Douglas & Nicole: California Wildfires 2007

One year ago on a Sunday in October (the 21st to be exact), we went to church and did all the normal things we do on Sundays. There were a couple fires around the county, but nothing out of the ordinary. Since they weren't close to us, we didn't think anything of them. We went to bed thinking the next day would just be a normal Monday. We had NO IDEA what was in store for us in the next week. We were woken up by a phone call at 4am. It was a recording from the Escondido Police Department. I was a little dazed as I answered the phone and all I got from the message was that there were evacuations being ordered in parts of Escondido. Not knowing if that meant us, we decided to turn on the news to see what was going on. Literally overnight, practically the whole county (and several other counties) had caught on fire. The ward set to work calling people to see if they were ok and to inform them of what was going on. At this point, there was no way we could go back to sleep. At 8am, we were informed by Brett (our "landlord") that the police had just knocked on their door and told them to evacuate. Since we are in the backyard, the police couldn't have known about us so we knew that was our cue to leave. We packed up some important items (pets, instruments, important documents, some clothes, etc) and headed out. Only later did we realize that we had left our wedding pictures, my wedding dress and other things we wished we had brought. Since my family had not been evacuated, we drove to their house (a whopping 7 minutes from our house.) We received calls from friends all over the country who were hearing about the fires wanting to know if we were ok. I got many texts from friends around the area (who were going through the same thing we were) wanting to know if we were ok and to give us updates on what they were going through. I originally had the day off Monday, but Tuesday I was scheduled to work. After some investigating, I found out that the Welk (where I worked at the time) had been evacuated and I was not to come in to work the next 2 days, but I would get paid anyway. (We were asked to come to work on Thursday even though it was still evacuated so we could call EVERYONE who had tickets to shows that week and give refunds.) The Welk was not the only company to lose money. Since I am self-employed, I don't get paid for off days and of course students were cancelling right and left and I lost some money, too. At least I had some extra money to get by with. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we basically sat at "home" watching the news and checking the internet for evacuation sites and confirmed houses burned down. Periodically, I would call our house phone to see if it would go to the answering machine and confirm our house was still standing. On Tuesday night, one segment of the news showed a reporter standing in front of a blaze with firemen and helicopters all around. "I'm standing in front of Lake ____ ..." he began. At that point, we honestly did not know if we still had a house or not. The next day we decided to drive around the area to see things firsthand and get a break from the news. We went to the stake center (church building) which was used as an evacuation site and there were cots in every room and TONS of food and necessities. Thank goodness for the church humanitarian services! The church also got the pleasure of housing the National Guard. At one point, the church building was issued an evacuation order but thankfully, that order was lifted soon after. We also drove as close to our house as we could and were able to get a few blocks away. We saw flames coming over the mountain and that was a scary sight! There were people all around trying to get a better view. Some were standing in the middle of the street crying because they knew their house was gone. Everywhere you went, the sky was orange and there was smoke in the air. The smell was awful. In order to breathe well, the best thing to do was to stay inside. It felt like we were living in a nightmare. We didn't know what was going to happen next, whether we would have to be evacuated again, whether we would still have a house, when it would end. I just wanted to wake up and find out it was all a dream. On Thursday I went to work and while I was there, Douglas decided to see if the road to our house was still blocked. He later informed me that we were free to go home. I came home to a house still standing. The air was awful, but the fire was gone. Even though there were several houses in the neighborhood that were gone, most were saved because of the large amounts of water available right there. The Navy helicopters poured water around the area and literally saved our home. I can't imagine the horror of coming home to nothing. Thank goodness we had a happy ending. Slowly but surely, over the next several weeks, the fires became more and more contained and more and more people were allowed to go home. The smell went away, the sky became clearer, the air became cleaner, the ground became greener and life in southern California (for the most part) got back to normal.

This was taken in the fall of 2005 but you get an idea of what the view from our house used to look like.

This is the after picture. When we were allowed home on Thursday, this is what it looked like. The fire came up to the property line, about 20 yards from our front door.