fire on the unseen horizon

We learned this afternoon that there is a fire out toward our camp.

There is no one place to go for information: I spoke with someone at the State Police, tried to reach the Houghton Office of Emergency Management (where, in true Houghton fashion, you get one man's answering machine), and then I spoke with someone at the Daily Gazette. Everyone with whom I spoke confirmed that there was a fire, but exactly where it is is hard to determine; everyone confirmed that people are being evacuated from the area. Channel 6 finally just posted something: they say the fire is now taking up about 100 acres, and that they are evacuating along the Big Traverse Road.

Dennis tried get to the camp, because, well, of course, we left the cat there when we came into work today. He tried two different ways in, and got turned back at roadblocks that were placed much earlier than we would have thought. Given where the roadblocks are, it seems that the fire -- at least when Dennis was out there -- was headed toward Gay or the Post Road.

I spoke with Stephen and Daniel, who are just across the bay from us. They said the fire -- based on all the smoke they could see -- was quite far away from our camp and headed in the opposite direction. They promised to call us in town if they saw any changes. Stephen and I also talked about how they could kayak across the bay to get the Little One (who would not be happy in a kayak, even with people she knew).

I spoke also with Kristin, whose mother was evacuated (it took 3 visits by the police to get her to leave) from their place on Big Traverse. We compared notes -- and what we both were thinking was that if this was caused by the blueberry guy again, doing his "controlled burns," that there would be just a little bit of anger in the community, since he got off so relatively lightly last time.

The wind is still going, and even though the weather this morning included a possibility of thunderstorms tonight, it doesn't look likely now.

I'd rather be swimming out at Daniel and Stephen's place now. I was there yesterday at this time, forgetting myself in the cool blue water right above the waved sand.