them. Just a thought.

[Dewey Torres]

Man Jim,
You haven't even fixed the porch yet and now almost lost the whole darn house! WV must be a tough place to live!

Glad the only casualty was the pig, although that was sad to read as well.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jim - glad you are OK! That had to have been some very anxious moments when you first arrived back home! People just don't think things through sometimes and fire always seems to be at the top of the list. We are under High fire danger warnings up here because most of the snow has melted and we have had no rain or any precip since the beginning of March. Very crispy when walking!

As far as a donation - anything that comes from the heart would be fine! You mentioned that you know a lot of the folks who helped put out the fire - maybe check with some of them on the dept. and see what they would appreciate.

[Jim O'Dell]

I agree, it is scary. We had a Sheriff's Deputy knock on the door a few years ago. We knew the ranch land to the south of us was on fire. Really smoky. He said we might want to think about getting out. Not a full fledged evacuation, but a suggestion. At the time we had about 9 dogs here at the house, 5 of which were ours. We pulled the hard drives out of the computers, rounded up picture albums, clothes, some food and water for us and the dogs, and prepped both vans. I can get 5 in crates in my big van, and 2 in crates, and 2 loose in LOML's mini van. Didn't have to leave as it turned out which we were thankful for. The Red Cross set up in front of our house for the firefighters to come get something to eat and drink, and rest for a few minutes before heading back out. I stayed out and talked with them and made sure they knew that we appreciated what they were doing.
My parents live at Lake Texhoma and rely on a Volunteer Fire Department. The community gets together at least once a year and puts on a feed to raise money for the department for gear. Maybe start something like that as an annual event if it isn't in place now. Jim.

[mike holden]

Jim,
cant help with the donation question, but I am *very* glad to hear that you and your family are ok.

Mike

[Jim Kountz]

Man Jim,
You haven't even fixed the porch yet and now almost lost the whole darn house! WV must be a tough place to live!



Tell me about it!! I got the repairs done to the porch a while back but havent painted yet. So it looks like a hodge podge of different woods. Now some old lady it trying to bar b que my whole place here! Sheesh. It smells like a huge bon fire around here today and the wind is still blowing so the fire co had been up here several times looking around. They asked if it was ok to walk through my property to look for signs of fire and I was like "h*ll yes you can!!" I told them they could walk drive, borrow my atv whatever they have to do. I was thankful they were still on the job even though they didnt really need to be.
On a lighter note:
My other neighbor heard about the pig and said too bad we didnt have hickorys around here we could have had a nice.......... I stopped him right there!! LOL Sometimes you need humor to get you through times like this!!

[Kevin Arceneaux]

I am glad you did not loose anything.

Find out when their fund drive is and contribute to it or is they have an auction type, donate something for it.

Know what you mean about smell. We live just inside the city limits and my idiot cousin next door like to burn leaves, pine straw, branches, etc from time to time. We have asked him to stop because he NEVER mows his yard and has junk all over the place. He did it the other day with a high wind and blew ALL the smoke into my house. I was at work and it teed my wife off who called the fire department - he got a fine.

[John Keeton]

Jim, I don't drift over to this forum often, but saw this post - DANG, that was close!!:eek:

Glad everything is OK. I would be talking to the neighbor and her insurance company about replacing whatever trees and shrubs were damaged.