Clayton Fire / Part 2

 “I’d rather fight

100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you.” – Tom Watson

(Above pic from Google Images of Clayton Fire LL)

On August 14th, 2016, we thought in the early morning hours that the worst was behind us with the Clayton Fire. Over night it had laid down some and crews had begun to make great progress in the hopes of containment on some flanks. This is what I heard. But it didn’t last.

I was confident enough in the fact that the fire had passed us on the day before, that when my youngest daughter asked me if it was safe enough to unpack her car and bring her items back into the house, I said to go ahead.

We unpacked our cars of the bathroom items and clothing, and I brought in my computer, laptop, and camera, to keep them from getting too hot out in the car. I left everything else out there, just in case. One more day, I’d told myself, would be sufficient to secure our reassurance that fire would NOT reach our home.

Exhausted from not sleeping but 3 hours the night before, I told Emma that I was going to lie down for a nap. She took a walk to her Uncle Bill and Aunt Kari’s house down our driveway, just to check on them and visit awhile. I was hot and sweaty in the house with no electricity to run the air, and drank a cold water from the ice chest, where we’d stored all our items salvaged from the refrigerator. Too jittery to sleep, I laid back in my chaise in front of the non-operating television and closed my eyes.

Strange visions come when you are rummy from no sleep, and when my cell phone started ringing, I imagined reaching to turn off my alarm. It kept going until I realized it was my phone and I was dozing.

As I answered somewhat dazed, my daughter was trying to stay calm on the other end.

“Mom! What are you doing?” she barked. Of course I told her I was trying to nap when she continued, “The fire is back and is right behind our garage! We are on our way back! Uncle Bill spotted it from his hill!”

I bolted up and caused the dogs to go ape-shit, barking. Sure enough, the fire had rekindled somewhere near, winds had picked up, and a fire storm had emerged behind our property. It sent flying embers throughout our neighborhood. It was like a dust devil had moved along the ridge top and flung red hot coals as it went.

THIS WAS IT!

I called my husband, even though I knew he was up to his eyeballs busy, I thought he should know his own family was in trouble and fixing to evacuate. FOR SURE THIS TIME! My exact words on the phone were, “It’s real this time! It’s going down and we are out of here!” All he could say was he’d be here as soon as he could………… we just didn’t know when that could be. I had to act fast.

The kids and I were packing four cars and my brother-in-law Bill, my nephew Reed (who’d already been up a day and a half fighting the fire), and an engine from Cal Fire, all arrived within minutes of each other. It made me feel better but not secure. I continued to walk around frantically, looking to do more that would save my home.

I asked Bub, (daughter’s boyfriend), to run to the hillside near the garage and put out the sprinkler again. I ran to the back of the guest house and drug a hose with a sprinkler to turn on there. The front yard had water going and I was using a hose to spray my gutters all along the main house. The engine crew was just getting out and evaluating the situation when I decided I’d done all I could.

WE HAD TO LEAVE.

(Picture I took from my yard)

After taking some pictures of what was happening around my property, (I didn’t know if I was going to see it again), I told my nephew we were going to leave and thanked him for staying with the Cal Fire crew as long as he did. I told him to go down to his house and help his mom, because I could see the fire was making a horseshoe around us and headed to his place. His dad, Bill, was already headed that way.

NOW……. we had a predicament! There were four vehicles and only three of us. It was decided that ultimately, I was driving my car, Bub would drive Emma’s, she was going to drive out my husband’s one ton-HOSS, and that left Bub’s car without a driver! Quickly, I told him to drive his car to the bottom of our driveway and park it at the end, near Bill and Kari’s place. It was right at Morgan Valley Road. Our driveway is about 200 yards up a hill from there to our house. He drove it down, sprinted back up, and helped me load our dogs into Emma’s car that he would be driving. Then we set out.

Before I got into the car, I stood on our lawn, looked back behind me at our house and the flames licking the property, and nearly threw up right there. I felt a rolling in my stomach that can only be described as a sickening eel, greasy inside of me. I’d never felt like that before and hope to never again.

Jumping into our vehicles, we convoyed out. Bub in the lead, Emma in the middle, and me taking up the rear. We all stopped at the bottom of the driveway to discuss options with Bill and Kari and Reed. But there was a new problem. Their house was about to burn up!

Kari had taken great pains to pack up three of their vehicles with all their prized possessions. She had their little dog, Hurley with her on a leash outside of her Suburban, and Bill’s and Reed’s trucks were at the bottom of their hill, waiting for drivers. Totally out of nowhere, a relentless fire blazed behind their house and Reed joined the Cal Fire crew that was appointed to their structure, Bill was in a T-shirt, shorts, and tennis shoes, helping where ever he could. It became very apparent that we’d all have to leave and soon.

My husband was in and out quickly, just giving orders to engine crews and leaving again. While he was occupied for a moment, I talked with a member of Cal Fire that was waiting on Morgan Valley Road for his orders and he told Kari and I that Lower Lake was on fire. Main Street was gone and we couldn’t leave out that way.

We waited too long!

Meanwhile, the fire had made a huge horseshoe around our area that blocked us from leaving out towards town, and we could only drive about a quarter of a mile in the other direction on Morgan Valley Road.

We were trapped.

As Charlie was leaving he rolled his window down on his rig. I ran to it and saw tears in his eyes. He was visibly shaken and confirmed that much had burned and was still burning. He was working his ass off, trying to put engines at every structure he could and only told me what little information was necessary.

“Go out Morgan Valley Road to the little ranch before the bridge! Pull over there and see if they have their gates open and wait there. If not, stay parked on the side of the road there. You guys will be safe if you stay there. I will come for you when I can. Just stay there!”

And he left.

Our dogs were going nuts. The fire was getting closer and we had to leave. I pulled Kari aside and told her to put Hurley in the truck and follow us out. Bill and Reed would not leave. We couldn’t wait anymore.

Doing what my husband told me to do was all I could focus on. It was my job now to lead my family. I had to do it without him and I was terrified, but like in any other crisis of my life, I became a rock during the actual event. Falling apart was for later.

I instructed Bub to go where Charlie told us and said we’d all pull over on Morgan Valley Road there. He was in the lead, then Emma, then me, and Kari in the rear. It wasn’t far. Maybe a quarter mile. We all pulled over and before my engine was off, Bubba was leaving Emma’s car, windows down with my dogs in the back and running back to our driveway.

“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” I yelled, trying to keep my dogs from jumping out.

“TO GET MY CAR!” he hollered back.

He threw the keys to Emma so I could roll up the windows of her car and keep my dogs from jumping out. She then walked back to her dad’s truck and I stood there, trying to calm our dogs while hoping we could find the property owners of that ranch and have them let us in their gates off the road.

The little ranch had a huge pasture in front that is at least the size of a football field. It is cut very short, and the helicopters were using it to change their baskets. If there was a safe place to be, this was it.

Moments later, Bub came barreling up the road in his car. He parked in front of Emma’s car and quickly came back to where I was standing. His face was red, he was coughing terribly, spitting, and later Charlie would tell me that Bub came inches from being burned! He’d gotten smoke inhalation from breathing hard and inhaling the smoke when he rescued his car, which nearly caught fire. Charlie told me when he saw him as he was coming back by, that Bub was almost IN the fire, trying to get into his car.

“Patti, I’m not sure Bill and Reed are ok!” Bub said in private. “The cars are on fire, and I looked up on the hill and I couldn’t see them anymore. The carport and cars and the field are all on fire. I think something happened to Bill and Reed.”

My sick eel came back and I pulled Bubba’s shirt and got his face close to mine, looking him right in the eyes.

“You don’t know that!” I said. “Now, those boys are experienced and at the very least, they’d jump into the engine and get out. Don’t you say a word out loud about it again, because I don’t think Kari can bare it!”

He nodded and agreed to let it go for now. We had to decide what to do. And then, just like that, the owner came along on an ATV and hollered at us to all drive in and he was unlocking the gate! It took Bub two trips to move Emma’s car with the dogs and then his own, but we managed to get all 5 cars and all 4 of us into their property.

As it is in small towns, the owner works at Lower Lake High School and knew both Kari and me. I admit, I didn’t remember her since we work at different sites, but Barbara and Mike were so kind and I can never repay them for saving us.

The only thing we could do for them was work like hell to save their property! The fire came that way and sure enough, the embers started falling in the tree line surrounding their property. Emma had our dogs on the leashes and Kari had her dog. Bubba and I ran to start stomping out the embers. I was in tennis shoes and he was in shorts and Vans. We were stomping, yelling for Mike, running from hot spot to hot spot. Emma gave our dogs to Kari to hold and she ran to help. Once she was there and Mike handed out shovels to her and Bub, I ran to the other side of the property where the barn was now in danger.

This picture

was taken by Tenaya Fleckenstien, who put it on social media, and it’s of my daughter Emma, the property owner Mike, and the other person’s side is Bub.

I tried to use the hose on the side of the barn where the fire was creeping around from the creek, but there was no pressure. Surely there must be a huge kink in the hose somewhere, I thought………. but no. That wasn’t the problem.

Lower Lake was running out of water!

So there we stood. And some guy, who I think was Mike and Barbara’s neighbor, started shoveling dirt on the fire from behind the barn. Meanwhile, a goat escaped and ran right towards Emma. She scooped it up and saved it. After putting it in the pen again, our own dog, Bailey escaped from her collar and ran to her as well. She again had to save her from the flames and I was screaming to her over the noise of the fire to stop Bailey!! It was a fiasco for sure!

The fire seemed to move on and only little embers remained. We kept taking turns, Kari and I, on holding all the leashes and putting out fires. Luckily, I had the sense to have the kids put our ice chests in the back of Hoss before we left and we had plenty of waters and ice to sustain us.

Hours passed. It grew late, and all I wanted to do was get to our ranch up on Diener Drive. We’d be safe there and the dogs could run, and we could rest. If only we could get through town!

Finally, Charlie was driving passed on Morgan Valley Road and I spotted him from across the field. He was talking with some guys near the bridge and a man on a tractor in the field by it. I have one helluva whistle! I got his attention and he turned around and came through the gate.

I asked if he could give us an escort to the intersection so we could leave and get the hell out of there. He said he’d be back for us when he could do that. It was a few more hours but he finally came back and when he did, we left Bub’s car with Barbara and Mike, followed Charlie and  drove our convoy through the smoke and haze of a torn up town, to find it was a terrible loss. Not nearly as bad as the rumors we were first hearing from the firemen that didn’t know better though. Nonetheless, it was all surreal.

At the intersection of Hwy’s 53 and 29, we had Highway Patrol take it from there and he followed us up the hill towards Diener Drive, leaving us when we turned off the highway. Charlie went back to continue the fight, and from his peers, and our community folks, we later were told how hard he tried and how much he fought to save Lower Lake. It is the town he was born and raised in.

As for Bill and Reed, I am forever grateful they are both safe and sound. My nephew was my great hero that day! He not only was greatly responsible for saving my house, but he fought and succeeded in saving his as well. Unfortunately, with this crazy ass fire, when they turned their back to save the house, the carport, shed, and three cars, (one a newly restored 1979 Trans Am) burned up with all the things they packed to try and save! But still, they have a home.

Tomorrow I will blog on what we later found out about that day, and how we lived at the ranch for awhile, one bedroom and four people, three dogs, and exhaustion. We lived in a haze for awhile and I didn’t even remember some of the conversations I’d had with people on my phone and texts.

All I can say for now is we are so very blessed. I love my family, I love my town, and together, we are Lower Lake Strong.