Wow Fire!!

Fire News article

 And now the brain dump:

It was quite a shock to realize during the board meeting that the bright wall of colors through the dark leafless trees I was looking at was... FIRE!! That was a huge wall. When we came out of the house embers were flying everywhere.  The main thought was the fire would spread fast.  We adjourned and left our meeting I don't think there was a formal vote.

I called 911 and said FIRE!! a lot... The fire trucks arrived quickly and in large numbers.  When I ran down the road as the fire trucks first approached I met the guy who works at our neighbors Egan Enterprises and Blue Ridge Catering where the fire occurred. He says that they were working in another building and did not notice the fire at all. Make sense because the wind was blowing towards Sugarloaf house.

We have a large cistern under the ground on the side of the parking lot opposite the Yurt and up the hill from Sugarloaf house. We spoke to one of the chiefs and he asked if they could use the cistern water if necessary. Rev. Megan and I said ok. They asked how large it was and we said it passed inspection for the two building on SCUU's property. I think the tank holds 800 to 1000 gallons but I'm not sure. They ran a fire truck back there. I was on the road having made another check and had to backup before I could drive around the very large truck. The chiefs in the -- three suburban or pickup trucks -- were back there reviewing everything. What I saw was that the fire had died down to a dull roar and was contained. They told us they did not need to use the cistern water after all.

There was one truck and the chiefs on our property. 5 trucks on the neighbors property and another 5-6 trucks on pepco's property. And 5 trucks on 118. Traffic was shut down so I could not drive home. The Sugarloaf house and Yurt seemed perfectly safe.

One of the firefighters told Rev. Megan that there maybe ice on our road from the spray off the burning house. I had used the word spray to describe all the sparks and smoke coming towards the Sugarloaf house but firefighters use the term for water condensing down wind.

Back at the house I saw the fire on Fox news taken from a helicopter.

It will be interesting to hear what was the cause of the fire.

When the firefighters cleared a lane I drove through to the north but the police had a road block up for everyone heading south. Megan remained in her car near the entrance to Sugarloaf.

When I went into the Sugarloaf house to get "world headquarters" -- my computer messenger bag -- the table looked like a museum display.  The papers and everything were left there in place.

Looking at all the trucks near pepco it looked like the firefighters wanted to protect the power lines.

If you look on google earth you can see the building it looks like it was the size of two Yurts.

On Fox news when I got home they said the catering business used it as a warehouse. The guy who worked for the caterer said there were a few propane tanks in there. I think that was the loud booms that were heard every once in a while.

I took a picture but it's a bright red flare in a field of black.

Rev. Megan said she'd ask Jim to check on everything in the morning.

The top of a couple of trees near the building had caught fire but the firefighter had put it out the 2nd time I drove back to look.

I'm going to throw my sweatshirt in the wash it smells of smoke.

Based on my discussion with the guy who works for our neighbor, I surmise we were lucky to be there for our meeting because we were the first to call 911.

I hope and pray no one was hurt.  I hope our neighbors the Egans have a quick recovery from the fire.

Special Thanks to the Firefighters for getting to the site so fast and in great numbers!!

That be my brain dump...