Nashville hot or not so much?

Wow! Sorry to hear about the fire. 108 structures and fifty houses sounds like a pretty good chunk of that town. If I recall correctly I thought Tok was only about 500 in population. At least way back when I was there, ( maybe 25+ years ago)!
Is/was there still a life sized moose in a glass enclosed “gazebo”? Did it survive the fire? What about the restaurant? Eddies or Freddie’s or something like that? A lot of Alaska’s interior was burning the first time I was there.
I need to get back and visit the Tok area

 

100% don't live through that with the hedge of protection placed by God.

 

The moose in gazebo survived it's at All Alaska Gifts. Fast Eddies also survived. The fire started on Delta Junction's end/side of town. The wind was blowing from Delta Junction towards Canada right down the highway. Once it started, it went fast. Super dry, low humidity and high wind, was the recipe for disaster. The fire was contained to the north side of the highway as the fire followed the prevailing wind. It could have easily been worse. The few Alaska Fire Service staff brought equipment and did not hesitate to allow volunteers that showed up to help. The following day we started to see fire engines from all over the state. While we wound up with around 350 firefighters there was probably double that of volunteers.

It's scary to see the violence and devastation of a wildfire. What the movies and TV shows, does no justice to in person experience. I struggle to explain just how bad being in it is. The heat, smoke and flames, everywhere you look danger! Without God's protection people would have been hurt or worse. The Alaska Fire Service and Alaska State Troopers got everyone in the path evacuated and safe. Then to have no injuries for everyone fighting the fires. There are stories from all over town of folks with shovels, rakes, hoes and garden hoses saving what they have. I was off that day, and my wife saw a Facebook post of wildfire, we walked outside and could see the plumb. Grabbed saws, fuel/oil, shovels and rakes and drove towards the fire. As we neared, we knew one family to help, my wife dropped my 15-year-old and I off, she went back home for more saws and fuel and to get the tractor with box grader and brought it over so we could make a fire line. My 17-year-old (at the time) came to join us when he got off work. I often struggled and am right now, looking back if it was wise to have my boys in that danger. They wanted to be there and help, and they are very capable young men. I was very cautious to have/keep a eye on my two boys and they on me. We spoke quite a bit during to make sure we keep track of each other and anyone that wanders in around us. When the primary fire ball came rolling in, we were the tip of the spear, cutting the fire line and clearing duff and flammables to the dirt. As weird as it must sound it felt safe for us, we talk discussed it as we worked to make the line. We agreed that if one of us didn't like something all three would clear out and bring all people with us (the ones we thought were behind us). Gives me chills just writing this.

 

I'm sorry for your loss, RIP Mr. Stanford! Now that you mention it the following days after the primary fire, we could hear trees falling all over all the time. when you felt a gust of wind on your face, the crashes all over the fire side of the line.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience in that situation. Having your boys with you through that I’m sure will stick with them for life and they will no doubt be better men because of it. I see so many young adults and college kids today who can’t handle anything at all in the way of adversity.

 

And by adversity I mean, their blended double shot latte with soy and 1 1/2 pumps of hazelnut syrup 2 pumps of caramel and an extra light dusting of gluten free nutmeg powder was mixed incorrectly!! Oh the horror!!!

 

Delivered 2 more totes today...
18" oak went to the restaurant
And a tall tote of 16" oak went to a previous customer

 

As winter sets in be safe out there. Dawn woke this morning to a wintery mix of rain and snow. First delivery of the day I almost made it to the top of the driveway, momentum stopped and I slowly slid backwards until a perfectly planted, grown spruce has been waiting its life to stop my truck and trailer from continuing to slide hundreds of feet to certainly a bad day. I was able to chain up and pull out of the predicament and deliver the load to a grandma that is raising her two grandkids.

On to better news we received 5 cords worth of orders today.

Praise the Lord he protects and provides!