Steps... coming up the stairs.. closer and closer, the door opens quietly, I hear somehow thru the fog. The steps come closer still, across the kitchen towards the bedroom door, then I hear a gentle knock. I groan inside thinking.. will I EVER get 8 straight hours of sleep? Mhmlmlm? I mutter, trying to force my eyes open. "Sarah!" My little sister opens my bedroom door and peeks in, "Sarah, can you come look out the window?"
You woke me up to ask me to look out the window???!! I wanted to say, but only a jarbled "mghmmlmm???" comes out as I managed to get my eyes open and look at my sis. Her face is white, and she looks scared... I better look out the window. My eyes are foggy and dry and I rub them as I climb out of bed and follow her to the kitchen window. I don't really see anything at first, then they focus.... There was a haze going all the way across the feild a few yards out from our yard... "What is it?" I manage to pronounce, finally actually getting something I wanted to say out.
"Its a wildfire." She says then goes into my bathroom. I stand there watching for a minute, I can see my brothers and my mom with shovels beating at flames and throwing dirt on top of smoldering corn stalks left over from last years harvest. My great uncles tractor and plow are racing across the field faster than I have ever seen a plow run. Two payloaders, run presumably by my Dad, and my Grandpa are scraping dirt just ahead of what looks like 5 to 6 foot flames being driven by the outrageous winds.
Suddenly I squint... the flames had been heading kitty corner across the field between ours and my granparents houses, but... now the wind had changed directions and I could see the flames heading towards our house.. YIKES!!! I watch only a moment more before throwing on a pair of jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and my tennies. "Abby, its coming toward the house! We might need to go help!!" She ran down the stairs to get her shoes on. With this wind... it wouldnt take it long to reach our dogs penned at the back edge of our yard!
When Abby and I get out into the yard we move aside as a yellow fire department truck speeds thru our back yard passed us and into the cloud of smoke. They had arrived just in time. With in about 10 minutes the cloud had nearly dissapated. Wisps of smoke rose from the ground nearly to our neighbors house, only blackened fields and smoldering cornstalks remained.
After reassuring Skyler, and Sally, our dogs who looked totally worried at the strong acrid smell of smoke as they sniffed the air, we made our way to where my brothers and a friend stood in a circle talking over what had happened near the fence line. We watched as the fire department worked hard spraying water over the feild, putting out any last sparks that could start more fires.
Our neighbors children had been told to start their trash, on one of the windiest days of spring. You could see that the fire had started a few yards out from the edge of thier property, and spread all the way across the feild to the fence line. In places it had jumped over. My mom told me that it only took about 10 minutes for the fire to travel that far because of the winds. We have had these fires before and had to put them out, nearly every year lately, but this one was the best of all! lol. Thank God for his protection and the quickness of the Bourbon Fire Dept!!
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