Our house almost burned down in a brush fire

[Eduard]

We are so thankful that we didn't loose our house today to brush fire. Around 3 PM a cop rang a door bell and tole us that we needed to get out. We grabbed some documents a couple of computers, got my dogs in the back of the SUV and we went to the neighbor's place to watch our house burn down from across the lake... That was really scary and sad. Luckily they were able to stop fire about 25 meters from our house. Helicopters were dumping water on the burning brush, they dug out trenches ( so we have a new landscaping job in the back yard) it was really something! But luckily the fire department was able to stop it. They had fire trucks from 3 counties here battling this fire. I shot some video so will try to put it on youtube later.

[Slumba]

Glad to hear you and your family are safe!

[calmissile]

Happy to hear the firefighters were succesful.

[Boethius]

In the end, it's all just stuff.

Glad to know you and your family are safe.

[Kokopelli]

Eduard, please consider a fire proof safe for documents and online storage for your computer; unless it's a laptop.
Wildfires are nothing to mess with, the sooner you get out the better.

"On average, more than 100,000 wildfires, also called wildland fires or forest fires, clear 4 million to 5 million acres (1.6 million to 2 million hectares) of land in the U.S. every year. In recent years, wildfires have burned up to 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of land. A wildfire moves at speeds of up to 14 miles an hour (23 kilometers an hour), consuming everything—trees, brush, homes, even humans—in its path."
Complete article here:
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/wildfires/

And if you have time:
Barricade Fire Gel on the DIY Network

[Eduard]

Thanks guys! it's almost 2 am and I just got inside... there are still some smoldering palmettos out back and a few small fires flare up. They are mostly behind my next door neighbor's house so I was helping him to put them out. He did call 911 but they said it's pretty normal after a huge brush fire like that. He is planning to stay up all night watching it so I'll try to get some sleep. 

[Gator]

Glad that it ended okay, other than the stress and loss of sleep.  It is indeed the dry season here, and some people are careless.

[Eduard]

Glad that it ended okay, other than the stress and loss of sleep.  It is indeed the dry season here, and some people are careless.

Thanks Phil! They actually showed my house on local news! The fire got started by a tractor catching on fire, the grass started burning around the tractor and it quickly spread to the brush. Once the brush and palmettos cought on fire it spread like a "wild fire". I guess the guy couldn't really do much about stopping fire because he was in the middle of the field.

[tfcrew]

This came in...

Smoke from wildfire near Florida-Georgia state line sends smoke to Bradenton By LAURA C. MOREL — lmorel@bradenton.com
 Posted: 12:25pm on Apr 12, 2012; Modified:  2:05pm on Apr 12, 2012

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/04/12/3995683/smoke-from-wildfire-near-florida.html#storylink=cpy

 

[Eduard]

This came in...

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2012/04/12/3995683/smoke-from-wildfire-near-florida.html#storylink=cpy

this fire here was pretty localised, only about 20 or 30 acres burned out.