This past week a wildfire burned on much of my dad and brother Danny's ranch, as well as some surrounding ranch land. This is where I grew up in the southwest corner of South Dakota. Thankful nobody was hurt and no major damage done to any houses or buildings. The fire burned close to 13,500 acres. If you look at this article, you can see some great pictures of the fire and a huge air tanker dumping fire retardant. http://wildfiretoday.com/2016/07/17/south-dakota-indian-canyon-fire-burns-thousands-of-acres-in-southern-black-hills/
Here are a few pictures.
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| A view looking north west. You can see a little smoke still on the horizon. |
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| Looking south east, I believe |
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| Looking northwest again. The fire was pretty fast moving, you can see how there are patches of land that didn't burn at all. If you have really good eyesight, or can zoom in, there is a patch of trees and a white dot near the horizon about 1/6 of the photo from the left - that's the house I grew up in. Danny said the fire was within 200 yards of the house and buildings there. Then about 2/3 from the left are 2 white dots - that's the house where Danny lives now, and is in the below picture. |
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| This is the house Danny lives in. You can see they made a successful firebreak around the house |
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| When there is a wildfire near home, most of the ranchers have water trucks and everyone pulls together to help each other, no matter whose land the fire is on. Here's dad tinkering with the water truck. Danny added the quote from dad....I can just hear dad saying that! |
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