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Update - Fire
January 19, 2004 - Monday
Everyone has had years that stand out in
their memory. For me, they were years with life changing events and they
became points of reference when looking back. In 1968 I graduated from high
school and that spring, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. I spent the summer
of 73 hitch hiking around Europe, in 1980 I began my current job and in 1992
my mother died.
2003 was one of those years. The death of my father along with the Cedar
Fire in Southern California guarantees that year as a major waypoint in my
life.
In October, after a two week backpacking trip in Sequoia, Catherine and I
returned home on Saturday October 25. It had been a rough trip. We were
pestered by bears the entire time so I was looking forward to being home and
getting some rest. At 3 a.m. the next morning, Catherine looked out the
window and noticed an orange glow to the Northwest. We live in brush fire
country and we’ve seen it before. By that night the flames were too close
for comfort and we abandoned our house. Catherine took her car and followed
me in my pickup which was pulling a utility trailer loaded with two peacocks
and other assorted junk. Smokey the cat road in the front seat with me. We
drove to the Descanso Town Hall and slept in our vehicles until 2 a.m. when
the police came through and evacuated the entire town. From there we headed
east to Pine Valley where we slept alongside the road with hundreds of other
evacuees. We needed to go west into San Diego but all freeways in that
direction were closed. Finally at 10 a.m. the next morning, Interstate 8 was
briefly opened and we headed west to stay at my fathers house. Apparently
the highway patrol had miscalculated and the fire flared up as we headed
out. They closed the highway again though, too late for us. We ended up
driving through blinding smoke with flames on both sides. I could feel the
heat through the truck windows. A close call but we made it.
Amazingly, our house survived even though the area is so remote that the
fire fighters wouldn’t come into our valley. The flames came right up to the
house, circled it and continued up a hill in the back. Everything more than
three feet from the house was totally burned. Our entire 20 acres burned
along with outbuildings and the guest house on the north side. Power and
phones were out for two months and
Cuyamaca State
Park on our east side will be closed indefinitely.
I’ve been spending the past 3 months rewiring our wells, replacing water
tanks and water mains. The area looks like the surface of the moon for
hundreds of square miles around though we’re beginning to see some signs of
new growth. Most of the pine trees did not survive though the oaks faired
better. We’re hopeful that they will leaf out in the spring.
All-in-all, we’ve been lucky. Several of our neighbors lost everything they
had and I’m grateful that we have a place to sleep. Rebuilding is keeping me
busy so for now, updates to this site will be erratic.
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