nodpCalifornia doesn't hold the patent on scary fires - we have 'em in Texas, too. Last Friday, a vehicle was unknowingly driven while on fire down Hwy 281 and it set off a series of grass fires between Morgan Mill and Stephenville. The inferno quickly became out of hand and threatened a number of homes, barns and hay fields. The only way to put out fires in the country is to physically haul the water in a tanker/pumper truck to the site of the fire. We do not enjoy the luxury of hydrants. And if the fire is in an out-of -the-way place, like this one was - across gullies, dense cedar growths and through fences, it becomes even harder to extinguish. Often the best thing to be done is bulldoze a fire break. All the local volunteer fire departments were called in (Huckabay, Morgan Mill, Bluff Dale and Oak Dale, to mention a few) and the forest service helped the next day by bulldozing a fire break.
No structures were lost nor were any animals injured (a number of ranchers loaded up and moved their horses, though). Several of our church members are volunteer fire fighters and I thank God every day for them and the nasty job they do. Several of them went with very little sleep for a couple days. I hate hearing their pagers go off....
I also hate seeing on the horizon the tell-tale white plumes of smoke that mean another fire has started - something all too common this time of year in Texas.
Psalm 68:2
As smoke is blown away by the wind, may you blow them away; as wax melts before the fire, may the wicked perish before God
