Firestorm 2003 - Page 1

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Sunday, October 26, 2003, 6:45 AM: We receive a phone call from our neighbor saying they are getting ready to evacuate. Since her husband is a fireman we take notice. We have "bugged out" before with fires heading our direction so there is a certain denial that goes along with leaving. Your think what a mess this is going to be to put everything back - you don't really think you won't be coming back.

Noon: We have "triaged". You go through and decide what you can replace and what you can't live without. I go through and take pictures of everything for the insurance. Everything has a memory. A year and a half ago we acquired a 100-year-old piano from my sister that I decided to restore. It had been in a barn for a long time and was pretty disgusting. Inside I found dead mice, spiders, and thick dust. The stain was worn away in several areas. I took it apart, sanded it down, and re-stained it section by section. We were hoping to replace the keys soon, the last step to finishing it.
The picture on the wall was Grandma Werling's. Jeanette asked Uncle Dick for it because she liked it. I enjoyed having it in the living room as it reminded me of grandma's house every time I saw it. When it came time to load our cars, two Honda Accords, some tough decisions had to be made. The picture was big with glass, and there wasn't enough room.
The nerve center of our house - the computer center with printer, scanner, file cabinet and my favorite chair. Internet, email and homework - someone was always on the computer. We took the tower with the hard drive - it's all we could fit.
I put this system together from 1990-1995, and still enjoyed it very much. A Yamaha surround sound system, CD player, tuner, DVD and VCR. I bought the VCR in the late 80's when flying erase heads first came out and it would allow professional editing.
The hutch where Julie and I keep knick-knacks and keepsakes. We were able to box up most of the contents, but Julie's great Aunt Elsie's hutch had to stay behind. Also emptied but left behind was Julie's hope chest.
Jeanette's dresser, books and knick-knacks. Jeff and Jeremy's bunk bed and computer. Everything pictured was left behind.
Barbecue hooked into the house's natural gas.
Lawn mower, bikes, dining room oak table, and a collection of stored books on various subjects from religion to law enforcement. All left behind in the metal storage shed out back. Also in the containers were several letters.
This summer when Uncle Dick was remodeling, so was I! I painted the wood (it was an ugly color of red). I put in a new vinyl window in the living room and kitchen. The goal was to add a window every third month or so until they were all replaced. Also added was a new front door and security door, replacing an ugly wood door.
Front yard swing set.
Washer, dryer, hot water heater.
Lawn chairs with new ping-pong table in the back ground. The high winds blew a bunch of leaves onto the sidewalk during the day. The red lattice and overhead had not been re-painted yet.

Sunday - 3:00 PM - We take pictures, pack photo albums, and walk through the house making sure we have what we need. Jeremy is napping on the living room couch and we watch TV to see how close the fire is getting or if we are supposed to be evacuating. I sit on the couch wondering if maybe the fire will just go around us in the canyon below. I allow myself to wonder if we might be able to sleep in our beds tonight - just sit inside from the smoke and watch TV. Then when we're tired just go to bed.

But the winds are really whipping and we are at the top of the mountain. I take a shower and get some clothes from my drawer. I look through all my clothes - many that I have had for several years. There are old ambulance uniforms, police uniforms, a suit, shirts, pants... I grab a few clothes (mostly gym clothes) - that is all that will fit. Photo albums take up the most room. There is barely room for the kids as it is. Jeanette has gone down the mountain with our neighbor to help with her ponies and goats. She loves animals and helps her a lot with them. They get all the animals loaded but one, a 250 pound pig they have had for 12 years. There is no room. the fire is on its way now and they contemplate shooting him to save the suffering, but can't bring themselves to do it.

Jeremy wakes up. It is almost 4:00 PM on Sunday and we have been told to evacuate. We explain we are leaving because the fire is coming. He says, "We're taking my toys, right?" I tell him we only have room for two. He looks his toy drawer over carefully and chooses two of his favorite toys.

The sky is thick with smoke now. We pull out and onto the main road down the mountain. Traffic is bumper but moving along well. The police have the road blocked at the bottom so cars can go down the road side-by-side. We see 5 fire trucks go up the hill, but that will not be enough manpower to stop the raging fires. We drive to Albertson's where we meet up with our neighbors and get Jeanette. It is now that I realize I forgot something very important - my retainer. There is no going back up the mountain now.

We drove to our church and were placed with a nice family who put us up for the night. I go back to the street near Albertson's and take pictures of the fire coming over the mountain after passing through the community where we live. We talk to our neighbor on the cell phone. Her father-in-law is a retired fireman that lives near us and stayed behind. He saves his house, but tells her our house and one of our neighbor's house has burned down. He says several houses were burning.

We go to the house and watch the news into the night. The kids fall asleep quickly, Julie and I go to bed after 11:00 PM. Julie falls asleep and I listen to the radio until about midnight. I'm not a great sleeper on a good night - I wake up at 3:00 AM and turn the radio on. I mentally walk through my home over and over trying to think of anything I might have left behind that we can't live without. The bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, garage - then all over again. I regret having replaced the windows, but am secretly glad I didn't replace them all. I am also glad I didn't finish painting.

Monday afternoon we get a room then meet with our insurance agent. He will have a check to us by tomorrow. We have a long road of rebuilding ahead of us - he lays down the groundwork for what will need to be done to rebuild. He suggests we find a rental right away - we tell him we're interested in getting an RV and parking it on our property. He thinks we should be able to do that.

We start driving and stop by a Wal Mart over the hill from where we live. The winds are not nearly as bad as yesterday. A fire is creeping down the mountain where a team of firefighters is waiting to put it out.

Julie and I start to drive back to the motel, but want to see if we can get up to our house. The road is still blocked, but we take several back roads just off the freeway that lead us to a back way to our house.

We drive around the "road blocked" signs, and pass slowly under the low wires. Several phone poles are burned and the several wires are on the ground.

We turn up a road within a couple miles of our home when we come across a CHP blockade. I roll down the window and ask when the road will be opened. He asks if we live up there and we tell him we do. He says to go ahead and we continue. We want to take pictures but the battery is getting low in the camera so we save the photos for our house. Several areas look like the moon. I expect our land to look the same, but I am surprised to find quite a bit of vegetation still in place.

First picture taken - first sight when we walked up on our house.

Here's some other shots:

New 200 amp service panel	Food storage	Hammock on the trees next to the house
Satellite dish	Barbecue	Melted garage door.
	Back yard

That's it for now. We are in a hotel until we get an RV and can park on our land. I'll post more as time allows. We have a lot of work ahead of us.

October 28, 2003: Today a family from church takes the kids while Julie and I take care of business. (Actually they take Jeanette and Jeremy - Jeff has a dream day at the hotel of cartoons and computer games.) We look at rentals but the streets they are on have too much traffic, and people are rushing to rent. We decide to by an RV to park on the property. We purchase a 31 foot 5th wheel - a 1999 Prowler with three pop outs, a washer & dryer, and a 50 amp service. Living in a trailer is hard enough, so we decide to get the biggest one we can. At least we will be on our property during the rebuild, and not in apartments.

2:30 PM: We go by another church member that is a dentist. He takes a mold of my teeth and orders a new retainer for me. We go by Farmer's and our agent has the first check. We deposit it then go to get the kids.

4:30 PM: We go by to get the kids and are met by members from our Stake. (LDS churches are divided into wards which make up a Stake). We learn that each ward has "adopted" a family that has been burned out, and we receive several donations. Clothes and even some toys much to Jeremy's delight. (Didn't have the camera with me).

6:00 PM: We have dinner at our Bishop's house. Everyone has been so gracious and heartfelt in their concern. We have dinners lined up at people's homes, and several experts volunteering their services. The Stake President calls telling me someone has donated toys anonymously. This is all very overwhelming but the community has treated us so well I know we'll be fine.

This will be about all I write for awhile. I was fortunate to find a cable modem connection for my computer at the Bishop's house. We will probably go out of town for a few days. Julie and I work in the schools and they are closed. We have no home to take care of and can't do anything on the land yet. If we're going to sit in a motel we might as well do it in cleaner air - the air is terrible and not good when you have a child with asthma. So for those back home that have checked in on us know we are doing fine and our extended church family have really come through for us.

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