Well, its here. The dry lightening storm from last Friday has started 55 wild fires in southern Oregon and the biggest, the Douglas Complex Fire, is raging over on the next ridge line from where we live. I have been busy raking up loose dried out sticks and vegetation and making piles with the debris so I can hose it down with water and prevent it from catching on fire from hot embers being blown in from the fire. Right now the wind is blowing to the south so the smoke and ash is someone elses problem for the time being. This fire has already consumed over 30,000 acres of forest land and is only 5% contained. They say it may burn out of control until the winter rains appear. Local hardware stores are sold out of garden hoses. Residents are using them to soak down their tinder dry lawns and wood decks so they won't catch on fire. The town of Glendale has been put on notice to be ready to evacuate should the winds change direction and special structure fire crews have been positioned to protect structures in and around the town. The governor has declared a fire emergency and the use of lawnmowers, weed eaters or chain saws are not allowed due to the extreme dry conditions and the possibility of these tools starting another fire.
One prep I made for this disaster is to retrieve my gas powered water pump, mix some gas and oil and top off its tank and make sure it works. I have positioned it in my well pump house so that if the power goes off I can still pump water from the well to hose down the fire with a one inch hose. I have collected our valuables, bug out bags, sleeping bags, some canned food and drinking water and loaded them into 2 pick up trucks so if forced to evacuate we will be ready. They are both parked heading down the hill so we can bolt if we need to. Other than that there's not much else we can do but hang tight and pray.