Twisp of Fate

It was an interesting weekend.  Last Friday a fire started along the highway between Winthrop and Twisp.  Here is the official statement from Okanogan County Sheriff on the cause of what is now being called the Rising Eagle fire and is part of the Carlton Complex:

“A vehicle towing a trailer traveling west on Highway 20 out of Twisp got a flat tire on the trailer and when the rim hit the roadway it sent up sparks and started a fire in the brush which spread from Signal Hill Road, west over Rising Eagle Road, Hill Road and over to Wandling Road. The fire destroyed several residences and property. A number of structures destroyed should be coming out on Monday, (Aug. 4, 2014). The trailer in question has been impounded by the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Natural Resources Investigators are investigating the fire.”

523 acres burned.  As of today, it is 100% contained and they are doing mop-up.  The count is 36 structures lost, 10 of which are residences.  All of this because someone got a flat tire on the highway.  We know at least one of the homeowners who were wiped out, and several others who had very close calls.

On Friday neither of was home for most of the day.  Once we figured out what was going on, and that it had spread to within 4 miles or so of us, we got home and starting packing the car & truck and moving some things off the deck and away from the house.  Fortunately there are all the resources here, and they were able to get all over it with firefighters and helicopters dropping water – otherwise who knows how far it would have gone.  By 8 pm it seemed to be more under control, so we stayed put.

The next day, Saturday, brought a freaky windstorm in the afternoon.  It got very dark and ominous, and then it was like someone turned on a switch and there were huge howling gusts, along with horizontal sheeting rain and thunder & lightning.  Trees came down all over our neighborhood, and one neighbor’s woodshed blew over.  Out in front, one of our favorite pines with 3 trunks would have gone down, except it hung up on the tree next to it.  Both of them were whipping around in the wind, and it would have come down right where we had the Airstream parked.  We went out in the storm, hitched it up, and moved it around in front of the shop building.  Later, because of damage to wires down at the Rising Eagle fire, and downed trees, the power went out and it was back to the generator.

Sunday was clean-up day.  Power didn’t come back on until the afternoon.  A lot of our neighbors had more, and bigger, trees down than we did.

Dropping & de-branching the leaner

One house up the Wolf Creek Rd from us had a big tree come down on the back corner of their house, and a huge one came down in their field by the river where they graze their Highland cattle.  We saw an irrigation wheel line that had been blown off the field and wrapped around a couple of telephone poles.

huge tree down in the field

they couldn’t find a calf that had been born a few days previous

Monday was reasonably uneventful.  It only brought this:

 OKANOGAN COUNTY, WA – A fire-damaged fiber cable has been detected during restoration efforts following the Carlton Complex fire.  At this time 911, local and long distance calling and Internet services are down in the Twisp and Winthop areas.   CenturyLink technicians are onsite splicing fiber. Service restoral is estimated to take place by 7 p.m. tonight.   This outage is a result of the Carlton Complex fire that swept through the area and burned cables in and around Mallot, Mazama, Okanogan, Omak, Oroville, Pateros, Twisp and Winthrop.

Internet came back this morning (Tuesday).  Driving down to Twisp this morning, we saw all the burned area above the highway, and also several houses with trees down on their roofs from the wind storm.

Maybe after this, I can post with pictures of the rugs I have been weaving!