Wildfires

[SamSpade1941]

Today there have been wildfires burning all around my homestead. I shot these from the backyard. These are are locations that are less than 1/2 mile from my house the fire in some of the images is just a few hundred yards away. The wind has been keeping it from my home and blowing it to the north and east of me.

 

[charlie76]

Damn...Id be out watering the lawn if I were you. Hope it doesn't come any closer to your home!

 

[SamSpade1941]

Damn...Id be out watering the lawn if I were you. Hope it doesn't come any closer to your home!

Already got it done.. sprinklers deployed, the wind is playing a bigger role than my meager watering efforts though and fortunately for me , unfortunately for others its blowing away from me.

 

[charlie76]

.. sprinklers deployed

My son and I had a good chuckle with this comment. Best wishes and good luck...that's pretty frightening stuff

 

[seakritter]

I hope it all ended well, and everyone was safe

 

[mwild]

I was excited to see this topic line, I have an odd obsession with wildfires! (No, I don't start them) I just have very lucid dreams about them, and I live in the rockies of Canada where there's constant fire warning, etc. I have yet to see a fire though. I find it very cool that you got to capture one!

 

[charlie76]

I was excited to see this topic line, I have an odd obsession with wildfires! (No, I don't start them) I just have very lucid dreams about them, and I live in the rockies of Canada where there's constant fire warning, etc. I have yet to see a fire though. I find it very cool that you got to capture one!

Say again..?!

I see what your saying but..,There is absolutely nothing cool about wildfires. I'm from Northern CA...and when there are fires, it's scary. The air is horrible and people (especially firefighters) can lose their lives. I bet you'd change your obsession if you were close to one...or better yet...one was getting close to you!!!

 

[mwild]

If only I could explain this fascination!
I can only imagine though, how scary it would be experience one so close to your home, I know the dreams I've had were terrifying enough!

 

[mwild]

I'm new at this forum thing, my last comment was meant to reply to this one. I surely wasn't meaning to sound insensitive, I can only imagine how terrifying it would be for one to be so close to your home. There are benefits of wildfires though, enviromentally speaking.

 

[SamSpade1941]

If only I could explain this fascination!
I can only imagine though, how scary it would be experience one so close to your home, I know the dreams I've had were terrifying enough!

Its totally understandable I actually know more than a few people who have this same fascination. We have been under a burn ban all summer still waiting to hear how this one started they may not find out. They finally got it under control with a water bomber . The fire ended up crossing the highway and I understand a couple of people lost their homes. I was fortunate in that the wind pushed it north and east of me.

 

[sm4him]

I was excited to see this topic line, I have an odd obsession with wildfires! (No, I don't start them) I just have very lucid dreams about them, and I live in the rockies of Canada where there's constant fire warning, etc. I have yet to see a fire though. I find it very cool that you got to capture one!

Say again..?!

I see what your saying but..,There is absolutely nothing cool about wildfires. I'm from Northern CA...and when there are fires, it's scary. The air is horrible and people (especially firefighters) can lose their lives. I bet you'd change your obsession if you were close to one...or better yet...one was getting close to you!!!

There was a time when I had a somewhat similar fascination with tornadoes--it wasn't that I didn't understand how devastating they were, how tragic for those in their paths--it's just that, in my imperfect humanity, I also thought it would be really "cool" to capture one on film. When we had tornado watches and warnings, I'd watch out my window, not really hoping for a tornado exactly, but...yeah. It *did* seem kinda "cool."

Then in April 2010 a small EF1 tornado hit here, the same night as the tornadoes that caused such deadly destruction in Alabama. I was at church at the time--good thing, because if I'd been home, I would likely have died of a heart attack, as I sat in the dark house listening to the softball-sized hail break EVERY. SINGLE. storm window on the front of my house, listening to the wind pull up the roof vent, and hail break great big holes in the siding of the house. My car was covered in huge hail dents, the front window was completely destroyed, my son's car was totaled...and that was an EF1!!
These days, there is not even a tiny, tiny little part of me that thinks these disasters would be cool to capture on film--every time it hails, or there's a tornado watch, or even a really bad thunderstorm, I develop a strange tic and an odd desire to run and cower in the bathtub.

Samspade--I hope that the winds continue to drive the fires away from you, and I hope that they are brought under control quickly enough to keep others in the vicinity from harm or great loss.

 

[charlie76]

I'm new at this forum thing, my last comment was meant to reply to this one. I surely wasn't meaning to sound insensitive, I can only imagine how terrifying it would be for one to be so close to your home. There are benefits of wildfires though, enviromentally speaking.

Yep...benefits for sure. Rebirth!! And fires are wild and untamed...I can see how there could be a fascination, for sure. I didn't mean to sound snippy...looking back at my comment, I kinda sounded that way...but wasn't meant to. Sorry if I came off that way. I have a few firefighter friends in the hills as we speak. But welcome to the forum anyway! But don't you go experimenting with fire in the backyard in hopes of getting a good pic!!!

 

[mwild]

Wow, that's terrifying! My best friend just experiencedan F3 plow through their small town of Goderich Ontario. Scary stuff.
I will always find mother nature fascinating in how uncontrollablydestructive it can be. I'm an extremelysensitive and empathic person, so by no means do I want these natural disastersto encounter people's lives' negatively, but you're right, as humans, we'regoing to be naturally drawn to such wonders regardless.

Samspade: Did you get evacuation warnings or anything? What are the precautions involved?

 

[mwild]

I stick to the campfires. And no worries, you didn't sound snippy!

 

[TonysTouch]

Wildfires are not always a bad thing. They can be great for the environment. I can't wait to get back home and shoot the field burnings in the fall. I see nothing wrong with being fascinated with the raw power a wildfire has.