WILDFIRES RETURN TO CROSS PLAINS AREA
Today took me back a couple of years. When Cross Plains was burned in 2006 I was at the grocery store when the volunteer fire trucks roared by going west. Today at 3:30 I was leaving the same grocery store when two CP volunteer fire trucks roared to the west. I couldn't see any smoke. I had to go back through town to return a key I had borrowed and by the time I got back out on 880 I could see the smoke to the northwest. It was toward Cottonwood. By the time I got to Cottonwood where I turn north, I could see the smoke that was blowing toward Cottonwood. The wind was turning. When I went to town it was high out of the south. By the time I got to Cottonwood it was high out of the NW.

When I got home I turned on the scanner and they were calling for trucks from every place around. There were other fires to the north so there was a need everywhere. I really feel for the volunteers that man those trucks. They reported that they had a tank truck on the highway but it couldn't get off the pavement back to where it was needed. One report said 10 acres were burned but that it was in heavy cedar and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Our cleaning lady lives in Cottonwood and called a couple of times. The first time the smoke was strong, the second time she could see the flames after dark over the hill west from her but the wind was changing to the north and the smoke wasn't as strong so she was hoping it wasn't coming her way. None of the three TV stations in Abilene said a word about the Callahan fires at 6. They mentioned the Synder fires yesterday. We don't smell any smoke and I can't see any flames or color in the sky at 9:30. Cross Plains is really nervous. We will pray that they get the fires under control, but the wind hasn't died down much.