There was a dry windy day around my farm, in 1999. Fire looked to have started by RR tracks about 5 miles west of my place. Fire took off and ran for about 2 miles before jumping the Missouri River. In places, it jumped the highway and in other places, the road or lack of oxygen seemed to have stopped it. Judging by a nearby concrete grain elevator, the flames were a good 200 feet high. Those flames were fed by a recently mowed hay field. Fire burned so hot and fast that there were clumps of dry standing grass left untouched, in the blackened patch of the field. Again, I think the fire must have used all the oxygen, to leave the grass unburned. Took out several homes and assorted outbuildings, along with the UPS center and all the trucks and packages therein. When the fire hit the wheat stubble on my place, it raced unchecked there and also got into the trees along the river. The wheat stubble burned much faster than the timber so all the wildlife found itself trapped when the stubble fire outraced the fire in the timber. The Tribal road department sent a dozer to plow a fire guard along the edge of the timber and one of the hot-shot wildland fire fighter crews were also working the fire along my south edge. About 1 O'clock in the morning, the wind finally died and so did the fire. The same scene was repeated in several farms and towns in the north east corner of the state. elevators and towns were consumed or mostly consumed before the wind finally died. One of my friends up there was out fighting fire and suddenly, the orange glow died and the sky darkened - the fires were no longer being force fed by the winds and were able to be mopped up.
The next day, I talked with one of the hot-shots and commented on what a good job they did when they stopped the fire in a narrow stretch of timber. He laughed at the thought and said they had nothing to do with that. The wind just happened to die before the flames got to the narrow stretch. I think one must remain humble when dealing with extremes of nature, because often we are powerless to change much.