Fire Update

Last night before we went to bed they reopened the highway to residents only. If you lived along the highway you could finally go home. I think they let the Ft. Carson families go back home, too. The report was one of those things that run across the bottom of the screen and Mom is a slow reader and I was busy convincing Dad he should throw my toy for me. Then it snowed. It's a nice wet snow that makes our bushes in front of our house all droopy and sad looking. It kept the fire from spreading any further and helped it become almost completely contained. Last we heard it was almost 90% contained and it was around 9,000 acres. The snow also got all the smoke out of the air that was making everybody not feel so good. Then, this morning they opened the highway for everybody to go through. That made Mom happy because that means the fire is pretty much under control. Mom loves the smell of rain and how pretty it makes everything, but at the same time she hates it because our backyard is only dirt which means Sasha and I bring in lots of mud. This morning she was happy to see all the mud on our feet because that meant the firemen had some help. So far the only death in the Ft. Carson fire was the pilot and no buildings were lost which means no body lost their homes. They'll probably have to deal with smoke smell for awhile though. The Ordway fire is a different story though. Lots of buildings were lost and 2 volunteer firemen died when they drove across a bridge that had been damaged by the fire and it collapsed. It's always sad when someone dies, but especially when it was people trying to help. The other fire that we can't remember the name of the town it's near (it starts with a C) is pretty much contained, too. Last we heard no buildings were lost and there was only 1 injury and that was a fisherman. We haven't heard anything about causes yet on any of the fires. They said on the news the investigators would be heading out to Ft. Carson today. Right now anything could star a fire. Cigarette butt thrown out the window is usually what starts fires along the highway where Ft. Carson is, especially in the Turkey Creek area. A hot tail pipe could also start a piece of dry grass on fire and then spreads really fast. Fire season makes us very nervous, especially since we like to go camping out in the middle of nowhere. We're always very careful, but not everybody is. Fire season started early this year which is very scarey. The messed up part is they keep talking about how the Arkansas River that runs through our town is going to flood this year because of the snow melt above us. The river is high and it might happen, but right now everything is so dry I don't think the flood water would do much damage.
I'm going to go look out the big window now. We have a giant picture window in front of our house and a big part of it is usually blocked by the bush. The snow has made the bush look like a Weeping Willow so I can see out the entire window making security duty much easier. Check in tomorrow for Artsy Fartsy Friday #3. I think I'm going to let Mom take care of the post tomorrow. Big Blue means a lot to her, but there's extra special meaning behind her White Tiger. It's so special, that's the only one we're going to share tomorrow. It's very exciting! I can't wait!