Man is in the forest - part I

This past Sunday afternoon (around 3:00) I noticed that our home was starting to smell smoky, and I heard that some National guardsman has started a fire on the mountain behind our home. They had been shooting machine guns during high red alert fire conditions (not too bright) and a spark had hit dry brush.  To be honest,  I wasn't really worried about it since the National Guard starts a fire in our mountains every year.

This year was different in that this fire was about to spread...quickly, and far. But we didn't know this yet.


We went about business as usual. Later that night, our friends, the Brays, joined us for dinner. We sat down to eat around 7:15ish, as dusk was setting in.  Throughout our meal we took turns checking out the fire that was starting to crawl over the mountainside we view from our back door. We learned that families who lived high up in the mountain were being evacuated to the junior high that was about a block from our home. We still weren't too worried. After all, we were close to the place they were evacuating to.

The view about a block from my home at about 3:30

In the ten minutes it took us to learn that the evacuation site was being moved a few miles away, the fire tripled in size. Although we hadn't received any kind of word that our neighborhood was expected to be evacuated, we started gathering our photos, clothing, shoes, and important papers. It was a fairly unorganized packing spree as we stuffed our clothing in plastic bags. Although I felt very peaceful about the possible outcomes of this raging fire, we were preparing for the worst.

When we decided to pack

It took us about 30 minutes to pack everything we needed, and by the time we were loading our car our neighborhood was being evacuated by the police. By this point, we were frantically loading our car, concerned about our babies breathing in the overpowering smoke that was now hovering all around us.  I couldn't get out of my driveway fast enough.  We sat in rush-hour like traffic breathing in that horrible smoke for about 15 minutes as we inched our way out of our neighborhood. I put my A/C on recirculate to help, and tried to get Adam to hold cloth over the babies' mouths only, but they were having no part of that.  My single focus was on getting them away from the smoke as quickly as possible.  I guess I should have felt frightened, but honestly we had been able to get so much of what mattered out of our home and were never in imminent danger. I just wanted to get my babies to better air.

What the mountain looked like as we were leaving

As we had been packing, we made the decision to take our dog with us, but because we didn't think our neighborhood was going to get evacuated (in that we were leaving mostly to get the babies out of the smoke), we locked our cats in the basement (which wasn't smoky, and left them with food and water.
By the time we were halfway out of our neighborhood I regretted my decision. Given the smoke and the traffic though, it was too late to turn back.

We headed for a friend's home, about 25 miles from our home. Michael and the kids eventually settled in for a restless sleep, and I stayed glued to Facebook watching for every little update. I learned that more and more of our community was being evacuated, and I started to get a little bit worried.I think fear for my pets was the single concern that kept me up all night. I called the city and asked them if there was any way to evacuate my pets. They told me that if my home did catch on fire, firefighters would be alerted to the pets and make every effort to get them out. This didn't go very far in assuaging my guilt. I literally slept for 55 minutes the whole night, keeping my phone on my lap in case I got the dreaded call that my house had been damaged.

A few blocks from my home

Through the night, media sources reported that four homes had been burned but that we wouldn't learn the full extent of the damage until morning light. From what I could gather from neighbors on Facebook, media websites, and our city's website, our home was still a few blocks from the fire line. For me, the actual fire was coming way to close for comfort.  I just simply could not go to sleep and kept my vigil by computer light.  By dawn, I was physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. I took a shower and Michael and I learned that they were letting residents in up to 14100 South. We live at 14172 South. We headed for home, ready to rescue our pets, not sure if they would let us in.

To be continued...



(photo credits given to Heather Genessy, Doran Barton, Christopher Jones, Clayton Tycksen, and some unknown sources)