Bunny and I arrived in Indiantown [1] to visit her mom for Mother's Day. We were there for a few minutes when Bunny realized she needed some potting soil for some plants she got for her mom. Both of us headed out to get some, and while driving around, we saw two plumes of smoke to the west (the whole town is oriented along a northwest-southeast axis [2]). We decided to check it out, and found firefighters battling a brush fire just west of SR (State Road)-710. The whole area has been without rain for an extended period of time so the vegetation is dry.
But still, it was on the west side of SR-710, Bunny's mom is on the east side, so we didn't think we'd have much to worry about.
Later than evening, we heard helicopters flying around, so Bunny went outside to see what was up, then called her mom and me outside. Sure enough, the horizon was bright orange and thick black plumes of smoke were rising up to blanket the sky. Only it wasn't the western horizon that was glowing, but the eastern!
The brush fire had crossed SR-710 and appeared to be very close to the development Bunny's mom lives in. We all piled into Bunny's car and drove to the eastern end of the development, but were blocked by police and firemen using that area to stage a firefight to protect the houses along the eastern edge of the development.
And yes, the fire was close enough to see behind the houses.
Scary stuff.
But by 11:30 pm, the authorities stated the fire was no longer a threat to the development (although they only had half of it contained), so Bunny and I felt it safe to leave (and unlike what I stated on MySpaceFaceBook, we weren't evaculated via a CH-47 Chinook [3]).
(Bunny's account of the day [4])
[1] http://www.indiantownfl.org/
[2] http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Indiantown,+FL
[3] http://images.google.com/images?q=CH-47%20Chinoook