Fire

A very scary day in Alpine, Texas. A little after noon, there was a fire reported by the Union Pacific Train engineer who was coming into Alpine from the Marfa area. It was located about 10 miles west of Alpine on the north side of the highway. 

It is dry, dry, dry here and at noon it was almost 90 degrees. The fire spread...like wild fire. Before 3, it was only about 3 1/2 miles from Alpine and had jumped the highway and was headed this way. Emergency vehicles, Sheriff's, Police Department, Fire trucks, even Border Patrol units were storming the roads. Evacuation orders were issued...and the fire was suddenly across the street. Ash was falling and smoke was thick. Such a helpless feeling. We instructed our guests to pack up and head east to the other end of town until we were notified that it was safe to come back.

By 6:30, everything here at the Lodge was pretty much back to normal. We were fortunate. Our guests were able to return. However, everything around us is in peril. Husband and I just walked around the property to see what is happening across the street and north into the mountains where there is plenty of fuel to burn. It's quite brushy and there are as many as 75+ homes and numerous outbuildings in that area. Many of the residents have sprawling homes with acreage and livestock. It's a mecca for a fire. There was a convoy of livestock trailers coming out of there all afternoon. The road in was closed, and still is, and only residents who were retrieving other family members, pets or other livestock were being allowed in there.

The fires are burning up the hills and tonight and are positively mesmerizing. I believe the air support teams have ended for the night and I am afraid the problems may be just beginning. We are supposed to have 15-25 mile an hour winds tomorrow with gusts up to and over 40 MPH. Please pray for those in harms way. 

I will be checking out side all night. So far 4000 acres have burned and the fire is only 10% contained.

This makes anything else that went on today irrelevant. I think I'll get ready for another day. Have a good evening.

b