Huge Brush Fire in New Mexico South of Albuquerque

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

We came upon a huge brush fire next to the southbound lanes of I-25 on March 10th, as we were driving home from our SW New Mexico Rockhunting Trip. We started seeing a large column of heavy black smoke a few miles south of the fire location, then saw a digital Highway Department sign that read Brush Fire Ahead, MP 214, which put it a few miles north of Belen…

the photo above we were just a couple of miles south of the fire, the highway curves in the direction of the smoke just ahead so I knew we were going to pass right by it, so kept my camera in my lap ready to shoot…

…and sure enough, as we approached the long bridge that crosses the Rio Grande River and Valley, the fire was located on the north side of the river which is on the far side from us, and burning heavy vegetation and likely tires and other debris under the southbound lane bridge…so police and firefighters had the southbound lanes completely shut down and traffic diverted on the far hillside north of us…

NM Trip 2020-0310 Huge Brush Fire S of Albuquerque 432

I shot these as we passed by to show the height of the flames…the ground level is at least 25 feet below the surface of the roadbed, and some of those flames were ten to fifteen feet higher than the guardrail, so flames 40 to 50 feet high were coming up off the ground level below…once on the north hillside and out of the way, we pulled over on a wide shoulder where I shot a few photos looking back at the fire in the valley….

I could have stayed longer but we still had a few hours driving time to get to Tucumcari where we were spending the night and dinner was calling, so we headed on down the road.

New Mexico Trip Early March to Rockhunt With Friends

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

One of my bosses at Greenbriar called me in February to tell me that he landed a job as Superintendent at Wolf Hollow Golf Course near Washington, Missouri, and asked me to come work for him starting mid March. I had gone over and taken a look at the course two weeks before he offered me the job, and talked to him about it then, and decided to give it a shot. I gave Walmart my two weeks notice mid February and decided to drive out to southwest New Mexico and do some rockhunting with my group the first week of March…I have an extensive story written with photos and video on that trip on my rockhunting blog site, https://www.jwjrocks.com

If you are ever interested in another location besides Florida where the winters are very mild, and you can handle the different vegetation out there, you should consider Arizona or New Mexico…our daily temps started out about 35 to 40 degrees and quickly warmed to 65 to 70 degrees during the day. That is an area that receives little precipitation as well, the google search I did back in January when I was researching the potential trip, told me that their annual rainfall is like a tenth of an inch a year…they had a little more than that this spring, and the Border Patrol Officers we had breakfast with every morning at the Denny`s Restaurant, told us this was a little unusual weather wise. One drawback might be the rattlesnakes that this area of the USA is known for, but luckily we did not see any this trip…the officers told us we were there too early if we wanted to see them…they normally do not see them til April or May. They do have spectacular scenery out there this time of the year, some hillsides were covered on all sides by some very pretty yellow flowers and there are beautiful flowering cactus out there as well.

Check out my other site for the whole story. 🙂

Brush Fire East West Road near Hwy AF Feb 23rd, 2020

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

Normally, I don`t cover brush fires unless there is something more to them…on Sunday afternoon, February 23rd, I heard Ray Enloe call Washco and ask for a tanker to be dispatched to the call, so I drove over to see what was going on. Turns out someone tossed a cigarette out of their vehicle on East West Road and it took off burning up a vacant lot between two residences, getting up close enough to one residence to inflict quite a bit of damage to the vinyl siding, and also consumed a brush pile in the lot….

…that is firefighter Jacob Dace on the fire hose below….

…he did a good job making sure that fire didn`t get going again.

SUV Fire at Counts Auto Body

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

Early Wednesday morning February 19th, on my day off that week, I heard Sullivan PD talking about a vehicle on fire, but didn`t hear where, then Washco dispatched it and they have been having alot of radio problems lately, so again did not catch the location during the dispatch, so had to wait til 854 went responding to get the location, Counts Auto Body and that is only about six blocks from me, so I arrived just ahead of 854 to find that Autobody employees had the fire knocked down with a garden hose…good job guys…as 854 was about to turn into the back of the business….

Fires 2020-0219 Red SUV at Jerry Counts Autobody

…leaving little work for Sullivan firefighters to do…pop the hood and extinguish the fire is all they had to do….as the sun was coming up….

…they had more help than they knew what to do with…shift change between Dave Konys` crew and Ray Enloe`s crew, so two extra firefighters were on scene, plus two police officers, and then the crew from Counts Auto Body…I stuck around to watch them pop the hood, that took awhile, with firefighter Drew Richards doing much of the work and Captain Ray received the accolades…jokingly, but no worries Drew, everyone there knows who did much of the hard work, buddy…

Fires 2020-0219 Red SUV at Jerry Counts Auto Body 2

Arkansas Fall Trip 2019

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

Most of my story on this trip is on my other blog site, https://www.jwjrocks.com so all I am going to post here are the beautiful scenery and sunsets, as the bulk of the trip and story line are on the other site. 🙂 There was some good fall color this year, starting with the huge tree at the condo complex where I stayed….

…and the entrance to the former Arrowhead Mine in the forest….

Car Fire at Bourbon Pump Handle

Posted on April 13, 2020 by jwj

I hadn`t been home from work at Walmart very long on Tuesday, February 11th, 2020, when I heard tones drop for Bourbon Fire Department, for a car fire inside the car wash at Bourbon Pump Handle, so I grabbed my camera and drove up there. Figured if it was inside the car wash, it should have been toned as a structure fire instead…Sullivan Fire Department was toned to assist them shortly after, and I arrived just ahead of the Bourbon Fire Department, to find a passenger car fully involved in the engine compartment, parked at an angle right behind the main building but short of the car wash building entrance….

Fires 2020-0211 Car Fire Bourbon Mobil Station & Carwash

Fires 2020-0211 Car Fire Bourbon Pumphandle Mobil Station

Bourbon`s ambulance crew was there when I arrived and police as well, waiting for the fire truck to arrive, which they did shortly after. There was a lot of heat coming off the front of the car and it looked like flammable liquid was on fire under the engine as well by the look of the flames…

…two young Bourbon firefighters, Allen Noltkamper in the black gear, and Noah Thomas in the yellow gear, suited up as the hoselines were being charged…there was some type of problem and Noah went to check on it…

The line was charged and Allen began bleeding the air out of the hoseline as Noah returned to assist him in the attack on the fire…

they did a great job getting it knocked down and then moved to the front of the car once the flames and heat were removed…

Fires 2020-0211 Car Fire Bourbon Mobil Allen Noltkamper on Nozzle Backed Up by Noah

Sullivan Fire Department arrived shortly after I took this photo above and began assisting, Tony Boero also assisted with a pry bar to open the hood on the car…