Page 17 - The Silver Fire

THE BLACK RANGE RAG - WWW.BLACKRANGE.ORG
The Silver Fire - As It Happened - Part 7 (Con’t)
around the Black Colt Mine area where there is private property surrounded by national forest. The North Percha Road is closed, and so we are also concerned for our neighbors who ranch up that way. Larry says that should the fire get to North Percha Road they will be comfortable with holding it there.
“It is a whole new weather picture tomorrow,” Larry says, with cooler temperatures and maybe clouds. Today, however, was another hot and dry one, so I am guessing the fire “munched” another 5,000 acres or so.
The Hillsboro Community Center, (see photo top left) where the communities gather each morning for a briefing from the Forest Service and fire officials. The Community Center is the old high school. It houses our library, auditorium, and a kitchen. I’m here now, alone, working on this blog. It’s late evening. The fridge hums here in the kitchen, the town is quiet, the winds have subsided to soft breezes. From the back window I see two horses in a corral standing companionably, enjoying the cooling air, lazily swishing away flies.
The view this evening from the front windows of the Community Center. (photo top center)
Earlier today we talked about how this experience feels like camp. Our normal daily activities are suspended. We meet each morning for a talk from our Ranger, and we eat and visit a lot, and then go do activities. Speaking for myself, I wander off and usually end up visiting with other porch sitters on my way to wherever I go. Then, my mom and I drive up to the graveyard or the hill east of town to see how the fire looks. Then I go play my fiddle. And then at some point, I wander back to the Community Center. (photo top right)
Jim uses his ATV to wander around. This is up at the graveyard, a good place to get a view of the Black Range. (photo next page, top left)
Day is done. (photo next page, top center)
June 22, 2013
The Silver Fire - As It Happened - Part 8
A post and photographs by Susan D. Roebuck of Kingston.
Yesterday, June 20th, fourteen days after the fire started. We had our last community meeting at 10:00 a.m.. We
got passes to go through the road block, to Kingston. Of course, Tom has been in Kingston the whole time as one of our volunteer firefighters, but they handed him a pass anyway, to drive up with Satomi. That’s Satomi, and Gary, on the right, is a public information officer from Idaho. Ranger Gary supplied the photos I used in an earlier blog, the ones people gathered all around to see, of Kingston during the evacuation. (photo, following page, top right).
My car was still stuffed full, as it was on the night of the evacuation. (see photo top left, page 19)
Drove up to the road block....showed my pass and drove through.
IN MEMORY OF THE GRANITE MOUNTAIN HOTSHOTS
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