Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Trains and fire

When I was home in Colorado a couple of weekends ago, there was quite a bit of excitement. The railroad tracks go right through our ranch and around 11 pm on Friday night, Dad received a call that we had a fire near the tracks East of our house.


It is so dry back home and as soon as he heard fire, he and Joel, who works on the ranch, ran up to the tracks and used shovels and brooms to help put the fire out in several areas.


It was hard to get a picture of the fire, but this is kind of what it looked like from the house.


The next morning, this is what it looked like.

We later found out that the full coal train was dragging something that caught on our road crossing and derailed 21 cars. The BNSF crews came and worked for a 48 hours straight over the weekend moving the wreckage, bringing in pre-maid pieces of rail track, and getting the crossing fixed. 

This was all that was leftover when they got the tracks fixed. 

You've all heard of the scary fires going on in Colorado right now. Just north of the F Cross ranch near Last Chance (where my dad grew up), a fire broke out by a passing motorist driving along Highway 71 after a flat tire sent sparks flying. 


The flames spread fast and it was reported 45,000 acres were scorched in a nine-hour period. Sadly, a couple of homes and a fire truck where engulfed in flames, but no one was hurt. 


Here is a picture my uncle took of the fire, followed by a picture the day after of the black landscape.




We especially need to pray for the rest of Colorado with the High Park fire and the Waldo Canyon fire. I found some eerie, devastating pictures on the Denver Post's blog. Rain (not thunderstorms) would be very much welcome in all of the state and most of the Midwest!

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