Monday, March 7, 2011

Grass Fires Galore...

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On Monday I got called into the office to work. I was basically going to cover for the other two photogs who were working covering a huge grass fire (depending on who you talked to it was either 5,000 acres or 25,000 acres) near Colorado City. So, I guess it was kind of ironic while I was driving around feature cruising I heard a call go out for the Abilene Fire Department to respond to a flare up of a grass fire that had started earlier in the day. So, I headed out to Lake Fort Phantom and when I got there I found out there was pretty much no way to get close. The good thing, however, about having a police scanner is being able to hear what's going on. And, I heard the fire department calling for help from the Forest Service. That usually means, things will get more visual. When the forestry service comes in it's usually with a helicopter to dump water on the fire and bulldozers to make fire breaks.
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Knowing that the big fire to the west was going to be the news of the day, and this fire wasn't threatening any structures, coupled with the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of time, I spent about an hour out there and went back to file my images. It's always nice to shoot the helicopters fighting fires, it's a nice difference from having to try to get up closer to the fire and a lot safer. While you never wish for something like this to happen, if it's going to happen, you want it to happen in a situation like this where no one is hurt and no one loses their homes.
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