My Valley Fire Story - Tragedy and Rebirth

This post was written shortly after the Valley Fire devastated my home town and surrounding communities.

Just a few minutes ago I saw a post asking how much notice people had - and it reminded me I haven't really written about how we got our notice, and wanted to share that story. It really is a thing of miracles, fate, or a perfect storm of everything going right when so much went so wrong.

Saturday - September 12 - a date I am sure many of us will remember for a long long time here in Lake County. My mom was over at a friends house loading up horses to go riding in Boggs State Forest. My father who works shift work, was working nights the day before, and he was sleeping after working all night. Myself - also sleeping as "it was the weekend, so I can stay up late and sleep in tomorrow".

My sister and one of the "on the scanner" Lake County Facebook pages are the real heroes in this for our story. For you see - had it not been for the post by this Scanner Facebook page, had it not been for my sister seeing it shortly after landing in John Wayne Airport in Orange County - our story could have been tragically different.

My sister had just returned from overseas - visiting London, Iceland, and Canada with her fiance. She was looking at social media, and saw the post saying "Fire on High Valley Road". She called my mom and informed her of this, and thankfully my mom wasn't out riding at that point. My sister then called her back 5 minutes later and said "Mom, the fire already jumped over Bottle Rock Rd - you should starting packing and getting ready to evacuate."

After hearing this my mom called me - and as I mentioned (and if you know me reasonably well) you know that I sleep like a rock. It takes a couple alarms usually for me to wake up in the morning, and in this case - because I had stayed up so late the night before I was very tired - and I sleep even harder when that is the case. My phone was on silent, the only noise it was making was a small vibration on the wooden shelf/nightstand next to my bed. I would imagine that 99 times out of 100 - I'd never have woken up for that call - but in this case - I did. She told me to get my dad up, call our neighbors, and she'd be home as soon as she could.

I get up - wake my dad, call our neighbors, and start going through the mental checklist of items we need to be sure to grab and where they are. My dad gets the truck backed up to the 5th wheel, gets the dogs loaded up, as I start to retrieve these items. At one point - I probably looked ready for a pending zombie apocalypse. With cargo style shorts on - I must've had about 8-10 firearms on my person at one time - zombies beware :).

We retrieve the photos, the important papers, and as I make one more sweep through the downstairs area of our home decide to grab a few changes of clothes as we may be evacuated a few days, a few pairs of shoes just in case it extends to Monday (needed some work shoes...although I didn't grab work clothes), and head back upstairs to talk with my dad and mom who had recently arrived back home.

We were making sure we had what we needed - and then the discussion came up to "How is Terry?" A family friend of ours who lives on a dirt road which is very close to where the fire started. Right as this conversation started - we get a phone call from him, and he is somewhat frantic. Asking where to go, what to do, etc. My dad had planned on taking the truck with trailer attached out there - to which I responded that wasn't happening. Again, this is a dirt road, narrow, and well off the beaten path. I said I am going out there to get Terry - you guys finishing loading up, and we will meet up in Middletown.

As I am getting in my car - seeing the large airplanes fly very low - I remember thinking "this is not good". We see the Cal Fire helicopter flying around all the time - it was practically in our back yard. I don't ever remember a time I had seen these huge aircraft flying near Cobb, and flying so low.

I remember honking a few times as I drove down Golf Rd. - people probably thought I was crazy or just being a jackass. As I began the drive - it didn't seem like many were in a rush to get out of the area - seemed like all was relatively normal through town.

As I get up to Cobb School, and drive past it I distinctly remember it going from a hazy sky - to one that was completely dark. It was almost like it turned to night immediately after passing that area. Again - thinking "oh no this really isn't good". Passing the church, and taking the sharp left hand turn just before the entrance to Boggs where the Cal Fire Helitack station is - I remember seeing a spot fire on the left hand side of the road in a heavily wooded area. I passed a Cal Fire pickup truck and was frantically waving my arm at him and pointing to that area. I thought I was driving into a death trap - and seriously considered turning around and returning to my parents. However - getting to Terry was my mission, and I convinced myself I'd drive until I got to him or until I couldn't go any further.

Once I arrived - Terry was loading up his car. He appeared discombobulated, but had a good handle on what he needed to pack. I went through a quick list with him - medicine, important documents, and anything else he'd need in the very near future. As he is diabetic - he said he had his insulin and other items. From a class at work - I recognized some of his current actions to be that of someone having a diabetic episode - and asked him if he had any kind of juice, fruit, etc. to help with his blood sugar. We made one last sweep of his house, grabbed a few extra cans of juices, and fruit, and off we went.

The original plan we had discussed (my parents and I + Mary) was to meet in Middletown, and then head to the Rancho's where Mary's house was. In hindsight - it's a very good thing we didn't go there. While her house survived - we'd have had a helluva time getting out from there.

We decided to go to a co-workers house of my dad in Cloverdale - so Mount St. Helena it was. I saw something on that drive I know I've never seen before, and doubt I will ever see again. Lines of cars trying to get over the mountain, trucks pulling trailers, old drivers, young drivers, etc. We see this all the time. What I've never seen - not once did someone try to pass on any of the passing lanes. Everyone stayed to the right. Everyone drove calm.

All told I think we left Middletown Hardesters at about 6:00pm, and finally arrived at the family friends house at around 11:30pm-12:00am.

This was a day that was filled with many miracles - many instances of fate - or a perfect storm of things going so very right. Thankfully - my sister saw that post. She called my mom. I woke up. We got to Terry. We didn't go to Hidden Valley. Can you see how many things could've gone wrong - but didn't?

This story is really one of the reasons I feel like I should reach out to others. I should help inspire people and bring hope. It feels like this perfect storm of things going right - was for something more. Something bigger. Like my family and I were being guided because somewhere down the line - we'd be needed for something bigger. Maybe that is why I have felt obligated to continue to write, and to help others, and reach out how I can. Maybe it's fate, maybe it's not - but I know I am very glad my sister saw that post.

Funny story about this too - the last thing I remember my dad doing as I was leaving the house to get Terry - he made sure to grab the chicken we had taken out for dinner and putting it into the refrigerator as he didn't want it to go bad. Well - sadly it got bbq'd a little too much I think - but hey at least it got cooked and didn't rot :)