Hi all,
Here is yet another update from the Carta Valley fire. The fire came close to
the cabin. It reached the road just northwest of the cabin. Standing on the
front porch, you would have been able to see the fire reach the road. Either
Friday night or early Saturday morning, the firefighters lit a back fire along
the road and it kept the fire from spreading across the road. If the fire had
crossed the road, our cabin would have likely burned.
The fire was apparently started by a welder working on a gate. He was working
alone and didn't realize the fire started until it was too late. At least 1300
acres burned and it still had a number of hot spots when we left last night.
The Texas Forest Service cut a fire line along the road just north of the cabin
to help contain the fire. The dozer then went out onto the land north of ours
to work on some hot spots. It was then that the dozer slipped off a ledge and
ended up on its side. The dozer is a D6 so we had nothing to available to
right it. The TFS is bringing out two more dozers today to right it. Edwards
County brought in another dozer to cut fire lines. It was on the other side of
the county so that took several hours to get it out there. They cut more fire
line along the road on our property and then moved onto the property with a
high game fence to the northeast of our property. They worked with that dozer
until it got too steep. Late yesterday afternoon, TexDOT brought in two more
big dozers to cut fire line in the steep areas. They worked until dark.
Early in the day things were more tense as they had no firefighters on the
scene other than the TFS dozer and a person from TPWD. There were still
burning areas the northwest, north, and northeast of the cabin. Linda Palit,
Geary Schindel, Joe Ranzau, Calvin Alexander, and I worked on weedeating the
grass around the cabin and raking back what we cut around the cabin. We also
trimmed up the trees close to the cabin and cut out all brush around the cabin.
This made a good fire break around the cabin. When the Edwards County dozer
arrived, we had them clear some cedar away from the cabin and we now have a
larger parking area.
About the time that the Edwards County and Val Verde County Volunteer
Firefighters arrived, a helitanker arrived and dumped water on many of the hot
spots. This helped in some of the hard to reach areas. The firefighters were
then able to get in and mostly contain the fire. By this time, the most of the
fire was to the northeast of the cabin and the winds were from the northeast so
the fire was moving away from our cabin.
TexDOT and the firefighters are returning out there this morning to continue
cutting fire lines and then plan to start a back fire. This should burn out
the fire and finally stop it. We were very lucky that winds were light on
Friday night, Saturday, and today.
Special thanks go out to Bill Stivers for alerting us about the fire. He was
heading out to go caving at Punkin and Deep with a group from Wichita Falls. He
was stopped on the road between the third and fourth gates by the fire. He
spent the night on the side of the road in Carta Valley and stayed out with us
until late Saturday. On Saturday morning, Bill kept a firewatch sitting on the
front porch of the cabin playing the guitar.
Special thanks go out to Don Arburn for bring food, cold water, and cold
drinks. We were able to feed ourselves and give the firefighters sandwiches
and cold drinks. They really seemed to like that.
Special thanks also go out to Zara Environmental for sending out a truck load
of water. We ended up not needing the water so we refilled the water tank at
the cabin since it hasn't rained in a while.
Based on this experience, we need to make sure the trees are trimmed up around
cabin. We need to make sure that brush close to the cabin stays cleared out
and we need to make sure we keep the grass trimmed around the cabin. It is
also a good idea to make sure we don't keep wood, lumber, and other
combustibles around the base of or under the cabin. In short, we got really
lucky this time.
Later today, I will be posting a link to photos from the fire.
Thanks to everyone for your support.
Allan
----- Original Message -----
From: J. LaRue Thomas
To: Jim Kennedy ; texascavers@texascavers.com
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Carta Valley brushfire
There does need to be a better way to get help than email--I was out working
in the field and I could have been down there with my firefighting gear. I've
worked with both Val Verde and Edwards County departments on grassfires as we
have mutual aid agreements with all neighboring counties.
I guess they thought it was under control as they did not call in Sonora. The
'dozer probably is one of the TX Forest Service ones and those folks are more
than happy to help people to become more fire resistant. Good you all thought
to ask.
May I suggest TCMA somebodies talk to local fire people about what fire
prevention measures they would like to see us effect at our place. Since people
rarely ask and even more rarely do what's suggested, we'd make local fire
people really happy.
This is one of the worst fire seasons in years (our department was on fire
lines for over 50 hours in five days last week) and no rain in sight, so let's
get something going soon.
There is a burn association for Edwards--same one as ours, I think. It sets
up prescribed burns. I can contact them for TCMA if no one else has. Please do
not burn anything preemptively without going through them.
Anyone know how this one started? Jacqui
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Kennedy
To: texascavers@texascavers.com
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 5:32 PM
Subject: [Texascavers] Carta Valley brushfire
Allan Cobb just called me from the TCMA fieldhouse and all is now under
control. He took lots of photos of the helicopter dumping water, the fire, and
so on. He'll show them at the next UT Grotto meeting. It got to within 100
yards of the cabin. The 'dozer brought in by the local fire departments made a
big difference. While it was there, Allan and Linda talked them into clearing
more brush from around the cabin and widening the road from the cabin to the
caves. They knocked back a lot of brush and now we have a better firebreak.
The road acted like a pretty good firebreak as it was, but if the fire was more
serious it could have easily jumped the road. We also have a better parking
area in front of the cabin, courtesy of the 'dozer.
As Allan said, we dodged the bullet on that one. Perhaps we should give
some serious thought to brush control, additional water supplies, and other
ways to help fireproof the cabin. Maybe even some pre-emptive prescribed burns
to reduce the fuel load.
-- Crash
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