We Flee the Fire
That Night
The Post Mortem
We Move to Ellis Lane
We Move into the Garage
The fire started up the Santa Margarita River valley halfway to Temecula. A farmer burned orchard trash on Friday (8 February). He did not put the fire out, nor did professional firefighters on the 9th. Jim first noticed the smoke a little before noon on Sunday, 10 February 2002. The wind was blowing strongly from the east, very dry - a real Santa Ana condition. He ran up the ridge opposite our house to look at the situation. Obviously the fire was coming toward us. At first it appeared that it might pass to the south, but it was both advancing and widening out as it came.
Meanwhile Al dialed 911 and got a recording that told her to wait on line. However, she had to go potty — naturally, under the stress of seeing all that smoke — and shoved the portable phone in her pocket. Apparently, the act of putting the phone in her pocket shut it off because a Sheriff's car suddenly appeared in the driveway. The officer growled at me in a most intimidating manner, saying "Why did you hang up? You are supposed to stay on the line." I told him I did not intend to hang up. I asked what all the smoke was. He said, "It's all under control, Lady." I pointed to the column of smoke that was growing by the second and pointing to it, said "That?" The officer turned around and for the first time really looked at the column of smoke.
And by that time — a matter of only two or three minutes after the officer pulled into the driveway — it was no longer just a column but was filling the whole area with smoke. He immediately pulled out of the drive and turned north, stopping in front of the ridge. While he was pulling out, Jim was running back saying "Its huge! It's coming this way!" So we returned to our house, grabbed a few things and drove both cars away. Before we reached the end of our driveway the houses across the street were engulfed in flame. We drove through the heavy smoke and flames and checked into a motel on the south end of town. From the time Jim first noticed smoke to the time we drove away was a maximum of 30 minutes. Nobody died in the fire, but several had narrow escapes.
The Fallbrook fire has been front page news from 11 February through
24 February (at least). You can read all about it. Click on the News
link for each day on the Calendar on the following web site. We were
interviewed on television several times and mentioned in the paper also.
These five minutes of fame we could do without!
http://www.nctimes.net/news/#feb
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Good friends found us at the motel that evening as we were agonizing how to live with only the clothes on our backs. They shopped for us and brought several changes of clothing, cash and a most welcome bottle of brandy. Our brother members of the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War have made most welcome donations to get us back up and running. The D.A.R. brought clothing that covered us in great style. We are most grateful for all the condolences and help received![top]
Our house was partially destroyed. Forty-three houses in our neighborhood were fully destroyed - we count as a "partial". The steel framing in at least half the house will have to be replaced. Some of the contents in the living room were salvageable, but most of it was trashed. The garage did not burn, but it has heavy smoke damage.
I lost all my family history research notes and original papers. Fortunately the new computer was in the shop for a power supply problem. So I had made back-ups for the old computer. We grabbed that package of floppies as we left.
Both cars suffered damage in driving through the fire. The heat wrecked the blue van's speedometer cable and left window mechanism. The white sedan, following the van, had more damage - the headlight lenses were melted! The A/C was on and so the car suffered smoke inhalation damage - the smell of the smoke pervaded the car.[top]
We found a small house in town and moved in on 15 February, same phone number & email. Same mail address. We pick up the mail at the post office once a week or so. It is an old place, newly refurbished, bright and cheerful, with a yard for Al's plants and garden. We will be here probably through the end of this year, and then back to the rebuilt house.
Like newly-weds we are shopping for the basics: towels, pots, dishes and furniture. So at our age we setting up housekeeping all over again.
A group of people from my work place moved all of Al's cacti and succulents on 23 February from the burned out shell to the new place. About twenty people, men and women, helped us and the job was done in three hours. It is great to have friends in crisis such as this.
In the meantime a crew has been cleaning up the burned out house to make it ready for rebuilding. The big. burly, guys doing the demolition said they had never encountered such difficult cabinets to break up. Twelve days after the fire the drawers were still holding water. Al designed and built her cabinets for looks, durability and practical usefulness. As one of the guys said, her cabinets could be taken to Cuba and sold as boats.
The steel framing of the house warped with the heat and will have to come down. The cement slab is good and the drains underneath are good. We will make a few small design changes and rebuild the house. The garage structure appears to be sound and perhaps that can be made usable quickly to provide a workshop for future construction.[top]
The little rental became musty in the hot, humid weather of July.
Al is very allergic to mold and developed severe bronchitis,
so we fled to the motel. After two weeks there we moved into the
garage. We find it easier to supervise the reconstruction from
there anyway. The local columnist interviewed Al on the phone and
recorded her observations in the newspaper column:
http://www.nctimes.net/news/2002/20020806/122355.html
Updated 2 September 2002[top]