Billy received a call Saturday afternoon informing him that the farm was on fire.
An employee of ours was working nearby on his time off and saw the smoke.
By the time Billy made it there, approximately 40 acre had already burned.
We don't have a well on the property but keep barrels of water for mixing pesticides,
the employee was using that water and a 5 gallon bucket to put the fire out.
Billy & Dylan picked our local employee to go help out and by the time they arrived at the farm, we had 3 employees (and some of their family) volunteering their help/support.
Luckily, the wind wasn't blowing.
As you can see from the pictures, minimal damage was done to the palms due to the fire rings around each tree. We wont know until the rains come (hopefully, supposedly by the 20th, not soon enough) how much damage was actually done, however it looks like the heart of most the trees were spared.
According to research done on other plantations, this will set production back 3 years.
We are so very thankful this wasn't worse, however my heart goes out to my hubby, I know how hard he has worked.
PS
In case you're wondering how the fire started...because there were no other fires in the area and ours was the only farm to burn, we've concluded it was set intentionally.
