I, too, am very glad you are safe. I will pray too.

Thank God for Him changing the weather to cooler and more humid so the firefighters can get a better handle on this monster. It is now 75% contained. There is still one area that is 16 miles long that has no fire breaks cut yet. The fire on the western flank where the majority of the evacuations had taken place is holding well.

Firefighters and equipment are starting to be released. We are down from a high of about 2150 men to 1760 men this morning. I should say men and women. We still have a large contingent of helicopters and air tankers because so much of what is still burning is in areas that are just about inaccessible for ground crews.

This morning it is cool and foggy again. I pray it extends into the burn area. It has still been in the mid 90s out on the fire line area.

In Christ,
George

(Below is a photo of one of the active areas of the fire. If you click on the thumbnail you will get a larger photo so you can see it better.)

This post was last modified: Tue Aug 18, 2009 10:30 AM by George.

Pot farm fire reveals a troubling trend

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-...7658.story

There were some devestating fires in this country back in February. The worst fires happened in the state of Victoria on the 7th, which became known as Black Saturday. 173 people were killed and the small town of Marysville was wiped out. Victoria has a lot of thickly wooded areas and fires are common there every summer, but the Black Saturday fires were the worst ever. We live about 800km to the west in South Australia, but we could still smell a bit of the smoke.

Brother Jerry, this morning on the news they showed photos of the camp area where the fire started. You could clearly see t he portable propane stove that was responsible for the blaze.

They also said that because of the way the fire burned (there are always pockets that go unburned) they found 30,000 marijuana plants with a street value of 90 million dollars! Wow!

The fire is still at 75% containment with 16 more miles of fireline to cut. It is now at about 90,000 acres.

In Christ,
George

George, I suppose these fellow are now talking about how hard it is for a farmer to make a living.

That said, seems there be quite a few people who have so much lust for money they'll do almost anything to get it.

Amen! I think these fellows now have two groups of people looking for them. Of course they have the law enforcement people searching for them but I believe their bosses are also probably looking for them for loosing the crop.

In Christ,
George

Loss of that crop might cost them the loss of their life, therefore they would be better off to be caught by the law.

Yes, I feel sure their boss is not happy about the mistake they made which will cost him many dollars.

Praise God the fire is now fully contained. It is not out by a long shot and there is no estimate as to when it will be declared completely over with. However they were able to complete the last of the fire lines yesterday afternoon and evening. The Lord our God really helped with the last six miles of the fire lines. Yesterday we had some rain in the area. It is almost unheard of to have rain here this time of year. The combination of the cloud cover and the moisture really h elped the firefighters. Since hits is a monsoonal flow that is coming up from Mexico there was concern about lightning strikes in the area. However none were recorded. Praise God again for that!

The number of personal involved is now down to about 900 from a high of about 2200 a few days ago. The air tankers have been released and only the helicopters are flying to put out hot spots. There are still a lot of hot shot crews involved because the area involved is almost completely inaccessible unless the men are ferried in by helicopter.

Praise God again that after 15 days of burning this thing has finally been brought under control.

In Christ,
George

Great news, now if some silly person will not start another one.