Day 27, April 8, 2009

On the 10PM local news here in El Paso last night, they showed the huge loom-up of smoke from Mexico reporting that it was a huge clothing factory in Ciudad Juarez that is still not under control. They reported that it started at 1730 hours and could be seen for over 50 miles way. Apparently the local CBS station didn’t dare send any local reporters to the scene as they only had the very distant video shots.

I checked out of the motel at 0630 hours and drove south a couple of blocks to the I-10 freeway. I noticed that there was still a black line of haze in the sky from the smoke from the clothing factory fire in Mexico. The band of black smoke haze carried for miles and miles towards the east. I could still see thick black smoke coming from where the fire was. It was considerably less than last night, but still very black. It was 61-degrees when I left.

As I was leaving the area, a local radio broadcast news segment reported that the El Paso FD had been requested to respond to the fire in Ciudad Juarez. They didn’t say if the El Paso FD had actually responded to the fire not. They also said that El Paso was to get very windy in the afternoon with winds at 20-30 mph with gusts up to 55 mph. I’ve been there before when it’s been windy in the El Paso area. It’s like having your car get sand blasted.

From the El Paso Times: “A huge fire Tuesday evening consumed an empty maquiladora in Juárez, forming a plume of black smoke visible throughout El Paso. A Juárez fire department commander described the situation as "critical" and an evacuation was ordered around the MCS maquila near the airport, Juárez city officials said. There were no known injuries. The fire was still burning late Tuesday night and Juárez officials had asked for help from the El Paso Fire Department.”

Another photo shot of the hotel with this text in the El Paso Times::

"A fire in Juárez is producing a large plume of black smoke rising south of Downtown on Tuesday night. The fire is reportedly at a maquiladora near the Juárez airport. There was another large maquiladora fire on Sunday afternoon in Juárez. "

Today was the first day I deviated from my original trip schedule. With the bad weather approaching the Dallas-Fort Worth area this weekend, I wanted to get the area a day earlier than scheduled so I could do some buffing before the rains and storms hit the area. I decided to try and make it all the way to Fort Worth (a drive of 632 miles) today instead of staying in the Odessa-Midland area and shooting apparatus there (two departments with about 10 stations each).

When I got about 45 miles out of El Paso, I got some good news in the form of posted “80 mph” car speed limit signs (70 mph for trucks). That in itself made it easier for me to make it the entire way into Fort Worth as it would just about make up for the one hour time loss today in going from Mountain DST to Central Daylight Savings time. The 80 mph limit lasted until I got near the Odessa area, and then reverted to the normal Texas speed limit of 70 mph. The temperature in Midland was already 81 degrees as I passed through that area.

If you’ve ever driven interstates in Texas you’d have noticed that they are not “limited access” like the way they are back home. Most freeways have service roads on both sides (less than 40 feet off the main roadway). There are very short connector ramps from these service roads all to the main freeway- over the place. There are no fences to keep animals, kids etc from getting on the freeway. It can be very scary when a car going 30 mph suddenly pulls onto the freeway from the service road directly in front of you.

When I neared the Abilene area, the outside temperature was 92 degrees! Luckily, it was partly to mostly hazy or cloudy all day long, so that made it seem a little cooler outside and it also made driving easier on the eyes. It had cooled a little by the time I made it into the Fort Worth area around 1700 hours. The motel I had planned to stay at (Day’s Inn on University Avenue) just west of downtown Fort Worth had been demolished recently. The sign still stood where the motel used to be. I don’t know why Day’s Inn demolished their motel unless they are going to rebuild. The property, which is near the Fort Worth Zoo, the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and Texas Christian University should be very valuable.

I was forced to backtrack a few exits on I-30 and check into a nice La Quinta I’d noticed on the way into central Fort Worth. I didn’t take as much as one photo today. I’ll be posting some more El Paso photos that I took yesterday. I’m trying to monitor everything in the area on my Pro-96. Fort Worth had a small brush fire on my way into town and ended up adding more companies when the original engine asked for more help. Dallas has been very busy lately. I think they’ve had a 2nd alarm fire almost every day this past week.

The Dallas FD has automated dispatch now, which sounds really bazaar. The automated dispatch is a female with a very monotone voice. You miss the inflections and tones of the normal human voice- AND there’s no Texas accent.