Uh oh, got wildfire warning call

[Chicken.Lytle]

About two hours ago, my phone rang and a recording announced a wildfire in my area, giving location of both fire and shelter. Yikes!

Have been scrambling to get (accurate, up-to-date) news about the fire. No way to move horses, dogs, cats, and chickens. Never thought I would miss snow.

Please pray for rain, or at least a lack of crispy chicken.

 

[mamawolf544]

Oh No

praying for you. That has to be so scary.

 

[turney31]

Prayers!

 

[redhen]

So scary! I'm not sure how i would handle that...
What do you take..what do you leave?..... Ugh!
Very sorry for you...

 

[Fierlin1182]

Yikes, good look with that one

All the best!
Thankfully although my area's pretty prone to bushfires, I've never been through one.

 

[desertdarlene]

Now's the time to get an animal action plan going and figure out a way to keep your animals safe even if you don't need to evacuate. If you evacuate, one thing you can do, if you have to leave, is get as many animals as you can and get to an evacuation center. Once there, you can co-ordinate with the shelter people to find a temporary place for your animals.

When we had a big fire here, there was an evacuation center nearby and people were seen with their dogs and horses arriving at the shelter. They, then, were directed where to go from there.

You may have very little time to evacuate if the fire comes your way. Just last week, a guy had to leave his home due to wildfire here in California and lost most of his animals, including dogs, birds, sheep, goats, cattle, and everything. He didn't even have time to open the kennels or stalls so that the animals could get out on their own. Nothing left but ashes.

ETA: If you have time, there may be people who can help you if you have a lot of large animals to transport off your property and no trailers or transportation. You may want to give them a ring now if it looks like you might need them. You can always move your animals now and bring them back later.

 

[HighNDryFarm]

We went through this three years ago..it made national news and our town was black with smoke. On top of all this my 40 year old brother was dying from cancer so we stayed even though we were evacuated. But we had the local animal rescue come get our animals we couldn't take with us quickly. My son-in-law is a firefighter, don't make them risk their life for an animal you could have moved when it was safe. Fire is no joke!

My husband and I went into a fire to rescue horses, found 2 dogs in a cage along w/3 horses, and I had to walk one a 1/2 mile down a road with everything on fire around us because he wouldn't load and I did want to leave him or smak him for fear that he would be scarded forever! At the last minute I grabbed his head, put my mouth to his ear and swore like a sailor that if he didn't get in that trailer ......all the guys who were ready to beat his butt asked what I said but by that time the fire crested over the ravine we were in and we loaded up and drove through houses on fire as far as I could see.

For the safety of you, your animals and the people who will, willingly risk thier lives to save them.....make arrangments now!

That last fire, where we lost my brother....over 400 homes were lost and we knew more then 1/2 of them.

Good luck to you....

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

OK, got the horses loaded out. That is a big relief. No way to do that quickly.

Dogs are in a pen where they can be quickly loaded if need be. So the plan is dogs in the truck, one dog and the cats in the car, go bags in the trunk with "important" stuff.

On the bright side, the place that took in the horses does training. Spirit has a weird way of giving gifts.

Any advice on the chickens?

 

[ChickenSnake]

You must be in Tomball! AND there was a structure fire over on my side of things in Spring, I could see it on the way to my house on 45 and I had a 'FREAK OUT' moment in the car where a speeding ticket didn't seem to matter very much. I haven't heard any updates on either of those fires in a couple of hours... I hope its gone out!

Glad to hear you've got the animals in mind and ready to go... how many chickens do you have?

 

[ChickenSnake]

Also just a few helpful sites:

http://tfsweb.tamu.edu/main/article.aspx?id=12888

http://txforestservice.tamu.edu/main/default.aspx

http://houston.justweather.com/severe/#warninghouston

This page seems to be the most up to date: http://inciweb.org/

This is the Texas page for incident info: http://inciweb.org/state/45/