The Dump Fire

So I guess two dudes were target shooting at the dump out in Saratoga Springs and a bullet hit a rock and started a spark which caught the pile of trash on fire. At least they had the decency to report the fire. It started on a Thursday morning and I noticed it when we were on our way home from getting an oil change on the truck. It was really small and just a puff of smoke. By late afternoon it was a lot worse. Over night even worse. By Friday afternoon they were evacuating people from their homes and I was kind of getting worried. My phone was blowing up from people calling to make sure we were ok and asking how close we were to the fire. It was pretty close! I am guessing it was probably 3 miles away. At least 3 miles to the foot of the mountain that was on fire. Our neighborhood did not get evacuated, but we were about a mile away from the area that was. I packed up a few things like passports, birth certificates, titles to our vehicles, pictures, albums etc. just in case. It was a pretty scary feeling. Clint was sure that we didn’t need to worry and even if we were evacuated it would be for smoke or that the workers needed people out of their way or something along those lines. He left home for work early that day just in case we were to be evacuated and they weren’t going to let him home for some reason. We kept out TV glued to the news and were confident that we were safe. A lot of people around our neighborhood voluntarily evacuated and it was like a ghost town.

Bode was sick with a fever and super tired so he didn’t want to play outside, which was a good thing. It was so smoky and little soot particles were floating all around. Clint went to check it out one night and came back inside totally smelling like he’d been camping for a week. It was pretty bad. I tried walking outside to snap a few pictures Saturday night and I came back inside with a headache, stinging eyes, and super smelly. It was no joke! The news said that the entire valley and even folks in Evanston Wyoming could see smoke. It scared Bode pretty bad and he kept asking if we were going to die and if our house was going to burn down. I had to keep reassuring him that everything would be ok, but I don’t think he’ll forget about the whole ordeal anytime soon. Thank goodness for all the firefighters etc. for helping put this fire out. It burned just over 5,000 acres total.  My pictures do not give it any justice, but there they are.