At our back door - Montana Owners Club

gkbutler · 04-18-2006, 02:22 PM

This morning I heard evergency vehicles coming and going for most of the morning. I really didn't think anything about it because it is the dry season here and we have had some brush fires across the road from us.

About 11:00am I heard helicopters circling the area. I couldn't smell smoke, but I walked out to the street to see what I could see.

According to the news at noon, the fire was at about 300 acres and growing. By six o'clock it had grown to over 650 acres and was for the most part not contained. To make matters even worse, we had a fire start across the road, so we have a smoke filled Monty. Fortunately the wind has been blowing in a westerly direction so it is blowing the fire away from us right now. Hopefully the fire fighters can get an upper hand on it tonight.

jrgwdenner · 04-18-2006, 02:57 PM

And no one in the RVs is leaving???

gkbutler · 04-18-2006, 04:01 PM

The RV's in the picture are in a storage yard in the back of the campground. One couple did pull out this afternoon. Fortunately, the wind has been blowing the fire away from us since last night. We found out that this fire started last night around 11:00pm. The sheriff's department showed up at 5:30pm this evening to tell us there was a fire and that there was a voluntary evacuation request. By that time the fire had moved several miles to the south and east. However, we have everything packed and ready to pull out if we get an evacuation order. Until then, we are keeping an eye to the eastern horizon.

Sweetfire · 04-18-2006, 05:06 PM

Where are you camped?

gkbutler · 04-19-2006, 01:15 AM

We are at Kountree Kampinn RV Resort in Naples, Fl.

prariepoodle · 04-19-2006, 11:13 AM

OH MY GOD!! I would have already been gone I know first hand FIRE is no fun.

Montana_70 · 04-20-2006, 07:32 AM

I sure hope they have the fire under control. I have stayed in Kountree and I remember some full time residents have no way to tow out of the way. Some of those RV's have not moved in years.

Great little park. I hope all is well.

Montana_2913 · 04-20-2006, 08:19 AM

Stay safe

gkbutler · 04-20-2006, 03:23 PM

Update on the fire. This morning the news media reported that the fire was declared under control. The estimated total loss was approximately 1200 acres of woodland. Fortunately the area east of the CG is sparsely populated so there was no loss of residences, but it was touch and go for a little while.

Fla native, I know what you mean. The park here is absolutely beautiful and we have already made our reservations for next winter. I was thinking about the older trailers on Tuesday when we thought we were going to have to evacuate. We had several trucks on standby to pull as many units as we could over to the Publix lot which is nearby but away from where the fire was burning. I could have pulled TT's but the only 5'er I could have pulled was mine or any other with the Pullrite attachment, and I haven't seen too many of them down here as like you said, a number of the units are permanently parked.

Thank goodness it didn't come to that.

gkbutler · 04-20-2006, 03:24 PM

Update on the fire. This morning the news media reported that the fire was declared under control. The estimated total loss was approximately 1200 acres of woodland. Fortunately the area east of the CG is sparsely populated so there was no loss of residences, but it was touch and go for a little while.

Fla native, I know what you mean. The park here is absolutely beautiful and we have already made our reservations for next winter. I was thinking about the older trailers on Tuesday when we thought we were going to have to evacuate. We had several trucks on standby to pull as many units as we could over to the Publix lot which is nearby but away from where the fire was burning. I could have pulled TT's but the only 5'er I could have pulled was mine or any other with the Pullrite attachment, and I haven't seen too many of them down here as like you said, a number of the units are permanently parked.

Thank goodness it didn't come to that.

Montana_2913 · 04-22-2006, 04:56 AM

I have been thinking about you and that fire. I am happy to see you are safe and did not have to move. I also kept thinking about the people who parked their RV's and left and were not there to move them if need be. Good thing it did not come to that.

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