SATOR SQUARE

I feel compelled to share a story with you all about a situation I was confronted with these past few days.

I live in a mountanous region, very rugged, terrain at 6200+ ft elevation. difficult for even the best of hikers.

It is  a very small community,  consisting of just under two hundred homes.

We have monsoons here which can be dangerous,  with lightening and torrential  downpours.

We had a storm last week on the 16 of August  where we were hit with  numerous lightening strikes one of which sparked a Wildfire 

near a camp called Wild Cow. 4 miles from my home 

Soon after the strike,  we were informed by our fire captain of the situation we were dealing with.   On the 17 the message confirmed we had a Wildfire burning BLM was on scene and 20+ acres had been burned with  0% containment. 

On the 18 the fire was upgraded to level 3 and Aviation was brought in with water drops and retardant . 

85+ acres and 100+ personnel were battling the fire which was burning in a very remote section no roads very few trails with 6ft tall chapparral and thick grasses. 

Overnight the winds gusting up to 50mph spread the fire towards the community increasing it to 500+ acres 

Throughout the day on the 19 the fire surged further north east towards my home yet again increasing the acreage to 980 

At this time we reaceived Rady Set Go orders from Sheriff's Dept 

We were in preparedness mode and I began packing and making arrangements for shelter for the smaller animals of the community off mountain. 

By evening the fire was at 0%containment and had reached 2285 acres we were then  informed we were in SET motion of the READY SET GO  plan which is voluntary evacuation 

This fire was moving fast .

I barely slept waiting for the mountain siren to sound during the night 

The morning of the 20 we were informed we were looking at a very serious fire incident now burning 3700 acres with still 0% containment moving faster towards the community 

This is when I contacted a friend Sir BlackWolf to tell him of our situation 

He suggested I paint a SATORSQUARE (I will explain below) and post it on my door or on property .

I speedily painted a piece of plywood and had a neighbor drive it to the top of the ridge that the fire was coming from 

I posted another on my property 

The sun was setting and we were ready to evacuate but I had faith in the power of the written word and I believed that the sign I posted would STOP the fire 

The next morning the report received was astonishing the fire had STOPPED 

Not one acre although still 0%  containment the fire had not moved.

Throughout the day there were 50mph outflows of wind and it was expected that these winds would decide our fate. 

On the contrary the power of the written word and my belief in it was the deciding factor .

During the night and the following day we had hail storms and wind still zero growth on the front lines The fire had stopped.

The virtual report from BLM stated that the fire had not moved "had not moved" for two days . They were able to get a 16% edge on the interior of the blaze 

A hotshot crew member walked the 3.5 mile ridge facing the community and came back to say "it has stopped!" 

BLM incident commander was at a loss for words during the recorded message on Facebook all he could say was the fire had stopped and there was zero growth for the last two days.



I believe the SATORSQUARE stopped the fire let me explain . This is a SatorSquare or a ROTAS SQUARE a word square  a Latin  palindrome. It can be read in each direction consisting of 25 letters 

Please Google or  Wiki this square for there is much to be explained which I don't have time for .

SATOR= Seeder, 

AREPO= a name believed to be derived from Egypt 

TENET= It holds, keeps, possesses, masters

 OPERA= work, care, labour, with effort ROTAS= wheels ,turn,or cause to rotate 



This sign painted,  and posted,  I believed would stop the fire.

The words and symbols,  had solid power in and themselves  

My belief in it's power,  set forth the motion to stop the fire. 

Very good news my friends the evacuation orders have been lifted 

My sign seen here is very crude painted quickly .

It's beautiful 

SATOR 

AREPO

TENET

OPERA

ROTAS