Saturday: 11 August 2007
May you live in interesting times!
I wish I had taken the camera, now. It was indeed extensive, burning most of the length along the north side of Veribest Enterprise Road in northeast Oglethorpe County, and deep into the woods. That part of the county is probably 15 miles northeast of us, and the most distant fire we’ve been to so far.
We turned onto V-E Road and were directed all the way down to the other end, at the cemetary, where Vesta had set up Incident Command for the VFDs. The IC directed us to pull up behind that li'l white truck there, and sit tight, after informing us of the location of the nearest hydrant (three miles away!). At this point Georgia Forestry Commission had the fire mainly under control, and our role, as well as that of the other VFDs, was support if needed. We were there to provide water, and indeed did fill up one truck. Most of the other pumpers and knockers were targetted to houses in the area to protect them if necessary.
And then along about 7pm we were released and back home we went, stopping along the way to top off the tank and get gas.
A few observations:
I don’t know when or how the fire started. The burn was so extensive it must have been involved for a considerable period of time. The part we could see looked basically like the results of a controlled burn - groundcover burned off but trees generally unharmed.
As far as I can tell there was at least one truck from every VFD in the county. Plus EMS, Sheriff, and GA Forestry crew. Yet traffic along the road was well controlled and nondisruptive.
GA Forestry is superb. They had a spotter plane circling over all afternoon, presumably providing observations to the ground.
Residents of the area continually moved up and down the road offering water. Finally, a legitimate use for ATVs: water delivery. At less extensive fires there is normally a rehab station (and there probably was one here too), but in this case rehab came to us at regular intervals.
Apparently the fire was significant enough to have made the news earlier. One of us had actually heard about it on the radio and not his pager, and dropped by just as we were leaving the station.
The fire could have been much, much worse, given our past week of elevated temperatures and lack of rain since late July. There could have been wind. I’d have to attribute successful control to what I saw as very well-coordinated and competent firefighting. Coordination among 14 VFDs and Forestry is not necessarily an easy thing!
Apparently no one got hurt, and it is possible to function at 107 degF!
 | This was the setting at 3pm yesterday when we got the pageout along with all other 13 VFDs in Oglethorpe County. Extensive brush fire in Vesta, everyone come to the party! BYOW! Well, we’ve got lots of W, 2500 gallons of it. I got to the station first this time, and had the tanker out and running. I was just locking everything up when Ed and Scott arrived, and off we went. |
I wish I had taken the camera, now. It was indeed extensive, burning most of the length along the north side of Veribest Enterprise Road in northeast Oglethorpe County, and deep into the woods. That part of the county is probably 15 miles northeast of us, and the most distant fire we’ve been to so far.
We turned onto V-E Road and were directed all the way down to the other end, at the cemetary, where Vesta had set up Incident Command for the VFDs. The IC directed us to pull up behind that li'l white truck there, and sit tight, after informing us of the location of the nearest hydrant (three miles away!). At this point Georgia Forestry Commission had the fire mainly under control, and our role, as well as that of the other VFDs, was support if needed. We were there to provide water, and indeed did fill up one truck. Most of the other pumpers and knockers were targetted to houses in the area to protect them if necessary.
And then along about 7pm we were released and back home we went, stopping along the way to top off the tank and get gas.
A few observations:
I don’t know when or how the fire started. The burn was so extensive it must have been involved for a considerable period of time. The part we could see looked basically like the results of a controlled burn - groundcover burned off but trees generally unharmed.
As far as I can tell there was at least one truck from every VFD in the county. Plus EMS, Sheriff, and GA Forestry crew. Yet traffic along the road was well controlled and nondisruptive.
GA Forestry is superb. They had a spotter plane circling over all afternoon, presumably providing observations to the ground.
Residents of the area continually moved up and down the road offering water. Finally, a legitimate use for ATVs: water delivery. At less extensive fires there is normally a rehab station (and there probably was one here too), but in this case rehab came to us at regular intervals.
Apparently the fire was significant enough to have made the news earlier. One of us had actually heard about it on the radio and not his pager, and dropped by just as we were leaving the station.
The fire could have been much, much worse, given our past week of elevated temperatures and lack of rain since late July. There could have been wind. I’d have to attribute successful control to what I saw as very well-coordinated and competent firefighting. Coordination among 14 VFDs and Forestry is not necessarily an easy thing!
Apparently no one got hurt, and it is possible to function at 107 degF!
