Wow, just yesterday my neighbor was burning dead brush in a wooded corner lot next to his house and across the street from our home. My husband was very concerned but then we did not even give it a thought when we went to bed (and it was rather windy). Thanks for the story and the warning. And I absolutely believe God stepped in - that's just how good our God is!
K: Caution is the word. If a neighbor is burning brush, check the 12 hour weather forecast for any large changes in wind or direction. If you find some, share them with the neighbor.
What a terrifying experience! I very much appreciate your giving credit to God for drawing your attention to the fire. He is in the details of our lives in small ways and in very significant ways, such as this. It is our choice to acknowledge Him, though He loves us either way. It inspires me to see you give Him the glory; He is truly worthy of it. And I am so grateful for the person (or angel) He guided to your home to protect you and your neighbor’s homes — a true act of love.
Whoever this person was he saw the fire and acted correctly. Rationally (part of critical thinking) I would be very surprised if he was supernatural? I just wanted to say that living in an area with trees, either older houses with planted trees that have matured or new developments within old plantations and natural forests, woodland management is key. The problem is that the natural forests in the USA have wild fires and have done for millennia, particularly in the west.. The problem is that we do not allow this and debris collects and when there is an inevitable fire it will be very intense and last longer.
More people living in woods and forests means more people will be affected by fire, it's that simple. Same rationale as if you build on flood plans you are more likely to suffer from floods! The take away from this story, in my humble opinion, is that if you live in a heavily wooded area or an area that is at risk of fire, educate everyone so that they too can act quickly and reduce the risk of a wild fire getting out of control, as well as preventing fires by clearing debris and preventing it from accumulating in built up areas.
Dan: Yes he did. I don't necessarily believe that he was supernatural (although it's possible). My belief is that God put him in that situation, and he acted appropriately... Re your second point, that is why we periodically clean and dispose of (burn) lawn debris from trees (e.g., pine needles and cones).
I love stories like this John! As believers we know that the Lord works in mysterious ways, but it still surprises us when He does this. My adult son had this same kind of thing happen to him last summer. A trailer he was hauling had a blowout on a tire on the freeway, then a spark from the highway set the trailer on fire, while he and others stopping to help were trying to put the fire out 2 men dressed as soldiers got out of a non-military vehicle and quickly put out the grass fire that had started alongside of the road. Had these men not put out the grass fire it would have taken out thousands of acres in the vicinity. When my son went to thank the soldiers for their help no one could find them and only a few of the people who assisted had even seen them.
I do. Plus, they have been repeated many times to my children and my grandchildren. When there are miraculous episodes it's hard not to share them with others. If you ever have time or the inkling to read any of my stuff it's at https://lifewithrainydays.blogspot.com. For the record my Debra means "Bee" aka "Busy Bee" in Hebrew and I flit from spot to spot, thought to thought. LOL! (and I am not a woman of few words or thoughts, so I have had to get them out of my brain since I was about 12 years old)
My father died in a fire, and I've always had a love/fear relationship with it. I heat my farmhouse in northern Maine with a wood stove and just burned two big brush piles, the result of reclaiming an overgrown pasture, but there's still a foot of snow on the ground and the piles were far from the farmhouse. Nothing, to me, is more frightening than the thought of a forest fire here on my mountain. I keep my dog trailer ready and my truck hooked up to it in fire season to evacuate my sled dogs in a hurry if need be. There's little time to waste when the wind is blowing hard. I'm so glad your story has a happy ending. There truly are angels among us, and one of them was watching over you. God knows how important you are to so many of us.
Angels will often intercede and they appear as humans. This has occurred many, many times and is known to be a fact. I believe your assessment to be correct. If this incident occurred at my house, I would believe as you did.
Sorry to read about your 2am door knock and the narrow escape you had.
My family had a house in bushland (Australia) where the local fire brigade had been carrying out a “controlled burn” (in preparation for the bushfire season). At 2am the following morning, a resident called the Fire Brigade to tell them that there was still some material burning – they said not to worry, we’ll come and put it out in the morning. At about 4am the resident called the FB again to say that the fire was expanding, but was told that the Brigade could not come out yet because the fire truck’s battery was on charge. Later that morning our house burned down!!
I guess the lesson is that a fire is not out until it is totally, thoroughly extinguished.
Case: What a horrific tragedy! My sincerest condolences to you and your family. Since I was there when my family home burned down, I am well aware why they have identified that as one of the top five tragedies that we can experience.
WOW!!!! That is quite an experience! Lucky is not the word for it. God must have been watching over you. Back in the days when I was mountain biking in woods all over the area, we happened onto a few fires that were in their infancy. Had we not happened by, these fires could have been disastrous. We usually had only a half empty water bottle that was inadequate to extinguish anything. Several fellows with bladders was our main extinguisher. Hey whatever works.... Glad you are all OK.
Kirt: I share your view that as Bad as it could have been, God enables us the opportunity to minimize the negative impact. Just the numerous responses I've received here (and in my personal email) have been a positive.
John, so glad the story had a happy ending. When I was still living back east (Northern Virginia), I received a call from a lieutenant in the Bend, OR fire department. I had purchased a home in Bend, where I was planning to move upon retirement, and his call gave me quite a scare. He reported that the fire department responded to a call from a neighbor and found that the mulch in the back yard had ignited, possibly due to someone carelessly tossing a lit cigarette on it. This was in the summertime when it is quite hot and dry in Central Oregon. The lieutenant quickly assured me that there was no damage to the house but if the mulch fire had reached the juniper behind the house and ignited the tree, it might have been a different story as the juniper limbs brushed up beside the house and under the eaves. When I heard that I asked my landscaper to immediately trim the juniper away from the house.
We live with the constant threat of wildfires in Central Oregon during the summer months, and there have been several major ones in the Bend area.
My son is Wildland Fire Fighter in the summer months. He has responded to many fires in Central Oregon and Washington in the 12 years he has been doing this. He always praises the landowner that keeps the vegetation away from the structures and has saved many structures due to the constant care of landowners who have great respect for the power of fire.
We live in a forest in the Pacific Northwest and must be extraordinarily careful with all outside burning during our dry months. Should we want to do ANY outside burning, we need to obtain a permit from our volunteer fire department. They will only issue permits when they deem the fire danger to be low. That means moist fuels and little wind for the duration of the permit. This protects everyone.
When something bad happens or almost happens, I like to talk about Lessons Learned. What could I have done to lessen the possibility of a fire?
I have two suggestions, based on your experience:
1) Don't burned forest debris. I turn the many trees that blow down during our harsh winter into firewood that can be safely burned in our wood stove. That amounts to about 15,000 pounds of wood a year.
Forest debris that is too small to be useful in a wood stove can be turned into valuable mulch with a chipper-shredder. These will make short work of a large pile of debris and will not smoke up the area. I have one that runs off of the PTO on my tractor.
2) I would suggest that your fire department get a tanker truck for responding to fires that are too far from a full flow fire hydrant. Our volunteers respond with a fully loaded tanker that allows them to start putting out a fire immediately upon arrival. Should they need more water, they can refill the truck at a fire hydrant or local river or lake.
High winds turn ordinary fires into extremely dangerous conflagrations that may be impossible to stop until the wind dies down. We had one (Eagle Creek fire) that was started by a kid playing with a firecracker about 20 miles away. Firefighters were able to protect some structures and our water system, but could not stop the firestorm, until the strong East Wind died down. The fire even crossed the wide Columbia River. We were lucky to experience only hot air and lots of ash.
I am glad to hear that you were similarly lucky this time.
Gordon: TY for your good suggestions. I was strickly burning pine needles and cones — lawn debris, not forest debris... A lesson learned is tp pay more attention to the weather forecast for the next twelve hours from when I start such a fire.
So glad that you had good results, in the end -- and who knows -- there is the old "entertaining angels unaware" thing . . .
We have always burned and are very careful. Several years ago on a 5 acre bit of ground in north central Idaho, where our little cabin was under construction, we had an RV spot on which we parked our small 5th wheel. Some 20 feet away we had a large burn pile that we added to and would leave to friends to burn in the fall for us.
One day we used a burn pit and a few days later I wanted to use it again -- so I had my husband load up the wheelbarrow with ashes. He took it out to the burn pile, which was -- by that time about 15 feet tall and at least that wide. It had large branches from tree limbs downed the winter before, to small piles of weeds and mowed grasses. He started to dump the ashes and thought about it -- dumping them at least 3 feet out from the pile. Nothing out of the ordinary. We went in that evening and watched some TV, then off to bed. We slept soundly. Then morning came and we got up. When we went outside, the pile was GONE! COMPLETELY GONE -- BURNED TO NOTHING.
I called our neighbor and asked her if she had seen anything the night before. She said YES. She saw the HUGE FIRE on our property! We were up on the side of a mountain -- but no trees near the cabin, our rig or our pickup. That fire would have been clearly visible in the town 3 miles away! We were sound asleep - heard nothing - smelled nothing. Our truck was not singed or burned at all. THANK YOU GUARDIAN ANGEL. We are MUCH MORE CAREFUL now and drown any ashes fully. That was a real EYE-OPENER.
Glad all is well at your place and if you're like us -- a BIG IMPRESSION was made.
Yes, I was, John. I don't know you remember me, but we met over the internet back around 2009 or 2010 when my husband and I and one other couple were fighting against the County in Eastern WA. They were working with First Wind to put up a "wind farm" on the buttes surrounding our 10 acres of Heaven on the Palouse in Eastern WA. We may have been introduced by Mary Kay Barton, NYS. I met so many in the fight back then. You have really branched out and I very much appreciate all you do. . . we lost our battle, sold (at a significant loss) and left Eastern WA for Idaho. NOW, I have learned only a week ago, that there is another "wind farm" proposed near Kamiak Butte, which is a County Park near Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID. Unlike our battle, there appear to be a few hundred residents who DO NOT WANT THE PROJECT near them. I don't see how they will prevail. WHERE WERE THEY IN 2009? Now the County has ordinances in the Ag codes for industrial wind projects. I don't see them prevailing. Should have joined us when the first one was knocking at the door.
At any rate, we were VERY FORTUNATE that our 5th wheel did not catch fire -- or our pickup truck. We count ourselves BLESSED BY AN ANGEL.
Carolyn: Even though I've dealt with a few thousand people regarding wind projects, I do remember our prior contact. We've learned a lot regarding wind turbines over the last 25 years, and today we have a strong scientific case against them. On the other side are the same people who believe that we need wind turbines "to save the world." However, there are zero Scientific studies that have concluded that turbines save a consequential amount of CO2.
YES, back then Nina Pierpont's Wind Turbine Syndrome was very new and even though it was peer reviewed shortly after, the folks I was dealing with pooh-poohed her and mocked her findings. It all brings up very sad memories for me. The spot where we lived was utterly beautiful, peaceful and pastoral. Today -- not at all. Very sad. YET, you are correct ZERO scientific studies to support their alleged benefits in saving the world!
Wow, just yesterday my neighbor was burning dead brush in a wooded corner lot next to his house and across the street from our home. My husband was very concerned but then we did not even give it a thought when we went to bed (and it was rather windy). Thanks for the story and the warning. And I absolutely believe God stepped in - that's just how good our God is!
K: Caution is the word. If a neighbor is burning brush, check the 12 hour weather forecast for any large changes in wind or direction. If you find some, share them with the neighbor.
How do you think, what is the lesson the stranger gave to You?
John,
What a terrifying experience! I very much appreciate your giving credit to God for drawing your attention to the fire. He is in the details of our lives in small ways and in very significant ways, such as this. It is our choice to acknowledge Him, though He loves us either way. It inspires me to see you give Him the glory; He is truly worthy of it. And I am so grateful for the person (or angel) He guided to your home to protect you and your neighbor’s homes — a true act of love.
Kind regards,
Angela
Angela: We are on ther same page...
Whoever this person was he saw the fire and acted correctly. Rationally (part of critical thinking) I would be very surprised if he was supernatural? I just wanted to say that living in an area with trees, either older houses with planted trees that have matured or new developments within old plantations and natural forests, woodland management is key. The problem is that the natural forests in the USA have wild fires and have done for millennia, particularly in the west.. The problem is that we do not allow this and debris collects and when there is an inevitable fire it will be very intense and last longer.
More people living in woods and forests means more people will be affected by fire, it's that simple. Same rationale as if you build on flood plans you are more likely to suffer from floods! The take away from this story, in my humble opinion, is that if you live in a heavily wooded area or an area that is at risk of fire, educate everyone so that they too can act quickly and reduce the risk of a wild fire getting out of control, as well as preventing fires by clearing debris and preventing it from accumulating in built up areas.
Dan: Yes he did. I don't necessarily believe that he was supernatural (although it's possible). My belief is that God put him in that situation, and he acted appropriately... Re your second point, that is why we periodically clean and dispose of (burn) lawn debris from trees (e.g., pine needles and cones).
I believe that was an angel.
Toni: Your guess is as good as mine...
If you are on a short dead end road, your Samaritan likely saw the flames from the main road and wisely left his vehicle there.
NS: That's a good idea but that would be like a half mile away. It's possible though.
I love stories like this John! As believers we know that the Lord works in mysterious ways, but it still surprises us when He does this. My adult son had this same kind of thing happen to him last summer. A trailer he was hauling had a blowout on a tire on the freeway, then a spark from the highway set the trailer on fire, while he and others stopping to help were trying to put the fire out 2 men dressed as soldiers got out of a non-military vehicle and quickly put out the grass fire that had started alongside of the road. Had these men not put out the grass fire it would have taken out thousands of acres in the vicinity. When my son went to thank the soldiers for their help no one could find them and only a few of the people who assisted had even seen them.
Debra: Wonderful story! We ought to put together a book of these stories...
I have more!! LOL! 40 years worth!
Debra: Write down an outoine of each so you don't forget... Seriously.
I do. Plus, they have been repeated many times to my children and my grandchildren. When there are miraculous episodes it's hard not to share them with others. If you ever have time or the inkling to read any of my stuff it's at https://lifewithrainydays.blogspot.com. For the record my Debra means "Bee" aka "Busy Bee" in Hebrew and I flit from spot to spot, thought to thought. LOL! (and I am not a woman of few words or thoughts, so I have had to get them out of my brain since I was about 12 years old)
My father died in a fire, and I've always had a love/fear relationship with it. I heat my farmhouse in northern Maine with a wood stove and just burned two big brush piles, the result of reclaiming an overgrown pasture, but there's still a foot of snow on the ground and the piles were far from the farmhouse. Nothing, to me, is more frightening than the thought of a forest fire here on my mountain. I keep my dog trailer ready and my truck hooked up to it in fire season to evacuate my sled dogs in a hurry if need be. There's little time to waste when the wind is blowing hard. I'm so glad your story has a happy ending. There truly are angels among us, and one of them was watching over you. God knows how important you are to so many of us.
SM: Thank you for your good thoughts. Hope you never have to deal with a fire at your farmhouse...
Thank you for sharing this story of your experience and praise be to God🙌
I needed this story today John! God is good all the time.
I was flooded with memories of times God has saved the day or my life- Through random people or angels showing up in miraculous ways!
James: Glad that my experience was relevant to you in your life.
Angels will often intercede and they appear as humans. This has occurred many, many times and is known to be a fact. I believe your assessment to be correct. If this incident occurred at my house, I would believe as you did.
God Bless
Tom
Tom: TY for the affirmation.
Hi John,
Sorry to read about your 2am door knock and the narrow escape you had.
My family had a house in bushland (Australia) where the local fire brigade had been carrying out a “controlled burn” (in preparation for the bushfire season). At 2am the following morning, a resident called the Fire Brigade to tell them that there was still some material burning – they said not to worry, we’ll come and put it out in the morning. At about 4am the resident called the FB again to say that the fire was expanding, but was told that the Brigade could not come out yet because the fire truck’s battery was on charge. Later that morning our house burned down!!
I guess the lesson is that a fire is not out until it is totally, thoroughly extinguished.
Regards,
Case
"The fire truck's battery was on charge." Is this another warning tale of EV uselessness?
Case: What a horrific tragedy! My sincerest condolences to you and your family. Since I was there when my family home burned down, I am well aware why they have identified that as one of the top five tragedies that we can experience.
Hi John,
WOW!!!! That is quite an experience! Lucky is not the word for it. God must have been watching over you. Back in the days when I was mountain biking in woods all over the area, we happened onto a few fires that were in their infancy. Had we not happened by, these fires could have been disastrous. We usually had only a half empty water bottle that was inadequate to extinguish anything. Several fellows with bladders was our main extinguisher. Hey whatever works.... Glad you are all OK.
Kirt
Kirt: I share your view that as Bad as it could have been, God enables us the opportunity to minimize the negative impact. Just the numerous responses I've received here (and in my personal email) have been a positive.
John, so glad the story had a happy ending. When I was still living back east (Northern Virginia), I received a call from a lieutenant in the Bend, OR fire department. I had purchased a home in Bend, where I was planning to move upon retirement, and his call gave me quite a scare. He reported that the fire department responded to a call from a neighbor and found that the mulch in the back yard had ignited, possibly due to someone carelessly tossing a lit cigarette on it. This was in the summertime when it is quite hot and dry in Central Oregon. The lieutenant quickly assured me that there was no damage to the house but if the mulch fire had reached the juniper behind the house and ignited the tree, it might have been a different story as the juniper limbs brushed up beside the house and under the eaves. When I heard that I asked my landscaper to immediately trim the juniper away from the house.
We live with the constant threat of wildfires in Central Oregon during the summer months, and there have been several major ones in the Bend area.
My son is Wildland Fire Fighter in the summer months. He has responded to many fires in Central Oregon and Washington in the 12 years he has been doing this. He always praises the landowner that keeps the vegetation away from the structures and has saved many structures due to the constant care of landowners who have great respect for the power of fire.
Debra: Yes, that is a good idea.
Paul: Sounds like another example where the Big Guy stepped in to put you on alert, but without any major negative consequences.
What a great story! Thank you for sharing. I think your life was touched by angel. Something to always remember and to thank God for!
Karen: It could very well be an angel — ansd I do thank God for this assistance.
We live in a forest in the Pacific Northwest and must be extraordinarily careful with all outside burning during our dry months. Should we want to do ANY outside burning, we need to obtain a permit from our volunteer fire department. They will only issue permits when they deem the fire danger to be low. That means moist fuels and little wind for the duration of the permit. This protects everyone.
When something bad happens or almost happens, I like to talk about Lessons Learned. What could I have done to lessen the possibility of a fire?
I have two suggestions, based on your experience:
1) Don't burned forest debris. I turn the many trees that blow down during our harsh winter into firewood that can be safely burned in our wood stove. That amounts to about 15,000 pounds of wood a year.
Forest debris that is too small to be useful in a wood stove can be turned into valuable mulch with a chipper-shredder. These will make short work of a large pile of debris and will not smoke up the area. I have one that runs off of the PTO on my tractor.
2) I would suggest that your fire department get a tanker truck for responding to fires that are too far from a full flow fire hydrant. Our volunteers respond with a fully loaded tanker that allows them to start putting out a fire immediately upon arrival. Should they need more water, they can refill the truck at a fire hydrant or local river or lake.
High winds turn ordinary fires into extremely dangerous conflagrations that may be impossible to stop until the wind dies down. We had one (Eagle Creek fire) that was started by a kid playing with a firecracker about 20 miles away. Firefighters were able to protect some structures and our water system, but could not stop the firestorm, until the strong East Wind died down. The fire even crossed the wide Columbia River. We were lucky to experience only hot air and lots of ash.
I am glad to hear that you were similarly lucky this time.
Gordon: TY for your good suggestions. I was strickly burning pine needles and cones — lawn debris, not forest debris... A lesson learned is tp pay more attention to the weather forecast for the next twelve hours from when I start such a fire.
So glad that you had good results, in the end -- and who knows -- there is the old "entertaining angels unaware" thing . . .
We have always burned and are very careful. Several years ago on a 5 acre bit of ground in north central Idaho, where our little cabin was under construction, we had an RV spot on which we parked our small 5th wheel. Some 20 feet away we had a large burn pile that we added to and would leave to friends to burn in the fall for us.
One day we used a burn pit and a few days later I wanted to use it again -- so I had my husband load up the wheelbarrow with ashes. He took it out to the burn pile, which was -- by that time about 15 feet tall and at least that wide. It had large branches from tree limbs downed the winter before, to small piles of weeds and mowed grasses. He started to dump the ashes and thought about it -- dumping them at least 3 feet out from the pile. Nothing out of the ordinary. We went in that evening and watched some TV, then off to bed. We slept soundly. Then morning came and we got up. When we went outside, the pile was GONE! COMPLETELY GONE -- BURNED TO NOTHING.
I called our neighbor and asked her if she had seen anything the night before. She said YES. She saw the HUGE FIRE on our property! We were up on the side of a mountain -- but no trees near the cabin, our rig or our pickup. That fire would have been clearly visible in the town 3 miles away! We were sound asleep - heard nothing - smelled nothing. Our truck was not singed or burned at all. THANK YOU GUARDIAN ANGEL. We are MUCH MORE CAREFUL now and drown any ashes fully. That was a real EYE-OPENER.
Glad all is well at your place and if you're like us -- a BIG IMPRESSION was made.
Carolyn: TY for that interesting story! You were fortunate that nothing else happened!
Yes, I was, John. I don't know you remember me, but we met over the internet back around 2009 or 2010 when my husband and I and one other couple were fighting against the County in Eastern WA. They were working with First Wind to put up a "wind farm" on the buttes surrounding our 10 acres of Heaven on the Palouse in Eastern WA. We may have been introduced by Mary Kay Barton, NYS. I met so many in the fight back then. You have really branched out and I very much appreciate all you do. . . we lost our battle, sold (at a significant loss) and left Eastern WA for Idaho. NOW, I have learned only a week ago, that there is another "wind farm" proposed near Kamiak Butte, which is a County Park near Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID. Unlike our battle, there appear to be a few hundred residents who DO NOT WANT THE PROJECT near them. I don't see how they will prevail. WHERE WERE THEY IN 2009? Now the County has ordinances in the Ag codes for industrial wind projects. I don't see them prevailing. Should have joined us when the first one was knocking at the door.
At any rate, we were VERY FORTUNATE that our 5th wheel did not catch fire -- or our pickup truck. We count ourselves BLESSED BY AN ANGEL.
Carolyn: Even though I've dealt with a few thousand people regarding wind projects, I do remember our prior contact. We've learned a lot regarding wind turbines over the last 25 years, and today we have a strong scientific case against them. On the other side are the same people who believe that we need wind turbines "to save the world." However, there are zero Scientific studies that have concluded that turbines save a consequential amount of CO2.
YES, back then Nina Pierpont's Wind Turbine Syndrome was very new and even though it was peer reviewed shortly after, the folks I was dealing with pooh-poohed her and mocked her findings. It all brings up very sad memories for me. The spot where we lived was utterly beautiful, peaceful and pastoral. Today -- not at all. Very sad. YET, you are correct ZERO scientific studies to support their alleged benefits in saving the world!