I live in the northern end of the San Fernando Valley in a tiny Los Angeles subdivision called Sylmar. It's a quiet, lovely little nook of your place nestled right up next to the Angeles National Forest. I love it, I feel I get the best of both worlds here...mountain vistas in your own home while living minutes from the second largest city inside US. Biggest downside? It is designated as a high fire zone...in 2006 my mortgage company taught me to be sign a document at my close acknowledging this fact. Obviously, this became a thing that I would need to get employed to and keep advice eye on.
Fast forward to October 12, 2008: I awoke that Sunday morning on the sound of low flying aircraft. It took my sleepy brain another to recognize what that meant: the neighborhood alpine fire division what food was in action...along with their target wasn't too far far from me. Sure enough, after throwing some clothes on, I stumbled outside and saw considered one of my neighbors who told me what was going on...there were a hearth inside Little Tujunga Canyon 8 miles for the east of us. To get yourself a better look, I hiked inside the hill alongside the home and watched mid-air assault about the fire. It appeared to be a bad fire, but one that wasn't too close to me. I kept an eye on them back and also on in daytime, but otherwise life took as normal. The fire was dubbed the Marek Fire after the street where it broke out. By bedtime, I had almost entirely ignored it...the one reminder like a newstory on a nearby TV station about evacuees being told to stay out before following day. In my mind...story over!
Ah, silly me. Overnight on Sunday, the dreaded Santa Ana winds made their yearly appearance in Southern California. I knew they were coming, the weather directory TV was exactly about it...and I knew I needed being on guard for fire but my first thought was information on my fences and worrying which they would blow down inside 70+ mile 1 hour winds that are included with this weather phenomenon. I made certain my cats were inside and submitted for your night. I barely slept...the winds hammered your house until morning and I kept thinking that I heard my fences beginning falter. All in all, a distressing, unnerving night. At about 4am, I heard the alpine fire fighters again...flying so low over the house which it shook. I jumped up and looked out my bedroom window...it turned out pitch black out and I couldn't view a thing.
I waited until the sun did start to rise and also got dressed. Looking out our kitchen window I saw an ominous orange cloud curling up into the sky behind the home. My heart sank...ohmigod, ohmigod...WHERE IS THE FIRE NOW' I ran out from the entry way, down my little street, just about to happen and headed for that larger street away from my community. As I turned the corner a water helicopter flew so low past me that I could see the writing onto it clearly: Los Angeles County Fire Department. It was copter number three...I could almost start to see the pilot flying it. There were a variety of mechanical sounds within the air...I looked behind me as I ran...two fixed wing planes were flying in formation coming up overhead quickly. I stopped and stared while they flew overhead...mesmerized by their precision and shocked at how low these folks were flying. I watched them go overhead last but not least looked towards where these folks were going. It seemed like the fire was in the end from the street! I was immediately stunned...it looked like I could almost touch it...I froze in place. How maybe it was possible that it got so close?? It was as being a monster that have crept into my neighborhood inside the dark from the night. Thousands of panicked thoughts went thru my head immediately. I still laugh when I consider the initial thing that really dawned on me while standing there and staring at this huge orange monster..."well, guess I'm not gonna work today"!
Turns out, I was considering a hearth that was so large which it was burning almost a whole side of just one in the foothills. Fortunately, that foothill was still four miles from the home. I been able to calm down enough to speak to a few neighbors who also felt themselves glued for the sidewalk, observing a thing that didn't seem real. The wind was blowing south so we were on the west...and then we didn't even smell the smoke, we only saw the flames dancing inside the distance. Everyone decided to get back on their houses watching good news...I called my parents permit them are aware that when they first viewed it about the TV in Colorado never to panic, but if they needed to reach me to make use of my mobile phone...I was sure I would need to come up with a run for this soon.
The rest in the morning went by quickly. I kept exceeding towards the main street to check the fire's progress...as well as a while me and my neighbors watched the helicopters complete their water tanks at the pumping station right close to our community. These pilots have to be the bravest, best pilots flying today. The wind was howling...hurricane force gusts would strike suddenly. And there these were...endlessly filling up and flying over on the fire to dump their load and coming right back to do it again. There are power lines all over the place and we were holding capable to thread the needle with heavy loads...I am still in awe of what I witnessed.
Finally, and I am surprised it took them this long, around 9am the LAPD began rolling thru your neighborhood telling folks who the LAFD was advising website visitors to leave. My little community is correct next for the Olive View Medical Center. Everyone who has lived inside my community for a while has always sworn that being so close for the hospital would have been a guarantee our neighborhood would not burn down with no huge fight from the Fire Department. But we had just gotten what is the news that the hospital was evacuating it's most delicate patients. Their parking area was filling with water tanker trucks and they also subsequently were starting to drain all the hydrants inside area to fill. The Sesnon Fire had put their hands up over in Porter Ranch and was threatening more homes compared to the Marek Fire therefore we'd just lost our air support. Suddenly it turned out quiet plus an ominous feeling started to creep in...then a winds picked back and also this time these were blowing right at us. While actually talking to a neighbor, a burnt leaf fluttered right down to our feet. It was the sign many of us knew was coming. I realized I was going to have to go soon...so I went back into the home and ate a major meal (is not when I'd have an opportunity to halt and eat again), took a shower, packed a bag and begun to consider where I should go to in the event the cops came back to insist all of us leave.
Now a small interuption to my saga. I work inside the entertainment industry but my passion is animal welfare and I rescue cats and rehome them. At the moment I have 6 of my own, personal (nearly everyone is rescue rejects...My home is kinda turning into the Island of Misfit Toys...anyone not adoptable becomes "one with the crew" around here) and 11 (yes, 11) kittens in a variety of stages of adoption readiness (not done with shots, not fixed yet, still getting over illnesses they got with the shelter, etc). Plus I have two dogs and am currently taking care of two more rescue dogs. So...when it comes to fleeing a hearth, it is not a fairly easy question of hopping inside the car and peeling down the street. I have many little lives that have been depending on me to have them beyond harms way. 21 lives to become exact. Here's the thing though...in May I decided to get a motor vehicle with better mileage than my old Subaru Forester. So, after much thought and research, I bought a bit Honda Fit...great mileage, a lot better than average interior space. Still, a lot smaller car...and after this I was up against trying to cram 17 cats and 4 dogs into it and be able to have in myself and have out of harms way.
Okay, back towards the story. Just past noon, as the neighborhood was getting deathly quiet and one by one my neighbors were loading up their cars and doing their best, we might hear a distant voice coming over the load speaker. The group I was standing with stopped talking and strained to listen to. Then one from the neighborhood kids came running just about to happen in advance from the disembodied voice: "It's LAPD...people say we have to go...now!" Sure enough, patrol cars started appearing on the streets using loudspeakers blaring: "This could be the Los Angeles Police Department...the evacuation order is mandatory, you must leave now".
I ran back into the home and started grabbing cats and putting them into the carriers I had gotten out earlier in the day. The tiny tykes all squeeze into two pet crates as well as the adults were shoved within their own carriers. It was like placing a puzzle together and I had to repack a few times to obtain each of the carriers within the car. That left about a 2 foot by 3 foot space within the back end with the Fit...that's were I shoved three with the dogs (all Australian Shepherds, so they were pretty cramped). I been able to shove during my two laptops and my satchel of important papers. No food, and simply a difference of clothes for me personally. The fourth dog is often a terrier pup, so she was gonna hold the increase the risk for trip on my small lap. One in the adult cats were required to sit on a carrier that has been teetering around the edge of the passenger side dashboard and there is little visibility out in the passenger side window. Two from the older kittens and 2 adults were too panicked and I couldn't catch them. I ran around taking turns with each one of these attempting to tackle them and shove them in to a carrier, but not a way. The longer I took, greater risk I was bringing down on all folks...so I were required to leave them behind. It was the toughest thing I've done inside a while...but I didn't have an option. I left the back sliding glass door open a crack in order that they could escape whenever they had to and I left the home. It would have been a surreal feeling heading to the car, thinking that I might be losing the house by sunset. I had put a great deal in it, and after this there was clearly a chance that I could possibly be leaving it to the last time. I thought about every one of the hurricane victims and the fireplace victims of last year's Santa Ana firestorms and just how much I didn't need to join the ranks of people displaced by natural disaster. Who knew if it was just going being a negative day or the first day of your really bad couple of years fighting FEMA and insurance companies.
I started the engine and drove down the street, inevitable and past a phalanx of cop cars and water tankers. One of my neighbors went commando and refused to go away. Later he said the entire main street by our community eventually filled up with fire trucks and police cruisers. Our neighborhood was going to be the battleline in the fight to save the hospital. Dozens of pairs of eyes watched [1] me leave my well being behind...how I didn't obtain a ticket for an overstuffed car is beyond me...I guess that they better things you can do that day. Some with the cats were screaming we were holding so frightened, the dogs were barking...every one of the animals knew that something was very wrong. All the exits on the highway were closed, I had to make my way along surface streets until I got down towards the 5...then to the 405 towards Sherman Oaks...that's were my vet is, I had hardly any other idea on where to take my animals. It's kinda strange to start running however, not make sure where you are running to and then for how much time. The smoke through the Sesnon Fire was wafting in the 405 and also the radio commentator was referring to what sort of Fire Department was vowing not permit the Sesnon Fire hit the 101 (fortunately for your San Fernando Valley, it never reached that, nevertheless the 118 turned in to a traffic nightmare as the Sesnon jumped it before it had been cleared of vehicles). Fortunately, a friend of mine who was simply away from town called and offered me her house in Burbank while she was gone. So off we attended Burbank where we spent a sleepless night watching good news and hoping for your best.
By Tuesday morning it appeared that my neighborhood had survived...that the fire department could contain the fireplace's advancement and also the winds were beginning to die down. My commando neighbor informed me of a nerve whracking night watching the hearth edge closer and closer, only to become stopped about 2 miles east folks. By 9am the evacuations were lifted...I was home by noon, unpacked and passed out inside my own bed by 2pm. Who knew evacuating was so exhausting [2]? I have no clue the way the coastal folks can cope with hurricane evacuations...my little evacuation was traumatic enough! I cannot imagine leaving with a huge number of others all night . to drive numerous miles beyond harm's way. My little trip around the edges from the San Fernando Valley almost did me in. I have a new appreciation for what people in hurricane prone areas go thru year in year out. I'll never be capable to watch that coverage without considering Monday everytime I see someone pack up their car and head for safety.
And I'll never look inside my Honda Fit exactly the same either...that little car got a lot stuffed involved with it, I don't know how I got in! But it functioned fabulously...I should write Honda and let them know: the inside is really big, it is possible to stuff 13 cats, 4 dogs, 2 laptops, one suitcase then one human in it and still see out each of the windows!
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