Hill Top Fire near Abilene 18 Aug 23

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This broke out yesterday afternoon around 4pm
About 1/2 mile from my house
It was moving north , away from me so I wasn't in any danger.
It started on a Mesa where alot of radio and com towers are located
They suspected it was electrical from one of the towers that started it.
One mobil home was lost.
It burned downhill and headed north on a large place called the.Henson Ranch
Texas Forrest Service tanker base was only a few miles away at the Abilene Airport
We had 11 aircraft in the sky at one point
Pretty Damm impressive
A female pilot sounded like she was directing all other aircraft
She was a particular bad ass over the com.

2 tankers, one jet and one prop, 2 Helos and multiple other twin turbo planes and About 11 other VFDs on the ground got it stopped on a 2 track ranch road.
Forrest Service also had 2 big Cat dozers and the.county had a motor grader.

They baby sat it all night and the helps are supposed to take off this morning and start dropping on hot spots so I'll be watching for sure.

I'm gonna upload some YouTube shorts and try and post the links here if you care to watch

 

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Oh and right when all this was happening a lady in a pickup was driving past the scene..full speed and gawking at the fire and drifted off the road and t boned a sherrif cruiser..I mean nearly drove thru it.
Glad nobody was in it.

 

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Those small aircraft are the
AT 802F FIre Boss
By Air Tractor