Ranch saved by Bacon

We thought we were out of danger when the fire came up to the field just across from our mailbox and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

We had spent the week prepping after which my good friend and forest fighter Alan Thornton drove out from Portland to further prep my property. Steve Stebbins from Spray and he spent all night watering, cutting down a couple of trees, dragging portions of the tree into the field and digging trenches.

They spent the night in my cabin with flames all around them. When things looked safe the next morning, Alan rose at 5 AM to go work at the La Pine fire. Steve hung around a bit longer and then made his way home, back down to Spray. Fires have a mind of their own and winds influence their path. Less than 24 hours later, I received a frantic call from my friend Robin who lives farther up on Winlock.

He had stayed behind because he could not move his pet hog Bacon out of his house. He saw that the fire jumped over Winlock and was headed down toward my cabin. He tried to get through to fire crews via 911 but to no avail. I happened to be logged on to the community update live feed and I posted a comment that the fire was coming toward my home and no crews were there. I also relayed this to Steve Allen who was at the meeting covering it. He in turn told fire officials who were present at the meeting about the new fire path.

In addition, I relayed the situation in my support group text and my friend David Seacord also started making calls to report it. I contacted Alan while he was fighting the La Pine fire and told him what was happening. He gave me the telephone number of a site crew leader and he also relayed the longitude and latitude numbers. I called the crew leader and relayed the location and crew members arrived shortly after that and diverted the fire around my property. So thank you, Bacon, for being so stubborn and helping to save my little ranch!