Fire!

 As many of you know we had a fire come through our Norco Hills this past Tuesday. The Riverside fires you were hearing about on the news. That was us. That was in our neighborhood! Our street! 

 Sorry for the overkill on the photos but I'm putting these up for my dad because he wants to see them. 

 I was at play group that afternoon and I could see smoke up coming up over the hills in the general direction of our house. I thought nothing of it. Then there was more. And more. And more. One of the moms at the play group called her sister and she said she heard on the news the fire was by a community college in the Riverside area. I didn't know where the community college was so I called Whitely's dad who is a firefighter for Chino Hills and asked him if he had heard anything. He told me he had not, so it couldn't be too out of control because when it gets out of control, that's when they start notifying other fire departments. Then he calls me back and tells me exactly where it is located, which was very close to us, and that he will keep us posted. I called Christian to tell him and he decided to come out to the house to check on the horses and to let them out of their stalls, because the smoke would make them panic. A few minutes later I get a text message from Whit's dad telling me it's much closer than he had previously heard; they had been notified(!) and that he was not telling me what to do, but maybe we should not go back to the house. 

 I left Whitley with one of the moms because I knew I might have to pack up and it would be easier with just the baby and Sheldon, who was with Christian, and sped over to our house.

 When I got home, Christian and our neighbor/friend Scott were in the backyard way out by the horses watching what was going on. It turns out it was across the golf course that we have behind our backyard. Not too bad. I decided that before I headed back to get Whit, I would take a shower. (It was as swimming play group and yes, I shower before 2:00pm. Sometimes) 

 When I got out, the situation had gotten much worse and the fire that had been "contained", shifted and was creeping through the brush that runs through the golf course. Right towards our hills. That are directly up the street from us. Still, the wind we figured, was not pushing it directly towards our house. However, about 5 or 10 minutes later I went out to the front yard and could see smoke right up the street. To my understanding the wind shifted at little and swept the fire through the golf course right up to our street! In about 10 min.

What seemed like a controlled situation flipped. Scott told us that he really thought we should pack up. So he and Christian started loading up the horses and I started running around the house grabbing stuff. Like this- (in my Lina Lamonte voice) What do I do?! What do I do?!

 I noticed the house getting darker and realized it was the smoke blocking the sunlight coming into the house, giving the inside an orange glow. Oooh, Spooky.... That was weird. I came out of my room and looked down the stairs into our entry way and the whole down stairs was smokey. Like when I start a kitchen fire while cooking. 

 This is when I learned my lesson about being prepared. Because that was when I freaked out. I got panicked and started running around in circles trying to think of what I needed to save, where it was, what I should grab for who and all that stuff. And that's more complicated than you would think. Especially if you are not thinking calmly and clearly. Erin wrote a really good blog about her thoughts on being prepared in an emergency situation after thinking about what happened at our house, which are basically my thoughts as well, so you can cross reference.  

 We BOTH learned a very valuable lesson that day. I am going to go through all my stuff and get it together, pack it in a few boxes, and have it all stored in one place by our garage so when we have to take off again, and we will because of where we live, we will be able to just grab it and go. I highly recommend doing this. Do it for a family night. We are. I think it could be fun.

I can feel my friend Leslie saying right now- I've got it done! Her hubs is a firefighter. In their gorgeous home that looks like it could be in a magazine, they have fire extinguishers adorning every room in their house. It's part of their decor.

 I wasn't prepared.  I just started throwing pictures and albums and documents and shoe boxes and baby clothes at Scott and Christian. Finally, I realized  I just needed to get out of there, most especially get my kids out of there, so I looked around and wondered what kind of state it could all be in when I got back and left. Christian had the car loaded with the kids in it waiting for me. He was going to get a few more things in the horse trailer before he left. By this time there were fire trucks one after another coming up our street. 

 We headed over to Erin's house. She had tried to come up to our house earlier to see of we were okay and help us get stuff out but they wouldn't let her up. I picked up Whit from my friend Tara's house, who gave her some clothes to wear because I left her at playgroup in her swimming suit and then we went over to Erin's and spent the rest of the afternoon looking out her window watching the fire snake through the other side of the mountain. She lives behind us on the other side of our hills. 

 This is what we packed up. The dog, horses, David's turtle and tortoise, (we forgot the snake-oops), all our computers, baby clothes, our pictures, albums, journals, church and legal documents and  baby formula. I forgot the diapers! My thoughts behind saving only Jay's clothes, is that he throws up a lot and poops on them all the time and I change him at least twice a day. He needs the most clothes. I only had a few minutes to pick. Plus he just got a whole bunch for being born and they are all so new and cute and I couldn't let them go to waste. I want my children to know, saving only his clothes has absolutely nothing to do with the order in which I love them. That's based on something totally different. And that was a joke for those of you who wouldn't get it and made me ruin the joke by having to add that. 

 David couldn't get up the street because he got home too late.  That's why Christian stayed behind so he could clear out David's rooms and all the stuff he needed. 

I wasn't "scared" that day. I was frantic. I knew everything was going to be fine. I never once felt that we were in danger, I was just kind of bummed. I didn't know what kind of damage, if any, was going to be done to our house and what kind of clean up or loss it might entail, if any. Maybe I was in denial. 

 BUT, coming home and being able to see for ourselves how close the fire actually had been, that's when I realized how lucky we were. It came right up to the edge of our street, at the top of our street; where it T's off. That's 3 houses up from us. Up the street, to the right on the little dead end road the fire had stopped right at the edge of that family's yard. Like- right up to the edge. One side is charred, the other side is yard. They must be feeling so lucky and grateful. Gavin and Rebecca's little hide-out was burned. Which, to be honest, is okay by me because I was never that crazy about them playing in that big bush. 

 We were SO SO SO lucky and I think many prayers were answered that day. We were told it was contained at all times but coming home and seeing how CLOSE it was to our house....

 We are so grateful to all the fire fighters and others who work and train for these kinds of situations to keep us safe and all the things that are important to us as well.  Like our houses. 

 I do have to add this. To give you a true idea of the kind of person I am and where my priorities are- When I was driving up to my house from the play group, wondering what was going on, in somewhat of a panic, I was trying to go through in my mind all the things I wanted to take and where they might be and how to most effectively get this done. My first thought went to the curry chicken I had simmering in the crock pot that I had started cooking earlier that morning. It was filled to the brim and I was wondering how I could get it into the car without spilling it. Should I let a little broth out or maybe just transfer it to another bowl or Tupperware??? I didn't want to waste it! I had been looking forward to it all morning! Ask Erin how much I was obsessing over the loss of my chicken. 

So yes, that would be me. Thinking to save the food first. Mom of the Year.

This was what I first saw. Didn't seem too bad. 

This was cool, watching the helicopters flying over us. Did you know they can suck up 500 hundred gallons of water in 60 SECONDS!

They used the golf course ponds for water. Can you see the hose?

All the trees and brush you see running through the course, that was what caught on fire moving towards us. These were all taken from our back yard. 

These were the last 2 photos I took before we left. The fire came up even closer! Right up to the edges of our horse trails. 

After photos.

You can see how the fire worked it's way through the golf course brush. 

This was where Gavin's hide-out was located. Was.

As you can see. Right up to the trails.  We are 3 houses down from that. 

What a day!