Crews that saved their home from fire thanked

Dear editor:

About noon on Aug. 31, I heard a loud knocking on the front door. There stood a policeman. He said, "You have to get out. It's coming too fast and we can't stop it."

I thought what is coming and why is he telling me to get out of my house. Then the fireman came and said, "The fire is headed this way. You have to leave now."

My husband ran to get our horse and turned him loose in the driveway. I grabbed my purse and keys and headed for the car and drove away as we watched the flames and smoke racing across the fields.

We drove up the road to where the policeman said we could stop and just sat in the car and watched feeling helpless and lost. I just knew everything we had worked for all our lives was going to go up in flames.

Here came the Mountain Home firemen and BLM with their fire trucks and tankers and equipment, digging firebreaks and hosing down the area, and the police directing traffic. Soon the planes were overhead, dropping retardant.

By now, the smoke was so thick we could see nothing except the flames on the ground and those brave firefighters in the middle of everything, working hard to keep the fire away from the homes in its path.

The wind was blowing the fire so fast I was afraid that this was going to be a really bad disaster. But with everyone working together, the fire was kept away from most structures and soon there were only hot spots to worry about.

As the smoke cleared, we could see our home was safe. There were fire trucks and firemen and friends and neighbors in the back of our buildings working on putting out the hotspots and keeping everything under control. There were even a couple people taking care of our horse. He was loving the attention.

We are so thankful that we have such dedicated people who put their lives on the line every time an emergency occurs.

We send a heartfelt "thank you" to each and every one of you, and to all our friends who came running and pitched in to help in our time of need. We have been blessed with wonderful friends and neighbors.

Lila and Richard Appleton