Our Cattle Ranch Burned

[TRAP55]

We lost about a third of our cattle ranch in SE Idaho last week. A guy in a pickup drove up the frontage road to I-15 with barbed wire wrapped around his drive line leaving the local dump. The wire threw sparks into the dry grass, and the winds took it from there.
The good news is the firefighters used a Cat to cut a break around the log cabin my great grandfather built, and the tractor barn, saving it all.
The locals are the real heroes. With no hesitation, they hooked up and brought livestock trailers in to evacuate the stock, and an army of quad runners to herd them in. We lost a lot of fence and pasture, but it could have been much worse.
Our neighbor north of us lost most of his pasture after the fire whipped through a stand of 100+yr old cedars and went over the top of the peak, and onto his place.
They're calling it the Welton Fire, here's a local news story:

Malad Summit Fire

MALAD CITY, Idaho -

A wildfire that sparked Tuesday evening near the Malad Summit was burning 350 acres by Thursday, the Eastern Idaho Interagency Fire Center said.

The fire had previously been reported at 150 acres, but the number grew due to more accurate mapping.

The Welton Fire is burning two miles north of Malad City on Interstate 15 on private land. It did not grow since Tuesday night, when it was spreading south.

Firefighters from the BLM, Forest Service and Oneida County have been fighting the flames using fire engines and air tankers. The fire was 80 percent contained as of Thursday morning, and the agencies hoped to have full containment by 7 p.m. Thursday.

No structures are known to be threatened at this time. Firefighters believe the fire is human-caused.

[Bobitis]

Nothing better than good neighbors.

God bless them all and the fighters.

[jce07a]

thats rough, lucky you've got a good community that was willing to help out

[wv hillbilly]

sorry for your loss. glad the cattle made it.
if you get some rain your pasture will actually be better since it burnt

[JLA]

Glad damage was minimal Trap. The fences may be mended and the pastures will grow back. Glad no lives were lost.

[Double D]

Sorry for your trouble.

[mjp28]

Wow, what a story -and- thanks always to our police and fire crews....plus good neighbors. Priceless!

[gvw3]

Glad to hear you are all ok. Its hot and dry all the way to Canada around here.

[JUNKKING]

Glad your cattle were saved and nobody was hurt. WV Hillbilly is right that burnt grass will grow back next year s green and full of nutrients.
I had a bad lawn a few years back and a guy I work with told me to use a rosebud and burn the old grass in the fall. I did and the next year my grass was the best around.
Hopefully everything gets back to normal for you. Thank god for great neighbors and firefighters that helped you out.

[hjsmith00843]

glad you are ok. Sorry for you loss of cattle. also glad the cabin your grandfather built was spared. That has to be priceless to you.

[Rocketman1]

I'm glad everyone is OK and no cattle were lost. You are luckey to have such good neighboors that arn't afraid to jump in and help get the job done. So glad you did not lose the log cabin, that would have hurt.

[TRAP55]

The cabin was the first thing I asked about, then the livestock.
We work our place with my cousins place. It's going to be tough on the water/feed with twice as many steers crammed onto his pasture, and the price of hay is through the roof.
The cedar trees that burned, are shelter for the cattle and game animals. Pasture grows back, fences can be fixed, but those trees are so slow growing, they won't be the same in my lifetime.
It's frustrating being out here in Calif and not being there to do anything, or survey the damage. And I was camping up in the Sawtooths near Stanley while this was happening, and didn't know a thing about it until I just got back home. The one year I didn't swing by the ranch because of time and gas prices, go figger.

[geds]

Ditto what everyone else said Trap. Are they going to hold the guy that started it accountable?

[JLA]

Id hope they wouldnt. It was an accident wasnt it?

[TRAP55]

Accident, but still careless, he drove a long way with sparks flying. The state/county are suppose to have the weeds mowed down on the shoulder too, but it's Idaho, and that'll probably be a dead end. Small as Malad City is, the driver is most likely a relative anyhow. He's going to have enough problems when he gets the bill from the Fire Dept.
Dad turned it over to the insurance to deal with, that's why we pay them the big bucks.
I pity the poor sob that has to set new fence posts, that ground sets up like concrete in the summer time. I wore out a auger and a bucket full of shear pins digging holes just to build a loading chute. Had to fill the holes with water to soften them up enough to continue digging the next day.
In the spring, it's a little more solid than chocolate pudding.

[JLA]

Ah. I missed the part where he continued to drive with the wire entangled in his driveline. I took it that he met the fence accidentally and the sparks were caused by that. Regardless im sure he feels like an ass, which IMO is plenty punishment. But then again maybe I have an easier time relating to the situation and how I think a person would feel because I know how Id feel having unintentionally burned someone out. But then again he could be saying screw em, Not my problem, in which case hed need an explicit ass whoopin.

[geds]

It all depends on whether the guy tries to hide or whether he comes forward and apologizes and tries to help the injured parties recover....

[jack404]

went through the fire bit as a kid drought fire flood .. never stopped eh

Prayers for you there

[dad2thebone]

Imo Trap your a man with a great attitude and way of looking at things. For That my hats off to you. Sorry to hear of your loss of property but it sounds like you have a handle on it all and nobody was hurt or killed,Thats the good part. Good luck to you on repairing the damage and as always my prayers are with you an your family

[BlackEagle]

Sorry to hear about the loss, and like everyone else, glad to hear everyone is OK...and the cattle.

That's true community working together; good to hear about it.

Thanks for posting.

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by TRAP55

Accident, but still careless, he drove a long way with sparks flying. The state/county are suppose to have the weeds mowed down on the shoulder too, but it's Idaho, and that'll probably be a dead end. Small as Malad City is, the driver is most likely a relative anyhow. He's going to have enough problems when he gets the bill from the Fire Dept.
Dad turned it over to the insurance to deal with, that's why we pay them the big bucks.
I pity the poor sob that has to set new fence posts, that ground sets up like concrete in the summer time. I wore out a auger and a bucket full of shear pins digging holes just to build a loading chute. Had to fill the holes with water to soften them up enough to continue digging the next day.
In the spring, it's a little more solid than chocolate pudding.

Sorry to hear about this TRAP. Living in Idaho and being a little familiar with that area I would not want to be the one who had to auger out those post holes. Maybe in late October but certainly not now. I hope it all gets handled smoothly.

[TRAP55]

Thanks all for the well wishes. If any of you have farmed or ranched, you know you have to learn to roll with the punches, and there's always someone else getting it worse than you.
76Highboy, I was down the road from you in Parma for a couple of days, but too pressed for time this year. I'll make some time next year to come by and shake hands!

[1LoneWolf75]

sorry to hear bout yer blaze. glad everyone jumped in n helped. Grew up on a farm and fire time in spring could be hectic, but it helped the hay n pastures grow good. Good luck on gettin it all fixed and glad you didn't lose a local landmark.

[Silencer]

I read about this in the local news. Sorry to hear about the unfortunate fire damage. I hope things work out for you.

[jbrescue]

Glad to hear that noone was hurt.