In the HEAT of the moment

The Fire: lending a hand

I decided I liked him and wanted to keep him around. I brought him home to meet my family, and then wanted to take him to the large dairy operation where I work to show him around. Since we both love cows so much. He'd shared with me one of his places of work the previous Saturday, and now I wanted to share my place of work with him as well. 

As we left my home and drove down the road a fire chief (SUV) flew past us. I had managed to find a tiny place to pull off the main road so the fire chief could go past. The fire chief turned right onto Fairview Rd, the road we were turning onto next. 

I drove down and up and around the curve until we came to the clearing and that's where we saw smoke on the right. It was an impressive, and gut-clenching sight. A neighboring farm's old barn was up in flames and thick white smoke filled the blue sky. 

Being a photographer by bloodline my first thought was, Ooh, photo! I reached to the back seat and grabbed my camera bag, asking my friend to open it and I grabbed out my new Canon 70D camera. I quickly took a photo, and continued to drive in the direction of the barn fire. 

My reaction was that, since the fire chief was 'on scene' I was sure the fire trucks would be close behind and I wanted to stay out of the way.
"I just want to take a picture," I said. My friend instantly answered, "NO, we have to stopped. I can't just drive by, I have to help." "Okay," I said, and pulled into the grass, out of the way of the driveway. In milliseconds of me shifting into park he flew from the car and was gone.
I jumped from the vehicle and ran around the front of my car. I knew I'd regret it later if I didn't pause and take a picture... I took two as the roof burst into flames, the red/orange flames highlighting against the white smoke filling the air. Then I literally tossed my camera onto the passenger seat of the car and ran to help in anyway I could. 

As far as we were told, from someone on the scene, there weren't any animals in the barn (I learned a few days later the only animal, a pet calf, had been removed to a safer place earlier). We started to haul everything from the heavy farm equipment to any small stuff we could grab from the large equipment shed, which was closely attached to the burning barn. 

Flames were flying up beside us in the old barn as we worked to haul grain wagons, drill (seed) wagons, combine heads, and other sorts of farm equipment, plus some construction equipment as well outside into the fields. (Easily most of these items cost over $100,000 individually, and since this was an overflow shed to another farm it was a lot of odds and ends.) 

Fire trucks quickly appeared and neighboring people poured in from every direction to help haul out the equipment. (There was not a tractor on sight so we used either man-power, a gator/golf cart, a small little tractor and a pick-up truck until a better tractor arrived later on.) We spent nearly an hour removing everything from the shed while the fire men worked to soak down the old barn all around us. There had to be more than 6-8 fire trucks on sight, and several tankers around us. We worked around them and they (the fire fighters) worked to get the fire out in a minimal time. Yet, the barn was old and burned so fast, it was unbelievable. 

One time when a group of us were working in the barn at removing equipment, my friend, came up to me. He explained that he wasn't sure where I was for a minute there. It was also around the time that the wind had changed and the smoke began pouring into the shed for a while. It was a bit rough for breathing, to say the least. I didn't realize the level of panic I had put him under until we were sharing the stories with my family later, at home. I realized later how badly I had scared him in that moment. I had been so focused on "getting the job done" I hadn't realized he might not know where I was. There was people everywhere, though I didn't really know everybody, and yet for a few moments, I was missing in his mind. (He didn't let me get too far out of his sight after that...)

A large road paving machine sat in the front corner of the shed, still a safe distance from the fire, but there was always a chance the barn's fire could spread quickly into the shed and everything needed to be removed. The old machine had a hard time starting on a normal day with an hour jump-start on a battery. Several men worked on jumping the battery of the paver but nothing happened when they turned the key. (There's really no way to drag a 20,000-ton machine like that with the skid/tread-like tires... lol)
Three battery packs, a little battery jump-pack, and a pick-up truck later... and the key finally turned over. On the third or fourth try the machine started right up (I was praying like crazy!!) and we hauled everything (batteries, truck, etc.) out of the way and one of the men drove the paver out of the shed to an open place in the front yard. 

In all that we removed from the shed during the fire, a pipe from the back of a little grain wagon was the only thing that got burnt by the flames from the barn. That was burnt because the pipe was sticking through the wall into the old barn where the fire was. Nothing else (as far as I am aware) was damaged from the equipment shed. Praise God! 

There was, however, a newly-remodeled antique tractor sitting inside the old barn at the time of the fire, which was a apparently a great loss to the owner. I'm sure they are counting their blessings all at the same time. 

We were there for about an hour and once the fire was under control and we had done all we could the two of us left. 

We still went over to the farm where I worked, as we'd originally been planning, and I gave my friend a small tour. (We also took the time to wash the soot from our hands and arms before we went to find the cows.) An hour or so later we headed home and had a bit of fun sharing all the excitement of the stories with my family. 

Below are the photos I took with my new camera, the Canon 70D. I like how well these photos turned out. But more than anything I'm so grateful we were in the right place at the right time, and my friend had the sense to jump in and lend a hand, when I was focused on getting out of the way... 

(These two photos were taken less than an hour part! /\ \/ )

In closing: I learned the following week that the fire was caused by a heat lamp. Remember to keep a safe distance between a heat/light source and other objects. When lighting candles around your home, enjoy them, but blow them out when you are leaving the room, and don't let them burn down to the bottom of the jar (there is risk of them exploding the glass). Be smart, and be safe. Have a blessed week!!