Grass Fires Galore...

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.

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.