Mother Nature is a Beast or...

Pre-evacuation on a Saturday Morning.

About a month ago, September 8 to be exact, a small fire was started by lightning in the wilderness south and west of where I live and work. It was christened the Decker Fire. Since it was in the wilderness and the terrain was very inhospitable, the forest service let it burn which is their custom. There were no structures or people to worry about and forest fires are naturally occurring ways for dead underbrush to be cleared out. For a couple of weeks the fire stayed at about 1000 acres of wilderness.
Then we had some unusual and strong October winds. The fire was still in the wilderness but getting close to the ridge of Methodist Mountain, a mountain right in Salida, with houses and businesses.   No worries, fires only burn uphill. It won’t cross the ridge.
These pics are from Wednesday when the fire did crest the ridge and start downhill. 130 residences were evacuated at 2am. Mother Nature is a beast and she doesn’t always follow the rules. Over night the fire doubled in size.

The view from the hospital parking lot outside my office on Wednesday. 

You can see the burning fires on the side of Methodist Mountain. 

Fire can move downhill after all.

Friday at work I got a Pre-evacuation phone call from the county.  I had signed up for that little service last time there was a forest fire nearby. Wait. What? I live way west of the fire. Or so I thought. 

A neighborhood meeting at my local fire station after work was packed.  Parking lot overflowing, people parked along the highway, standing room only packed.   The gist of the meeting was that the edge of the fire is two miles from a "trigger point". If the fire reaches that line, all of Howard where I live will be evacuated as a precaution. The fire line is still in unreachable territory so there has not been much they can do to stop it. Instead they are trying to build breaks west of the fire that would halt spreading. But the officials probably aren't interested in another 2am evacuation fiasco so they are also being overly cautious.  "Go home and make a plan. If you have livestock that needs to be transported, do it sooner rather than later." 

The map from last night's meeting.

The distances seem so far yet....

The fire now covers 5,921 acres. Winds today are supposed to pick up as the day heats up. Humidity is low. Perfect fire conditions.

So.

Interesting what becomes important when you walk around your house "making a plan".   What's important? What do you really need? What do you save? 

My divorce was a lesson in letting go. In 11 days I managed to empty a 3000 square foot house with a 3 car garage and condense the remains into an 8x10 storage unit. In the 2 years since I made that move there have been two things that I wish I had kept. One skirt, one blouse. No idea what happened to either one of them. Furniture went. Clothes went. Dishes, spices, tools, cleaning supplies, sports equipment- all given away. Pretty much what remained were the things that had sentimental value, the art and craft supplies, the kid stuff, my day to day necessities.

So Friday night was spent wandering the house, putting things in the car, finding the winter clothes, deciding which books have to come, which jewelry. I had already gotten my fireproof, waterproof bag of important papers out along with the cat kennel and pet food.  A Rubbermaid tub has joined those essentials and in it goes....what?  A silver pitcher. The kids' baby books. The good jewelry. The computer keyboard and mouse. Extra car and house keys. The sterling silverware and wine goblets are already in the car as is my father's large framed baby photo from when he was one. But really?

Not much I can't live without.   

The house no longer holds my kids. My friends don't live here. The dog and cat will come with.

The girls are very practical, if not particularly ethical. I told them I was on alert and their responses? 

I guess they don't realize I have already started a new life. But hey!

Maybe it's time to reimagine life again. 

Mother Nature is a beast. 

So am I. 

Hayden Pass Fire Update

Hayden Pass Fire Update



(I know everyone has been waiting with bated breath for an update to Tuesday's post so here goes.)

O yay! We're Number One!

The Hayden Pass Fire is the number one priority forest fire in the United States. That's a dubious distinction, not one anyone wants.

Here's a map of the area that is affected:

My cabin is a little to the left and a little above the D in "Div A".

The fire can be seen from space. 

Astronaut Jeff Williams took this pic:

FROM SPACE!!! I think I see my cabin there. Eek. 

Monday afternoon the fire looked like this from my main road so I freaked and drove to Denver.

Fortunately when I returned Tuesday evening, things had settled down a bit. At least the smoke had. 

And the fire had not spread beyond a couple hundred acres. All good news.

This morning the sky looked like this:

Forest fires are like recalcitrant teenagers that have been sent to their room for the night. You think they are in there asleep but truthfully they are on their cell phone, texting up a storm, plotting with their friends on how to get back at you the next day.  The fire "lays down" at night (doesn't that sound sweet?) and then roars back to life about lunch time the next day. (again, like a teenager-neither one gets up early.)

So I went into town and I thought I would show you your tax dollars at work. 

As I come into Salida there is "fire camp" .

This is where the big trucks are stationed, equipment, people... and apparently the extra PortAPotties...all at the US Forest Service building. 

Some of the firefighters are sleeping in those tents, others are here:

Camping at the practice field of the high school. 

These guys bust their butts and then they have to go back to tents?? Poor babies. 

But from what I am told they eat VERY well. That's good. 

On the way back home, we have a news truck on Highway 50 from one of the TV stations along with a sign warning about poor (smoky) visibility in the canyon.

In my little bitty town there is the media staging area. 

It is at the Howard Volunteer Fire Department. They are feeding the people that have been evacuated three meals a  day. If you feel like doing something really nice, send them a donation. They could use it. 
Here's their GoFundMe link:    https://www.gofundme.com/haydenpassfire

Overhead the helicopters whump whump whump, carrying their giant orange buckets full  of water.  The helicopters scoop water out of ponds and then dump them on the fire.

I think it is really cool to see them. Carlos thinks they are terrifying.

There are seven helicopters and at least one air tanker.

Bulldozers are used to create fire lines, hopefully stopping the fire by making a break in the available fuel.  We are under the supervision of a Type 2 Incident Management team.  There are hot shot crews involved....the elite of the forest fire fighters. There are baby hot shot crews also- the hot shot wanna-bes.  Four different divisions are attacking this fire from three different sides. The backside is in forest land and not easily accessible. 

But you know what? We are very very grateful for the work of the firefighters. 

See? There's a sign on the highway thanking them...

Keep up the good work. 

Thanks. 

Hayden Pass Fire by the numbers as of Thursday afternoon:

•The fire covers 14,788 acres. That's about 23 square miles that are burning. My cabin is about 5 miles from the fire. The fire was first visible on Sunday, quickly grew to 5000 acres and now has almost tripled in 4 days.  Do the math, this fire is traveling. Fortunately, not towards me. Yet.

•There are 442 people fighting the fire. Not a lot of people for 14,788 acres.

• NO structures or lives have been lost so far. Let's hope it stays that way.

•Estimated date for having this fire completely under control and out?  About October 1, 2016 or around the first snow fall.  Most of what is burning is wilderness area which cannot be reached. The firefighters are focusing on protecting property, livestock and lives. For now, the wilderness can burn. Not much else can be done.

•O! The best part? The fire is ZERO PERCENT CONTAINED as of right now. Zero. Which means while I feel very safe, I also realize that 6 or 7 miles is NOTHING if the wind changes direction.

Practicing my S'Mores recipes just in case!

(Fire numbers and map from Inciweb... a really cool website if you like to follow forest fires.)

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Where There's Smoke....

Where There's Smoke, Yep, There's Fire...

It's Monday night and I'm in Denver because Sunday afternoon my neighbor called and said "Look out the window, there's a fire." 

Uh, yea. There's a whole bunch of smoke over that next ridge. Where did that come from? It wasn't there 2 hours ago. 

                

I call another neighbor, message a third. The whole little grapevine is ringing and dinging. 

Turns out there is a forest fire about 5-10 miles away. The wind is blowing like crazy. The humidity is 12%. It's hot. Basically a perfect storm. 

The fire was first reported on Friday but when the forest service went out, they couldn't find it. Same with Saturday. At 2pm on Sunday they found it big time because all of the sudden it was covering about 5000 acres. 

                

Smoke was wafting through the air. The wind was gusting. The sunset was incredible, sun shining through smoke. Poor Carlos was glued to my side, most likely picking up on my anxiety. 

         

For most of us it was a very uneasy night last night.

Some of us slept just fine.

    

This morning was clear with only a tiny whiff of smoke on the horizon.

By noon, that had changed. 

By 2 it was even bigger. 

And by 3:30 when I was heading home from the store...it was just flat out scary. 

Five thousand acres had multiplied to 12,000. 

That's when I decided there was just no point in waiting until an official evacuation came. And maybe it won't come. If the wind stays from the west, we are golden. If it shifts, well.....if a fire can double in less than 8 hours, I'm pretty sure it can make that 5 mile leap to my house. 

I packed Carlos in the car, sent my sweet friend Diana a message to make up the guest room and closed up the cabin. All the goodies that I couldn't bear losing are with me. 

Named the Hayden Pass Fire, it is mostly burning on federal land in the Sangre de Cristo wilderness. There's plenty of timber and dead wood to keep it happily fed, and limited access to aid in putting it out. Before I left, helicopters were flying overhead dumping water. 

Tonight the fire will "sleep" when the wind dies down. Tomorrow morning? Remains to be seen. 

Cross your fingers and say a little prayer for all the houses, animals and people of my little area. I hope I  have a cozy cabin in the woods to go home to. 

For information on this fire, you can go to:

http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4849/

And if you get a chance, thank a firefighter. 

Especially those forest fire fighters. 

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What?

What Would You Grab? 

Sunday night Bunny and I decided to go to dinner. First we headed to the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. Closed. At 7:15pm.

Okay, we'll just drive into town.

Almost into town we notice smoke billowing into the air.   Around the curve and past the McDonald's we realize the smoke is coming from a neighborhood right off the highway.

Pulling into a hotel parking lot we could see flames leaping from a roof across the way. Firetrucks were everywhere, police had the roads blocked, people were standing and staring, all while a house collapsed into itself in a puff of cinders and flames.

The view from the highway.

It's a small town. Everyone standing around seemed to know whose house it was, how the fire started (chimney fire), how long it took them to get out of the house with their treasures (30 minutes) and what they were doing as their house burned (watching).

Photo credit: Brian McCabe/ The Mountain Mail

After a few minutes of rubbernecking,  we headed on to our second choice in dining establishments. Closed.
Again we were just a few minutes too late. (Too late being 8:00pm on a Sunday night.)

Third times a charm and so was our third choice.

After ordering I asked Bunny "If our house were on fire, what would you grab?"

It's one of those questions you think about occasionally but not too hard. Because if you think about it too seriously, you are acknowledging that this is something that might actually happen. And no one wants that. So let's just not think about it and then we won't have to deal with it.

Bunny, being 17, thought for a minute and then said "Well, it's not like I have a lot of treasures. I don't know."

We both agreed the animals first. The cats might be a challenge. Would they hide? Or come running?
Ruby, the chinchilla, has wheels on her cage- she'd be out in a flash. The turtles could be scooped out of their tank quickly, too. I assume Carlos would be smart enough to come when called.

Ruby. She's a treasure.

And then what?

For me, my first thought is the picture of my father when he was one. It's almost life sized, framed with a convex glass over it. A hand tinted photograph. It was taken when he was one and had entered a baby beauty contest. That would make this photo and frame 91 years old. I have had it hanging in every apartment and house since I was maybe 20. Rescued it from my parent's attic.

The photo albums. Because even though it is on my list, I haven't digitalized all my photos yet. Mostly because they are in Texas and I am in Colorado.
(I guess we were both thinking of what to save from Texas at this point, since that is where all the photos are.)

Bunny said she would help me save my jewelry. Mostly because she has her eyes on some of it. (Like the earrings of mine she wore Saturday night to prom, possibly.)  I want my grandmother's sapphire and diamond wedding rings. But the good stuff is in the wall safe which requires a combination stored in one room and a key stored in another.  That safe is supposed to be fireproof. All the important papers are in there, too. Do I trust it?   Can't imagine anything surviving a fire like we saw Sunday night. But also can't imagine running from room to room and then still having the presence of mind to carefully dial a combination and jiggle open a door while fire is spreading around me. Let's just hope that safe really is fireproof.

And I would want the sterling silver flatware, formerly belonging to friends of the family and purchased from their estate. When I got married it was the silver I imagined but couldn't find. A few months into wedded bliss, the friend passed and the silver was to be sold to endow a scholarship. Unfortunately it was monogrammed which greatly reduced its resale value. Fortunately it was monogrammed with my new initial. We've been together ever since.

Beautiful sterling flatware. 

Love the silver goblets, also.

Have to grab those too?

But this has me running all over the house, scouring the hiding places and frantically unlocking things.  Not exactly following that "Get out and don't go back in" rule.  And would I remember my treasures or just grab whatever was handy? I hope I never have to find out.

So, what would you save?

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And.... after writing this I realized...duh!.. first grab the computer, the iPad and my purse.  Between those three items I have most of my life. And the kid's lives. And the household info. And Lord knows what else.
Then I'd grab the other good stuff.