Burning Down the House

Just over a week ago a fire storm hit Santa Rosa, California and some of the surrounding communities.  Our home was a casualty of those storms. This is my journal.

It all began on the evening of October 8, 2017, when unusually high winds kicked up, coming from the Northeast, and, while such winds are not unusual in our Sonoma County "summer,"  which is typically September and October, these were different.  We smelled smoke, but didn't worry too much about it. (Mistake #1) Winds were whipping through the trees, and eventually the power went out at 11-ish.  We decided to go to bed since there was nothing to do, but neither of us slept. The power came on briefly, then went out again so we sat in bed, smelling smoke and listening.

Around 2:15 we heard a knocking sound, which I thought was just our bedroom door blowing against the door stop, but when it repeated, Mike went to the front door.  Our neighbor Scott, a hero, yelled at us that the fire had breached the nearest crossroad and we better get out.  A word about our hero neighbor, he is a father of 3 kids 13-7, and while he was warning us, his wife was packing a bit of stuff for the kids.  When Mike answered the door, we could see the glow of the fire on the hill.  We jumped into action--got dressed, leashed the dogs, grabbed our computers and I drove the car and dogs down the hill to K-Mart.  Mike followed in our truck, which is worth more alive than dead.

The smoke coming down the  hill was thicker than a Visalia Tule fog, and trees were downed all over.  Once at K-Mart, we left the truck and took the car to another part of town to get away from the smoke, not knowing that K-Mart would eventually burn to the ground.  Mike gassed up the car and we went to the Veteran's Building, which was just being opened as an evacuation center.  Not many cars were there yet, and we did not go in, but stayed in the car with our pups.

Around 6:30, we got a call from a friend who told us to come to her house, which we did. Becky provided us comfort and solace for two days, even though she had no electricity.  We were in limbo, not knowing, yet hoping that our house had survived the fire.

That was not to be.  Our friend David sent pictures of the carcass that was our home.