Monday Memories: heat+wind+fire

This heat reminds me of something rather scary for the rolling hills and brush that surrounds my home.

Fires! 

Last November we experienced some pretty nasty fires in my neighborhood. I remember leaving that morning, on my way to lunch with my mom and Will, thinking the fires were pretty far from my house. I guess I underestimated the power of wind.

When I left, it looked like this from my house

This looks worse than it really was because the wind was blowing the smoke into my neighborhood. So I proceeded to leave and meet my mom for lunch with Will. I guess you can say I wasn't too concerned. Patrick, on the other hand, was definitely more than concerned. 

He called me while I was running errands with my mom, suggesting I come home and pack some things up in case they evacuate us. I asked him if anyone had come to our door to tell us about volunteer/mandatory evacuations and he said no. I told him we were fine and there was no way I was coming home. We hung up, I ran errands and he started packing. 10 minutes later he called to tell me I "had to come home now" because we had been mandatory evacuated. Damn, I should have listened to him the first time. I raced home as fast as I could with the fear of getting blocked out by police and not getting everything out of my house in time.

During my race home, I notice people were exiting the freeways via on ramps. That is how crowded it was and the desperate measures people began taking. You can see the "on ramp" and cars going the opposite direction in this photo.

As I was driving up to my neighborhood, the skies above me became filled with smoke, ash and flames in just a matter of hours. It definitely didn't look the same as I left that morning. 

I could barely breathe as I pulled into our garage and ran into our house. I had my mom with me to help out with Will, while Patrick and I packed our cars full of photos, computers and other important documents and belongings. I've never had to do this in my life and it was rather nerve racking and scary. I've never thought to myself what I would take or what I'd leave behind in a situation such as this.. and here I found myself trying to make these decisions with limited time while worrying about my family. I knew I couldn't take it all but I also knew none of this crap mattered, as long as the boys and I were safe and together. Don't forget I was also approximately 5 months pregnant with Reese during this ordeal, so this wasn't the best air quality for me to be breathing (or my 10 month old!) 

What I didn't realize when I was out running errands not taking Patrick's advice, he was also running back and forth to his parent's house, packing up their house, alone! They live about a mile from us and happened to be out of town. Poor guy had a tshirt wrapped around his nose and mouth, running back and forth, packing up 2 homes and working his ass off... while I was second guessing him over the phone whether I needed to come home. To top it off? He also had asthma, so this was definitely not good for his lungs! 

We quickly packed up two houses, our baby and 4 dogs (between his parent's and our 2 dogs) and headed to my parent's house about 20 minutes away. My dad, a fireman, was assigned to my neighborhood for the next 3 days. Over those 3 days we opened up our house to fireman for showers, food, water and beds to recharge before they went out on the front lines next. After all, I figured if they could close their eyes in my house, it was safe to say it wasn't going up in flames. 187 residential structures and 30,305 acres were destroyed in the "freeway complex" fire. 

As I took the kids for a run tonight, I noticed several homes being rebuilt in my neighborhood. I was so surprised by this, as it's only been 9 months and I figured the process would take so much longer (insurance, architect, city plans, approval ect.) I'm thankful that these families who watched their homes go up in flames are now able to rebuild with a fresh, clean slab. I know it's a high possibility that they already had their dream home and it was destroyed, along with belongings, photos and memories.. but I hope they can be grateful to have their family.. because I would let my entire house burn down, without removing a single item, if I had could have my husband and kids safe with me.  (crap, we just had an earthquake as I'm writing this!) Actually, I'd light my own house on fire to have my family back together. All 4 of us.