FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) – In a small enclave in northern Arizona, where homes can be found in the Ponderosa pine forest and tourists love camping, hiking and quad cruising, it’s never been before strong winds.
But when those winds only rose and small fires consumed their homes, the residents of Girls Ranch near the flagpole were faced with a problem: to quickly take your best and flee, or to stay in the back and try to run away. High flame, unstable.
Most homeowners are gone. The couple remained in their seats. Another race to rescue animals owned by neighbors.
The fire, which started on Easter Sunday, engulfed the vacant spaces, the trunks of the trees were burned and the orange glow was cast on the arid landscape. The fire destroyed a corner of a woman’s balcony and destroyed two other houses, leaving a mosaic of carbon as the 30 square miles (77 square kilometers) fire was finally extinguished this weekend.
Elsewhere, firefighters in northern New Mexico continued to fight the largest active bushfire in the United States on Sunday as strong winds approached downtown Las Vegas.
Officials said the fire has damaged or destroyed 172 homes and at least 116 buildings since it started on April 6 and joined another bushfire last week. Officials said the fire rose to 162 square miles (419 square kilometers), but at least 30 percent was localized.
There have been several wildfires this spring that have pushed bewildered residents to make decisions on death and flight as the bushfire season heats up in the western United States. Years of hot and dry weather lead to exacerbation of fires, which burn more frequently in larger areas and over a longer period of time than in previous decades.
Some who live on the women’s ranch only have a few minutes to respond.
Paul Valley abandoned his physiotherapy appointment when he learned his home was in the evacuation zone. He hurried through the air and thick smoke to find his wife, who was at the end of the trip. His voice was screaming as he screamed over the smoke detector hitting the entire house.
“Bill, we need to leave!” She screamed.
But Bill Valley – who for years has cut fire lines by dosing in many states – would have survived. This is the same decision the couple made in 2010 when they were forced to evacuate due to another bushfire on this side. Paul Valley said he was never scared, but the choice wasn’t hard: “This is our house and he’s my wife.”
The couple watched the neighbors as they loaded the horses and donkeys and dragged them. They saw burning bushes fly down the main highway, a fire broke out in an old stone house, and a propane tank exploded.
“Boy, that blew him up,” Bill Valley said. “Like a bomb exploded.”
Firefighters called them even a few times to leave and agreed if the wind moved. More importantly, Bill Valley convinced them that he was in control of everything.
He thinned out parts of the national forest on the other side of the property line and regularly mowed grass. They stopped the sprayers outside and several times knocked Bill Valley to the edge of the forest, where the fire seemed to be creeping toward the neighbors ’homes. At night the flames flashed on the hill behind them like a red star in the sky.
“I found some interesting things, but not for too long,” he said. “I miss you? No.”
Ali Taranto and his wife, Tim, are next door. They saw the news of the fire in the Facebook neighborhood and they traveled from Winslow, where she worked as a nurse for nearly an hour, to inspect a 5-acre (2-acre) property.
Ali Taranto walked into a neighborhood called Girls Ranch, a former chaotic home of girls, and saw parts of the white fence melted into the ground.
He checked on a neighbor, Marianne Lefwich, who said she was fine. But for almost an hour no one heard Taranto. Leftvich’s daughter called and said her mother was stuck at home.
Taranto alerted the ambulance staff, he said, but the receptionist told him he was likely to go to Leftwich before they could. The half -conscious and breathless woman from Taranto realizes that she needs it. Helps evacuate Taranto.
“As a company in such emergencies, all systems are completely overloaded,” Taranto said. “Thank God I got there and I released it at the right time.”
Taranto brought Leftvich’s dogs to the wand, then returned to rescue the goat and cow he saw turned there.
Aside from the burnt grass and shrubs, the Taranto property is harmless.
Harriet Young’s home overlooks the district. Last year he hired a gardener to remove dead trees and cut low branches as a measure of fire. Pink gravel was scattered on the long road and in front of the house.
Young believes he saved the house they built with his late wife in the 1990s. A forest fire burned around, saving the house and invading olive trees that her daughter wished she could not survive.
“It was a miracle, I have nothing more to say,” said Young’s daughter, Stacey Oldstadt, who stayed with her mother for several days after the fire.
When they came home on Sunday last week, they had no heater or hot water. Young spent four days fighting propane companies for his involvement. Eventually, he convinced the former firefighter to go and fix it.
Everyone here knows Young, a staunch Democrat who regularly hosts Christmas parties. When the fire broke out, he called and planned to stay home based on what he heard.
But neighbor Jean Wellnick saw that the pile of smoke, which seemed so far away, had grown and moved into their place, urging Young to leave.
“I owe a lot to Jeans,” Young said.
Wellniks originally bought the house behind Yang as a vacation property. It was built by previous owners with a forest fire in mind.
The 14-inch (36-centimeter) thick exterior walls are made of concrete, covered with styrofoam cells, with a metal roof on top. These walls are still standing.
The rest of the Victorian ranch house, painted orange with green trim, is not.
The fire shattered the bent pieces of metal that exploded when the wind blew. Shards of glass and nails were dumped on a street where wells wrote their names and bought a house, 2004.
The statue of a cherub placed by the wells outside as a memorial to a child lost in an abortion looks like a ruin. Two packages were brought on the path after the house burned the material for the lattice arches that the wells planned to gather with their vegetables. Sitting next to the garage were non -combustible diapers and sandbags, ready to be laid out.
In the afternoon, a hidden bell rang on a pile of debris, which was greeted at the front door of the house.
Jana Welnik inspected the property and figured out which trees would survive. Unfortunately the paintings and the pumpkin flower necklace given to her husband’s family were lost. Stored in a glass box.
“I want to watch, but probably not,” said Wellnik, the actor.
Their dogs, guitars, and some sculptures were able to accompany them, which Welnik described as an exciting, dark, frightening train, like Armageddon.
After that, some neighbors found it difficult to say the right word to the homeless. Some offered food, clothing, shelter, and opened fundraising accounts.
“They keep saying, ‘We love you so much; “We love you so much,” Welnik said. “And they do.”
Source: Huffpost
