Author: Elaine

One of the photos Jack took on Friday of the Beaver Creek Fire: exempli gratia » Home Fires Burning. As you can see, it was a little too close to our house for comfort.

If you look at the photo I posted yesterday on Saturday, we are calling the two burn areas the north burn area (on the right of the photo) and the south burn area.  We think the forested ravine between the two burn areas is Hell Creek, which doesn’t have any water and that the fire started close to the north fork of Beaver Creek.

By the time it got dark yesterday there was only an occasional wisp of smoke from the edges of the burn areas.  The firefighters must have been working very hard.  We could hear chain saws constantly, and occasionally watch the helicopter drop water.  About 8:30, after dark, Jack and I could count a dozen hot spots: the larger ones were on near the south burn area, but a few were near the north burn area, which means closer to us. Jack said that it seemed as though there were a thousands points of light from the hot spots the night before.

About 8:45, the winds picked up, and there was a lot of thunder and lightning.  One of the hot spots to the south flared, but a half an hour later, the rain came.  I think we received close to two inches.  At three am I checked and could only count three.  At five am I could only detect one:  the one that had flared up when the winds came up which is on the furthest edge of the burn from us.

I decided it was safe to bring the horses home this morning, even though official containment is not yet 100%. The horses were as nonchalant about the return trip as they were about the trip to D’s.  The truck, on the other hand, worked much better.

Aside from the checkpoint to our road, the occasional sight of a Forest Service or fire department vehicle, and the slight smell of smoke, everything is back to normal.  Cause of the fire has not been announced.