And the Wildfire grows...

It is hot here - pushing 90 degrees and the wind is picking up. Thunderstorms are in the forecast. Let's hope they are wrong. This fire needs a change in weather - no wind and cooler weather with increasing humidity would help. The fire was pushing 6000 acres at noon after a night of erratic and unexpected activity.

The air often clears at night except for directly above the fire. Only then can we see the true location. I can still see the flames at night and the core area looks like hot orange molten lava.

The pall of the settling smoke as the sun sets gives a surreal look to the high desert landscape. It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

But even though many people are so busy fighting this fire - from the support crews right down to the fire lines, life still goes on here. These fawns made an appearance for the first time.

The hummingbirds have drawn battle lines over the four feeders I have hanging on various sides of the house. Even though the smoke is thick here during the daytime hours, they must keep flying and seeking out sustenance. That smoke has kept the air tankers on the ground more than anyone would like - I hope they will be up and flying when I head into town later. Tramp 1 has been in Idaho on business and I am headed to the airport to pick him up tonight.

And all we can do is wait, hope and pray that they can get this fire corralled soon. The number of personnel working this fire varies from nighttime to daytime but it is over 700 today and more likely pushing 1000+ with all the various agencies that are providing support.

There was a bit of a flap over the fact that inmate firefighters were brought in from a prison and were taking away job opportunities for other fire fighters. Understandable in this economy - unemployment is some 19 percent in this area. But they aren't complaining anymore - there is enough fire now to go around... the Hotshot teams, the BLM, the ODF and many contract crews are all working around the clock.