Our valley has been full of smoke, some days, from fires down in the Platte Valley canyons. I’ve helped fight a prairie fire or two, but those in canyon country are a whole different deal and with the extreme heat, and wild winds, I can’t imagine how dangerous and miserable it is for the fire fighters. We take them for granted too much, you know. Whether they are part of an urban organization, or just ranchers with a home-built spray rig, they go out and risk their lives at all times of the day and night, sometimes for days on end. One of my sons remembers more than one time when he was spraying in smoke so thick he couldn’t even see where they were going, and frequently crossing over flames to get ahead of the main fire. Imagine being in a strange pasture in the middle of the night, not knowing the terrain, and driving blind. Imagine the wife at home, knowing how the drill goes down and worrying. Imagine being the husband driving one spray rig and knowing his wife is out there in another one, wondering if she will be safe, especially if some of the older kids are aboard. Imagine when the fire is finally out, sitting in your rig, wondering where in the heck you are and how to find your way out of the strange territory in the dark.
We pray for rain, but then when a cloud builds, worry how bad the lightning will be, and if there’s enough rain in it to help put out any fires that start. We get up in the night and go out to scan the horizon for a glow in a place that shouldn’t have one, and sniff for smoke. We’re always at the ready, and everything takes a back seat to range fires. I know of at least one rancher who had covid but still loaded up and went out to fight a blaze in the dark.
If you’re a fire fighter of any kind, you wake in the night for weeks, still fighting a blaze that you helped put out. And if you had to shoot cattle that were too badly burned to survive, well, there’s no getting over that, no matter how tough you are.
Fire season will last a few more weeks, and we’ll all be on edge till the first snow. It’s a helpless feeling and, realistically, there’s not much we can do to prepare, other than keep the spray rigs full and some green watered around the buildings. But please, ranchers, keep your windmills on and stock tanks full. It may be the only chance to fill up a spray rig so it can go on saving the neighbor’s place. And with this hot dry weather, wildlife needs a water source.
As for the rest, prayer is appreciated. Also, a word of thanks to your local firemen and women. A lot of heroes don’t get much recognition because they are simply the folks we see every day in the grocery store, or on the street.
Meet me here next week, and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it.