skip to main |
skip to sidebar
(from getty images, obviously)
My dad sent me this email this evening, which explains what the last few days have been like for him:
We had 3 days of fire to keep from burning our place. The CDF engine from across the road from us, our local guys were charged to save our home. They parked in front of the house from around 11am until the threat was over. God bless them, I can never thank them enough. I keep the grass low 100 yards or more from our house. Stucco house with stucco eves and a fire system inside. We were hit 3 times on the house. The first one came down slow and gave us some room from the big brush which was about 100 feet from the house. When the big hot fire came we had a dirt road to help, then a brush filled gully on our property that went up hot. The firefighters fogged my wife's garden that would have gone up next so it would not catch. I kept the horse and equipment barns alright by running around stopping little grass and wood chip fires from getting out of hand. After a neighbor's motor home went up the fire spread back to the north side of HWY 78 again which burned the Smokey the Bear sign, grass field and the old ranch house across the street. The old school house around the corner also went up as well many other homes in our valley. We are very blessed and lucky. It looked like a war zone that first day and night.
After the fire crew had the house secure they turned it back to me. I was alone and wound up stopping grass fires around the barn most of the night. It was super hot as you all know. Sometimes I literally could not see my hand in front of my face. Very scary.
The second day we had 3 engines on our west fence line as a grass fire was coming back into the wind which would have come to the house from down below. They handled it so professionally and at least one engine was here all day and parked across the road watching our hillside all night. We are so thankful. We have continued putting out hot spots up until 2am last night. Ironic as it is the last one was putting some dirt on what was left of the CDF Smokey the Bear sign. I was sitting there watching it finish up burning and the wind picked up so said goodnight to Smokey.
We are an evacuation facility for horses and have some here now. If anyone needs a place to go it is safe here now. We set up our stable area to protect the horses and it worked out so far. I did take the John Deere out and scrape a couple of places early on where I could not get to with water. The roads are not open. If you have horses and PM me to come here, I could meet you at the road block and help you get through.
Our hillside burned and we lost about 8 oak trees. There are still lots more there but from the front of the house to the road still looks normal. We are still on alert for spot fires.
On generator power and no phone. We are all helping each other out here and have no idea when power will be restored. Like camping now. We are all focused on water, food and power. We still have 16,000 gallons of water here. I am going to hook up my generator to the well pump eventually so we can keep our water supply up. Tim came by today and borrowed a water tank so we will keep water going over the hill for them for sure. Told Tim to come as often and take as much as they need and we will let him know if we get low.
We are fine so not worry about us at all. Now we can help some others.
I talked to my mom, brother and one of my college classmates that's in his senior year at USD today. My brother's fine and said he talked to my dad yesterday and he was doing well. My mom's doing well. My friend at USD said it wasn't raining ash there as it was in 2003, at least not yet. School's been canceled for the major colleges and all county public schools.
I had to share this pictures I saw under reader submitted images on the LA Times website. It's of a fire more in the LA area, but I thought it was striking.
I got an update from my brother this morning.
Though fires are still raging strong in SoCal, the fire has passed my dad's house. As of 9 a.m. it was on its way to the town of Ramona, though Santa Ana winds are pushing it along quickly.
He's still alone up at his ranch, but he's just putting out small ash fires and doesn't have to worry about any big ones right now.
As long as we're all thinking positive thoughts, think a few for Brett's parents, who were visiting Brett and Amy in Iowa when the area they live in was evacuated.
With Santa Ana winds still raging, its difficult to fight the fires, which my brother said had now become four separate fires. They suspect the one that threatened by dad's house was caused by a downed power line, my brother said. He also said the 30-50 mph wind is so fierce that helicopters are unable to drop flame retardant on the fire.
My dad lives on a small ranch just outside of Ramona, CA. When the Cedar fire hit in 2003, his current house was in Escrow and he was lucky enough to have not been touched by the fire. My cousins, who also live in the area, had to evacuate, horses in tow. But, for the most part, everything turned out alright.
After the Cedar fire, which burned 300,000 acres in the area and sent ash raining down throughout the county and city of San Diego for nearly a week, a new fire station was put up across the road from my dad's new home. We always joked that his house was the best place to have a fire, because the proximity of the station. However, that station was put in specifically to protect the Cleveland National Forest — the forest in which the Cedar fire began. The firefighters always said they'd help my dad if he needed it but their first priority is the forest.
Right now, fire is threatening my dad's home. I don't know all of the details, but I know that my brother and step mom are safe away from the fire and that my step mom is not able to return because they have blocked all incoming traffic into the area. My dad is the only member of the house left to fight the fire.
I'm not exactly sure why it is safe for him to still be at the home (i.e. why he hasn't been evacuated) if there is fire threatening the home. However, that is the case. I'm not even sure if the fires he's been fighting are related to the massive fire burning in the area. All I know is that he has been fighting fires for a while, at least some of which are coming from piles of junk in his neighbor's yard.
San Diego is experiencing heavy Santa Ana winds, which create the ideal conditions for fire. It's possible he's fighting some sort of small backyard fire.
Though the fire department helped him the first day he was fighting it, they were called elsewhere today. I'm not sure if the firefighters that helped him were from the Ramona fire department or the forestry one across the road from his house.
My dad's very spiritual and I just wanted to ask that you think some positive thoughts for him, or pray, depending on your belief systems.
I'll post an update when I know more.
