IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Yes, it could have been.  And it happened on Saturday, January 14th, not Friday, January 13th. All of a sudden I smelled fire.  I checked my house and then looked outside.  Grass to the south of me was on fire and coming closer.  I got my coat and went outside.  By then Kevin was getting all of our hoses, Renea called the fire department and everyone was getting buckets of water from Kevin's pool and anywhere else they could get water.  Quite a few people were manning shovels. 

It seems that some people three houses south of us hired some workers to clean up their yard, and they started burning everything.  Now, there is a burn ban in effect.  It is windy as can be.  BUT.....they start a fire.  They didn't have any water because the faucet they hooked the hose up to was frozen and the hose broke.  Way to go!

Anyway here are a few pictures I took after the fire.

The first two pictures I was standing in my back yard looking towards the woods and Kevin's back yard.

Again, I was standing in my back yard looking south.  That is Kevin's shed and fence.

This is looking back towards Kevin's house.

This is the south corner of Kevin's fenced area and his next door neighbor's yard.

Looking south from Kevin's yard.

That is not a shadow inside the fence.  That is where the fire started to spread into Kevin's fenced area.  If it would have gotten to the shed that would have been bad.  There are lawn mowers, gas, etc. stored inside the shed.

Looking towards Kevin's back yard.

Just a quiet Saturday afternoon in Opelika.  Like I said....it could have been worse.  We sure were lucky!