Fires in my town in A New Journey

**Happy Labor Day I am so grateful for what I have and also so grateful for the community that I live in as to how this community, well actually my state of Wyoming, USA. As of Saturday morning we got up as usual and started doing our chores and Boyd started working on our jeep as we are trying to get the kit put on to lower or jeep so we can use it as our winter 4 wheel drive as we had it up high for our jeep adventures in the mountains and we had to start being more practical of what we needed to do for the harsh winter we had in the last year from all the snow we get in our area as I live south of Wyoming and I am near 1 80 that runs across USA and its the major highway for all the 18 wheelers to get across USA to their desinations.
SO any ways, we had to go to Rawlins to get a few items for the jeep and I had to get some supplies for us as we were told that a winter storm is coming thru our state from Canada cold front. We are expecting up to 12 inches of snow. So as we were heading to Rawlins around 10 am we noticed a fire going on by the railroad that goes thru our town. ( I live in Hanna, WY-Hanna is a town in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 841 at the 2010 census. The town was started as a coal supply location for the Union Pacific Railroad. Much of the old town is built on top of the former workings of the Hanna No. 4 mine . The population peaked at 2,288 in 1980 and has declined as local coal mines have ceased operation.) SO its a small mining town. SO we saw a grass fire going on 4 blocks from our house and we can see the railroad like 100 yards from my house so this fire was 4 blocks from 0ur house. We saw they already had the fire trucks already working on trying to get the fire out. AS we got on HIghway 30/287 (old Lincoln highway) (https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=UgXm7JrA&id=BD4B61350ED8BB24EA8A7F4FDBD9BABCDE540F22&thid=OIP.UgXm7JrAtbAVA1rtRCnKAwHaC9&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2f3.bp.blogspot.com%2f-p6Q4ttcHhiM%2fVEo425S_OII%2fAAAAAAAAIGA%2fa8oLYwLm6M4%2fs1600%2fbutko_lhmapl.gif&exph=557&expw=1393&q=old+lincoln+highway+map&simid=608004246348172941&ck=4E0A2DF7F02FC1E05ED2E5C7EC9AB526&selectedIndex=0&FORM=IRPRST)
This highway goes all the way across USA.
So any ways, as we entered the highway and had gone about 5 miles on to our right we saw 3 more fires on the railroads and we arrived to Rawlins as that is about 35 miles from Hanna, we had to get on I 80 from Highway 30/287 we were seeing smoke up in the air.
SO an hour later we finished our shopping and started back home, as we got back on highway 30/287 the fire was huge and we saw firetrucks coming and several people were stopping asking if they can help. I started a video of the fires and I shared it on my FB and I shared it on Wyoming through the Lens and within 2 days I had over 25k responds of our community with prayers.
So within 2 hours we were getting calls from our community that we were in evacuation mode as the fire was approaching our little community, all electricity was cut off and water etc. I went into a panic mode, but let me tell you what Boyd was doing. Working on the jeep just not giving a care of what was going on while I was in panic mode there was 5 DC-10 tankers flying over our house spraying the chemicals to get the fires as it was approaching our town. At that time it was 5 miles from our community. I got a text message to get out of town ASAP!! I literally had to show it to Boyd of the message and he realized of the danger as he was seeing the DC-10 planes flying over, he sure was taking his sweet as time to collect his stuff as I was packing up my car of things I felt was important. I had to collect our 2 cats and my dog Dakota. BUT as I was trying to get my 4 month old kitty in to her cage I had my 4 year old in my hands too, Boyd opened the door and out goes my LOKI, (4 year old) he went AWOL on me. I had to spend another 15 min to find him and then the sheriff came to our block and said GET OUT NOW!!!
SO I had to leave behind Loki and we left town with in that 15 min after the sheriff telling us to get out!!
We had to drive to Laramie as that is 68 miles from Hanna, I was on the phone calling every hotel in that town and it took the 9th call to find a room for us as this is LABOR DAY weekend and travelers were getting rooms and 65 homes from Hanna trying to find a place to go to. I was not happy with the hotel we were staying at as it was a Super 8 hotel and omg that place reeked of cigarette smoke, much less I wanted to smell that after smelling the smoke in the air. We spent the next 24 hours trying to figure out what was happening to our town. Imagine us being on our phone or laptop trying to find out if the fire was going thru our town. I was posting updates on my phone thru FB and my family calling of hearing of our situation.
SO then waking up on Sunday morning feeling like what is our future predicaments was going to be. THERE was nothing but fear!! We heard that the fire was heading south of our town (heading towards Elk Mountain which was 12 miles from Hanna, as the fire started west of Hanna, so the wind was pushing it South which was great, the tankers were able to save our west side town . Our house was on the east side of town. Again its a very small town there is only 67 houses in this town, with maybe over 20 structures from the old mining buildings and one small grocery store. NO convenience store, we have a self gas pump station if we need gas.
We were on the phone with Red Cross as they gave us more info of getting us to a better hotel but that meant we had to go back to Rawlins as that was 98 miles from Laramie. We made the choice to go back to Rawlins as I wanted a better room. I was not happy with the room we had, it was DIRTY. SO we left and headed on I 80 to Rawlins we were able to see all the smoke for many miles. as we got closed to ELK Mountain the fire was BIG, we pulled over and I got another video of that fire going on about 8 miles from I 80. With in 5 miles from where Elk Mountain we got a call on our phone (by the way we were driving our own cars) that we were allowed to go back to our homes after 1 PM as it was 12 when we got the call. The one main highway to get back to Hanna was closed so we had to go to highway 30/287 that exit is the highway to get to Saratoga the BIG HOT Springs city, we got back on that highway headed back Hanna. We saw all the black smoke and I took several more video’s as I had my phone on my GPS phone rack that I use. I was able to take a lot of great videos. We saw many firefighters fighting the fire that was south of the highway as it started on the North side originally. There were several helicopters flying over. YES that highway was opened and it was safe to drive thru all that commotion. I saw several men and ladies that were BLACK from the smoke and fighting well.
I truly Thank them with the bottom of my heart of their courage to fight this fire that was raging thru the dry land.
We arrived into our town and there were Tents at the town high school where all the firefighters were stationed to get their rest etc. Our town was full of volunteers and people just trying to get our town back to normal some how.
As we approached our house I immediately got out of my car and started to call out for Loki my cat and Dakota was helping me trying to find him, by the way I left him some water and cat food for him on our patio and I saw he ate some of the food, it took 15 min for us to find him as he came strolling to the house looking tired as heck. Well HONESTLY I was so exhausted from all the last 24 hours of panic mode. Just knowing out town was saved from the big fire I am so grateful for just knowing we have our house and feeling we are back to our SAFETY ZONE!!!!

So the fire is still raging near 1 80 as of today, last night we were able to see the fire raging during the night as Boyd said on his facebook ..
.( Update: We’re just waiting for the natural gas to come back on line. They made awesome progress with the repairs when you consider just how much infrastructure was overrun by the fire. Just a mile west of town and on the Lincoln Highway it looks like a Hydrogen Bomb was detonated as far as you can see and in nearly every direction. Places where the fence posts burned to almost nothing leaving just blackened barbed wire dangling in the wind. We lost electricity but the crews worked until it was restored thus saving the food in all of our freezers. Hard not to get a little emotional when we came back and realized just how close our little town came to being destroyed. It seems the whole state of Wyoming pitched in and with some help from some HUGE jet powered air tankers that showed up in just the nick of time combined with the fire crews that worked though the night to hold the line. One prayer from me, just two words “Thank You” and Thank you to all the people who worked so hard to save this tiny burg. You are nothing short of angels, at least in my mind.)
We are lucky to have our home!!!

BUT hey guess what we are so looking forwards too

We are getting a snow storm coming in tonight, SO I pray that this will be the miracle we need to see the fire go out!
LETS PRAY!!!

Right now the temperature is 73 degrees at 9:30 am expecting to get a high of 81 then a huge drop down to 39 tonight UGH BUT I won’t complain as I USUALLY complain of the cold air as my body DOES NOT LIKE the cold air!!
BRING IT ON SNOW!!

Make this a great Labor Day !!

EDIT::
WE heard that the fire was caused by the train that had a locked wheel and it sparked 3 fires on the railroad from Hanna and 3 miles outside of Hanna. The Union Pacific Railroad has had nothing but bad luck this last 9 months they have had 3 major derailments on the track that runs thru our town, as a matter of fact one derailment was 5 miles from our town back in May, this sure has been one crazy 2020 year!!

Last updated September 07, 2020