INL "Jefferson" Fire

Last week, Tuesday, the Mud Lake/Terreton area was threatened by a fire burning a total of 170,000 square acres.

1 p.m. Thursday Update:

"INL Fire Chief Eric Gosswiller told Local News 8 the Jefferson Fire was started by a human. The fire watch level on Tuesday was high, but still about two weeks away from critical. Gosswiller said they were surprised the fire happened when it did. The chief said this is the largest fire the site has ever seen. It also spread faster than any other fire they've seen. Flames at the site grew to lengths of up to 20 feet. Normally, flame lengths are about 12-15 feet."

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I was home with my kids and watching Maya, whose mom works at the site.  She called me at 4:15 and told me about the fire, but it was headed towards Idaho Falls.  Thirty minutes later she called me back and said she was coming home NOW because it was headed toward Mud Lake and they were going to be closing the roads.  If that happened she'd, have to come home through Blackfoot!  Luckily she made it home. 

I talked to Ron, not long after that.  He wasn't worried about anything.  He thought I was crazy for wondering if I should be packing bags or something!  His only concern was the power going out.  So I filled up everything I could think of with water.  Then the kids and I went for a little walk out back to snap a few pictures.

Right about this time, Ronald tried calling me back and told me the fire was now straight south of Holdaway's (only a couple miles straight south of us!)  He was headed down to his "weeks" pivot to get his hay out of the way.  They had just cut, baled, and stacked it only a week ago.  And the fire was head right towards it!  It didn't take long at all for the fire to reach him, with winds up to 45-50 mph!

Here are a few pictures of the smoke, when the fire was directly south of our house!

 (I couldn't tell you how many miles though)

Ron was out till almost 1:00 AM fighting the fire.  When he got to his hay field, the stacked hay was fine.  But the smoke was so thick and black that he couldn't see the flames coming off the straw stack only 15 feet away!  He got semis lined up and they hauled the hay away before any damage set into the hay..  FINALLY the winds died down a little and changed directions. Instead of blowing Northeast, towards us, it starting going to the south.  There were rumors that the fire crossed the interstate and was threatening to cross highway 33.  You can see where it crossed just into the median of I-15, but it never jumped 33.  If it had, it would have been BAD!! Ron says it would have burned clear up to Island Park!  They had the highways closed for a few hours due to the smoke, but it wasn't long before they reopened.   For the most part, we were all really lucky!  The fire stayed out in the desert, but came RIGHT up to all our fields.  Here are some picture of the aftermath, they were all taken on SUNDAY!

It burned all the grass and sage brush so there is nothing to hold the sand down. 

When ever it blows, this is our view:

nope, those aren't clouds!

Luckily, our house is out of the line of fire! hehehe

His field on the other hand, is dusty dusty dusty! Its like its in the middle of a smoggy city!!

This is the straw stack:

Just the view out the window!  You can't see ANYTHING!

Whats left of the potatoes-He has a spud field right next to the hay.  This is what they look like about 100 ft into the field.

This is what they are SUPPOSED to look like:

What's left of the sage brush and grass. 

 We took the 4-wheeler out there a couple days ago, when the wind WASN'T blowing. 

I can't believe how far you can see of just SAND!

The field was even still smoking on Sunday

All in all we are good!  I'm grateful to have great friends to stay up with me and talk until Ron finally made it home.  I knew that since he wouldn't answer his phone, he was too busy to answer-or just sick of getting calls! All I wanted was updates!! 

Its amazing what mother nature can do!  I've never been so close to a natural disaster.  Its amazing to see it first hand.  It really puts things into perspective.  We try to control everything in our lives, and it doesn't matter how hard we try, there are still things out of our control!