White Swan on fire
Feb. 12th, 2011 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurcheThis weekend I've been over in Yakima with my mom, just sort of roaming around, exploring the area and spending time together (Yakima is right around halfway between where we each live, so it works well). Today we headed down to Toppenish to see the murals -- there are 73 of them painted on buildings scattered around the town, detailing the history of the area. Very cool! And I got some great photos... but the today's photo was actually taken out in White Swan, WA.
Smoke-filled streets.
Earlier in the day, I was helping my mom pay her Casino Tax (she'd handed me some money to go have fun with the slot machines.. and they had Star Wars themed ones, so I went for it!) out on the edges of Toppenish and when we stepped outside I noticed a very strong smell of burning sagebrush in the air. I remember looking around to see if I could spot where the fire was and couldn't see anything anywhere on the horizon.
Well, after we spent the afternoon walking around downtown Toppenish admiring the murals, we started to head out of town out toward Fort Simcoe and realized we could see a HUGE plume of smoke in the distance... in the direction we were heading. We got passed by emergency vehicle after emergency vehicle and when we finally reached White Swan, we could actually see the flames out on the edge of town and discovered that the main road was closed... filled with emergency vehicles. The town was completely covered in smoke, with ash falling blowing in from the fires. We got a few photos and then got the heck out of there, because it was obvious that they were starting to work on evacuating the town.
Last we heard, most of the town has been evacuated. Official reports are that at least five homes were lost, but some of the online chatter out of the town is saying that it could be as high as 20 homes -- thankfully, no injuries. Supposedly, the fire is still only about 25% contained. The real problem is that we've got some mega high winds out here today... I'm amazed they've been able to contain it at all. As we were making our way back down to Toppenish, we passed even more emergency vehicles, support vehicles and heavy equipment being hauled in to work on a firebreak. Really hoping they're able to get it under control soon... it was already right on the edge of town when we were there.
Smoke-filled streets.
Earlier in the day, I was helping my mom pay her Casino Tax (she'd handed me some money to go have fun with the slot machines.. and they had Star Wars themed ones, so I went for it!) out on the edges of Toppenish and when we stepped outside I noticed a very strong smell of burning sagebrush in the air. I remember looking around to see if I could spot where the fire was and couldn't see anything anywhere on the horizon.
Well, after we spent the afternoon walking around downtown Toppenish admiring the murals, we started to head out of town out toward Fort Simcoe and realized we could see a HUGE plume of smoke in the distance... in the direction we were heading. We got passed by emergency vehicle after emergency vehicle and when we finally reached White Swan, we could actually see the flames out on the edge of town and discovered that the main road was closed... filled with emergency vehicles. The town was completely covered in smoke, with ash falling blowing in from the fires. We got a few photos and then got the heck out of there, because it was obvious that they were starting to work on evacuating the town.
Last we heard, most of the town has been evacuated. Official reports are that at least five homes were lost, but some of the online chatter out of the town is saying that it could be as high as 20 homes -- thankfully, no injuries. Supposedly, the fire is still only about 25% contained. The real problem is that we've got some mega high winds out here today... I'm amazed they've been able to contain it at all. As we were making our way back down to Toppenish, we passed even more emergency vehicles, support vehicles and heavy equipment being hauled in to work on a firebreak. Really hoping they're able to get it under control soon... it was already right on the edge of town when we were there.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-14 06:19 am (UTC)