The wildfires out west.

It seems like most of the Inland Northwest is on fire, and has been for a good share of the summer. I had intended to make a trip out west sometime this year with my friend Ina, and show her how beautiful north Idaho was, and introduce her to my friends and family out there.
However, there is just not much of Idaho to see anymore. Both of my sons that live out there have fires within a few miles, and so does several of my good friends, as well as my grandson. They all live in different parts of either Idaho or Washington; so the fires are all separate ones.

One of the saddest pictures that I saw posted on Facebook was a man who was getting his horses loaded to evacuate them to safety, when the wind turned, and torched the truck and horse trailer.
Somehow, he survived, but the horses burned to death in the fire.
When the wind changes, the fire can move very swiftly; so it is always best to evacuate as soon as you know that there is a danger from the fire.

Many years ago, when my kids were little, we had a forest fire that was blazing towards our house. We had a terrible time even caching the horses, they were so spooked. Then, we had to ride down a trail through the woods to get the horses into town and to the fairgrounds to safety.

We could smell the fire behind us, and we kept looking over our shoulder as we hurried down the trail into town. I was sure it would turn out like in the movies, when you look around and see the fire gaining on you as you run for safety;
We were all praying to get there fast enough, and my mom called to tell me that when she was praying, she saw an angel standing at the crossroads just before our house, and he turned the fire back.
After it was over, we learned that when the fire reached the road my mom saw, the wind turned back on itself, and it put the fire out.
Answers to prayers.....

Here is a picture of beautiful Lake Pend Oreille, how it usually looks at the beach, and how it looks right now.

 

Here is just kind of a good news report about the terrible wildfire situation. I was reading that Bruce Willis, who owns a home near one of the forest fires in Southern Idaho, has paid for catered meals for almost 500 firefighters, to be able to show his appreciation for their help in a tangible way.
Sun Valley has a lot of rich people who have houses in that area; but this is the first that I have seen of one these celebrities actually doing something like this to thank the firefighters, and help their efforts in controling the many fires in Idaho.

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/...ce=CCFB&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=CCFB

 

The fires are terrible! I just did a piece on traveling and RVing near the affected areas
http://www.mobilerving.com/blog/wildfires-out-west-what-you-need-to-know
Some of the stories I ran across during my research were absolutely heartbreaking.
I remember driving from Montana to Louisiana in July 2003 when the fires were raging in Denver. It was pretty dicey getting through there.
Those firefighters and smoke jumpers are awesome. I used to work for FEMA and had the opportunity to work alongside some of them - amazing folks.