3 Dog Days: Welcome to the Neighborhood

That is what one of the ladies at the Schutzhund Club who lives a few street over said to me the Thursday after the fires. I'll start at the beginning....

I was at work. It was around 11:30- lunchtime, but as usual, I was planning on eating my fiber bar at my desk. Cue ominous music.

"Ring, Ring!" (Actually it is more like this:)

Me: "Hello?"

Kate: "You need to come home now. There is a fire coming straight at us!"

Me: "What!?" (The "what" was used to express disbelief, but also served the function of getting more information. However, "What?!" is not the most intelligent thing to utter in such a circumstance.)

After getting more info, I decided I would go home on my lunch, pick the dogs up so they would be safe, and go back to work. However, once I left the coolness of the coast and got out of my car at the house, the wave of oven like heat and roaring Santa Anna winds proved that the situation was more dire than I thought. Brown smog like smoke billowed up from behind the hills and the temperature was 97. Yuck.

With Kate's insistence, I decided to stay home, which meant I had to cancel an important meeting at work. The good Lt. said I could request any assistance I might need, so I requested the C130 MAFS (fire fighting aircraft) from our base be sent over, but apparently that wasn't included in the offer.

There is a helicopter behind the power lines.

As the day grew hotter we watched the smoke get bigger and walked to the top of the hill behind our house to keep watch for flames. Ash filled the air and pieces of burnt material as long as my hand fluttered around.

Eucalyptus leaf?

On the TV we learned evacuations were taking place close to us, so we packed up the cars. I packed my computer (cpu only,) quilts, some over night clothes, artwork (as I said in an email- everyone knows in a disaster you bring the artwork. Especially if it is something large and framed and you are fleeing invading aliens.) and one trophy from each dog. Bloom's first novice (real) silver trophy from his first show, Fancy's High in Trial from the Tibetan Club, and Pie's little Schutzhund Trophy she won just a few days previously. I didn't bring any pictures because I have so many!

Our neighbor pulled all his vehicles out to the street so we went over to talk to him. He informed us the last fire that came through 5 years ago did not burn our house down, even though back then the trees and bushes were so over grown it was impossible to see the house. He said we had good brush clearance and a new roof so we would be fine. Also, he said he wasn't leaving and he never does. Apparently, the fire fighters are not always around at the time you need them, an it becomes up to you to save your own house.

All day fire trucks, police cars, trucks full of hand crews and way too many horse trailers to count roared up and down the street.

At two pm while I was at Kate's house we got a knock on the door. It was the sheriff telling us we were now under mandatory evacuation. We didn't have to leave, but he took down how many people where in the house and if we planned on staying or not. We stayed. Now that the roads were closed there was less traffic of the normal sort and even more emergency vehicles.

Our house was one of the 200!

The winds kept shifting directions, so we kept the TV on to see if we could tell where the fire was. The news was saying the fire started when a manure pile spontaneously combusted. You know it is hot out side when poop starts popping. (sorry)

A bit later we met up with another neighbor who told us five years ago our house did burn down and Kate got a bit overly excited. I didn't believe him, and sure enough, a third neighbor agreed with the first guy who said it didn't burn. The guy who said it did burn also said he had a fire hose and wouldn't let anything happen to us.

Maybe around three we walked up the hill again and while up there, a sheriff drove up the road on the other side of the barbed wire and told us we were under mandatory evacuation. Apparently he didn't know we had already been told. He had the unfortunate job of trying to communicate this information to the houses on the private drive that all have huge gates. We wished him luck. Before he left he informed us the fire had jumped the 23 several hours ago and was pretty close.

Dusk arrived and we could now see the flames. There were several fire lines, all approaching from different angles. We didn't leave because our escape route was clear. All the homes with the huge gates threw their gates open wide and hung out signs that said, "Please save our homes!" Well, there actually were no signs, but with the open gates you sure got the message. The gated community across from us did the same, so we used the opportunity to check things out. I was disappointed by the lack of huge houses, but the hill offered a good view of the fire.

From our front yard.

When the sun went down, instead of the "Sundowner" winds that people were dreading, the temperature dropped dramatically and so did the winds. The night became perfectly still. This stillness saved many homes. The winds never really came back, which allowed the fire to be brought under some measure of control. But that night was still tense because even without the winds, the fire was moving.

When full dark fell, Kate and I debated leaving. I was tired, and wanted to sleep, but we both couldn't have a nap, because someone has to be on fire watch. I thought we could take turns but she didn't' like that idea. She thought she'd make a decision at 10:30. I went to bed and around 12 she woke me up to get my opinion on if the fire was too close. She had been driving around looking at the fire lines the whole time. We went for a drive and it was much closer. Maybe two miles at the most. The closest it came was about a mile, which seems really close until you see how it burns up to someone's back door, only to be beat into submission at the last second.

Apparently is it hard to take pictures of a fire at night. Doesn't look very ominous does it? Ok- how about these two?

The fire was coming towards our house, then it turned west and began burning towards our escape route (and my friend who's house is where the Schutzhund Club trains.) Around 4 we decided to evacuate, not because our house was going to burn up, but because if the fire suddenly got really, super crazy, there was a small chance our route would be cut off.

This is when I packed Pie's toys. I knew she didn't care if they burnt up, because she would be just as happy with new ones, but Pie is my baby and the thought of her toys burning made me sad. Crazy dog lady.

We went to Denny's in Moorpark to have breakfast. The service was terrible! But the food wasn't bad.

Now the sun was up and there were still no winds. We drove back to our street, spoke with the officer at the road block who let us in and found a random fire man who told us our house was not in danger, so we could go to sleep. Ahhhhh! Sleep.

So I had a nap and when I got up, the fire was still burning and we were still under evacuation, but the danger was past. I did not unpack my car for several days, just to be safe. Fire trucks and trucks with hand crews still zoomed up and down the street. We drove around (staying out of the way) looking at the burn areas and seeing how close it came. We also noted how many horses did not get evacuated.

At the end of our street there was a water truck with two guys who set up a camp with chairs, a coffee pot and a tiny tent and lived there for about a week, way past the time the fire had moved on. I thought it strange. After they had left, an OES (office of emergency services) truck appeared, then left, then a truck full of young fire men who Kate eyeballed until I told her they were convicts. You should have smelt the rubber burn as she floored it.

On Wednesday while the fire was still burning the trash truck came and got every body's trash. I suppose it isn't only the mail that has high standards. Also on Wednesday it got up to 103 degrees. Which I'm sure the people in the good SCV phoo-hoo, but I'm guessing that is a record for Moorpark. On Thursday horses started re-appearing and all the rich people closed their gates. It has now been a week and except for the large burn areas, everything seems back to normal.