florida and georgia fires.

divemaster1963 · May 08, 2017, 11:16:52 AM

hey jim.
is everthing OK down near you. I see the mims fire is getting pretty big there near Jaksonville. hope you and you family are OK?

let me know if you all need anything? if you need a place to put a camper to get away I have plentty room in the yard. if you need to move the hives I have space to.

john
you all be safe down there.

divemaster1963 · May 09, 2017, 11:56:22 AM

Has anyone talked to jim or the others in fl about how things are going with the fires?

john

BeeMaster2 · May 09, 2017, 12:35:36 PM

Thanks John.
Jacksonville should be OK. My farm is not very far from where the fires are. The fire is about 7 miles from me as of today. https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/map/5153/0/
We just built a new house on our farm that we are retiring to next month. I designed it to be as fire proof as I could. It is all brick siding with a little bit of hardy board (cement boards) it has a metal roof, and all soffits are aluminum. No exposed wood or plastic with the exception of the window frames. Most of the trees are away from the house.
We have the best firefighters in the world. When the Bugaboo fire burned almost all of Okefenokee and Osceola national forests, about 150,000 acres, which was less than a mile from our house, they never lost a single house. It was so bad at our place that it turned the day into darkness, the smoke was so thick. Our yard was covered in burned leaves.
I am watching this one closely.
Thanks,
Jim

divemaster1963 · May 09, 2017, 02:31:49 PM

great to hear it. i was down there during the burgoo fire. it was one hellof mess t say the least. the smoke was ruff. day to night was a under statment. could only see ten feet at times during th day. it was so bad that even in gray in the middle of ga the days looked like dusk some days. did you add the sprinkler heads to the roof ridge? that saved alot homes during that fire. we ran lines and put sprinkers on roofs running to garden hose to mini pumps next to any water sourse around. only took 55 psi pumps to get enough water to stop sparks and keep ground damp around the homes. cheap cost to protect houses.

john

BeeMaster2 · May 10, 2017, 12:30:06 PM

John,
I put a 5 gallon bucket, leveled by putting a 2x4 under the low side, in the center of the roof, filled it with rock (water would have done the trick) and ran a large rainbird sprinkler for an entire week. To mount the rainbird, you poke a hole in the center of the lid and push the rainbird spike into the lid.
Ash was falling constantly real heavy.
Jim

bobsim · May 11, 2017, 06:36:09 PM

Jim,

I couldn't get your link to work, probably my end. Here's one I found with a good map of the fire in case anyone out there (like myself) doesn't realize the scope of this thing.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5153/

I'm hoping for the best, sure is a tough way to start the retirement! We paddle the swamp a couple of times a year, usually the west entrance, just beautiful country up there! I envy ya!

BeeMaster2 · May 12, 2017, 12:44:19 PM

Good Map Bob. It had updated 58 minutes before I pulled it. We had reports that the fire had jumped to the south side of 94 but it looks like everything is north of 94 right now. That is a good thing. You can see where it was well south of 94 on the April 6 map.
Jim