It was ten years ago today that the DtB crew met
ze Monsta, namely, the
Santiago Fire, which came a lickin' our doorsteps.
The Reb, Red Emma, and I provided a play-by-play of this roaming Beast, which came to life on October 21, and traveled east to threaten us a day or two later.
It got seriously real. At different points, we thought our homes were gone.
In the end, we were among the lucky ones.
Some excerpts:
• A Harsher California -
The Reb (10/22/07)
October is the bad month for the wind, the month when
breathing is difficult and the hills blaze up spontaneously. There has been no
rain since April. Every voice seems a scream. It is the season of suicide and
divorce and prickly dread, wherever the wind blows.
—from "Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream" by Joan
Didion
• Santiago fire reaches Foothill Ranch -
Chunk/Roy (10/22/07)
The city of Lake Forest just announced a voluntary
evacuation of several streets in Foothill Ranch. Residents have been asked to
report to El Toro High School. [Update: reports are that some of these
evacuations are now mandatory.]
Meanwhile, I do believe that the Reb and her crew will be at my place soon,
evacuating from M Canyon....
• Long Day's Journey Into Night -
The Reb (10/22/07)
• Pillar of Salt -
The Reb (10/23/07)
...As we drove the grade out of the canyon, I could finally see
the fierce sweep of the fire. Somehow, looking back, I could see what I had
been in. I was relieved to be leaving, but deeply sad too....
• Tuesday Morning -
The Reb (10/23/07)
...Sigh of relief here, but not too big. The day is long and the
winds are strong and so many others have not been spared and our own safety may
not last. The Orange County Fire Authority cites Modjeska, Williams, and
Silverado canyons as immediately threatened....
 |
| I evaded the road block, hiked up to my place from Cook's Corner. The view from there. |
• The guy in the white hat -
Chunk/Roy (10/23/07)
...I needed information. The TV news wasn’t much help, and
neither were my internet sources, so I drove up the grade and then down again
to Cook’s. I found about ten fire crews—some from Santa Ana—coming in to
relieve others. “If you want to know what’s going on,” they said, “watch the
news on TV.” It’s not that they were unfriendly; it’s just that they saw the
fire only up close. They had no overview.
“For that,” one firefighter said, “find the guy with the white hat.” He
pointed to his own helmet, which was not white....
• Afternoon -
The Reb (10/23/07)
...Modjeska, by the way, is now too dangerous for firefighters
on the ground or air. They moved on to other fights that they can win. That's
the right thing to do.
As I drove out yesterday I admired those strangers who were staying behind to spend
the night with that fire.
What are they paid? Never enough, I think. At times like these, many are
anxious to call them heroes....
• A Modjeska Friend's Experience -
The Reb (10/23/07)
• Evening: Reluctant, Unexpected Optimism -
The Reb (10/23/07)
...As Rebel Girl has already [in her mind] pretty much burned her own house
down hours ago, she doesn't have a place to put this new information but she
will do what she can.
She also knows that even if things in the canyon are better than we believed,
the losses are already great and may include her own home after all, hence her
relutance to embrace the optimism.
UPDATE ON CHUNK: As far as we know, Chunk left the Lambrose Canyon compound (in
Trabuco) midafternoon with his parents. Their destination is Irvine (I think)
where Chunk's brother lives with their daughter, son and newborn twin girls....
• The best sandwich ever -
Chunk/Roy (10/23/07)
...I saw Red Emma earlier today. My mom made him a sandwich.
"This is the best sandwich ever," declared Red. My mom was pleased....
Red and I watched the TV news, which was largely infuriating for the predictable
reasons. None of our questions was answered. Much of the reporting was confused
or outdated.
Later, after Red left, I had a real moment, collecting things for the car. I
felt that—well, never mind. I felt very low.... [I recall the moment. I should have searched through my stuff for what I couldn't live without. I didn't have the heart. Let it all burn, I thought. I can't do this. I grabbed Sunny and a few boxes. That was it.]
• Wednesday Morning: hope can be exhausting -
The Reb (10/24/07)
...This morning, Rebel Girl notices a slight shift difference
between her tone of voice when she writes and when she talks on the telephone.
Her voice here on the blog doesn't crack but when she's on the phone it does;
it cracks and drops. She has to swallow hard and pull it back up. She wants to
blame the smoke, her week-old chest cold that still lingers. But she thinks it
has to do with other factors as well. No single causes here. Someone yesterday
accused her of being brave. It's easier for Rebel Girl to be brave perhaps with
the written word as opposed to the spoken word. There is that discrepancy
between who she is on paper and who she is when she speaks, when she just is.
She has long contended that she is at her best on paper....
• Mid-Morning Update: 10:33 -
The Reb (10/24/07)
...Mary, a neighbor down the way on Kommers Lane, just telephoned
Red to report that she had been allowed in Modjeska Canyon and visited our
neighborhood. While there are losses in the canyon, it seems as if our
neighborhood has been spared at this point.
...Mary said that the sprinkers were still on on our house. Before evacuation, Red
Emma and Rebel Girl put the lawn sprinklers on the roof and turned them on.
They left them on when they left.
The sprinklers are still on....
• I called myself and I seem to be fine -
Chunk/Roy (10/24/07)
...I called my own house (not far from Hamilton Trail) early
this morning, and boy was I glad to hear my notoriously surly (or mock surly)
message: "Leave a message if you must!"
Called my parents' house too. The answering machine worked! So it appears that
the Wheeler Compound in Live Oak Canyon/Lambrose Canyon is OK....
• Still Red, But Not On Fire -
Red Emma (10/24/07)
...First, Chunk's canyon seems to be okay. I actually sort of
did a naughty, and drove past the momentarily abandoned Sheriff's checkpoint,
all the way to the top of Live Oak Canyon Road, where actual real hot flames
were burning right to the asphalt and about 20 engines and crews were
stationed. This is perhaps a quarter mile from I think it's called Hamilton
Trail junction. It looked really, really bad and like maybe they were gonna cut
and run. … Meanwhile, waiting around in vicinity of Cook's Corner didn't seem
to make sense (I was being ignored by buxom biker babes, go figure), and since
I wasn't getting too many papers graded either (my great colleagues proctored
an in-class exam and I picked up Blue Books early from UCI) I drove back here
to my Lovely Wife and Son to confirm the following. All reports --- from
Sheriffs, neighbors, a cool OC Reg reporter named Eugene, County Animal Control
dude, more neighbors --- all actual eyewitnesses, confirm unburnedness of Olive
Hill and all neighborhoods in Mo Canyon, with obvious exception of a few
structures just below southern canyon wall in interior and, of course, the 10
or so which are in the triangle of fire formed by Santiago Canyon, Modjeska
Canyon Road and the notorious Modjeska Grade Road.
 |
Picture taken just before we evacuated—in a big hurry!
"Well, it wasn't easy, but we left our
beautiful canyon behind. What happened after that, we have no idea." |
 |
| Night: the mountains ablaze |
 |
| After the fire: about a half mile from my place (Hamilton Trail) |
• An update—and some "Santiago fire" evac pics -
Chunk/Roy (10/24/07)
...Just heard from a friend, via cell phone, who has managed to
remain in the Trabuco Canyon area (his home is near Hamilton Truck Trail),
despite yesterday's mandatory evacuation.
Bruce happily reports that, right now, there is little fire activity along Live
Oak Canyon Road, which stretches for about three miles from Hamilton Trail (it
used to be a stage coach stop) down to Trabuco Creek....
• Good Night: the fire is out there -
The Reb (10/24/07)
AFTER THE LAGUNA FIRE, some 14 years ago, when we were
almost burned out of our trailer home, I had trouble sleeping. I was haunted by
the irrational fear that the fire would somehow "come back." Some of
that lingers. I should be sleeping but I can't. The fire is out there. Even if
it's not burning my house, it is burning someone else's....
• Thursday Morning: Air Support? -
The Reb (10/25/07)
...What do we have in OC? Fremon called the Orange
County's fire authority and asked. The answer: "Angela, a very
cheerful and sleep-deprived OCFA spokesperson told [Fremon], 'Two helicopters.'
To make sure [she] hadn't heard wrong, [Fremon] asked again. Two, [the
spokesperson] repeated, and they definitely aren't Firehawks. 'I wish,' she
said."
Seems like Supervisior Spitzer—and all of us—need to think about why this is
so....
• Mid-Afternoon Update: 4:00 pm Thursday -
The Reb (10/25/07)
...Rumors spread earlier today that the children's center had
burned and I wondered how I'd break that sad news to my son. He's been a
student there for three years now, under the inspired guidance of teachers
Aimee B., Sara H., sweet Jenny, and canyon legend Chay P. The center is
not-for-profit and a project of the Silverado-Modjeska Parks and
Recreation Department. Its serves the needs of families in the canyon and
beyond, offering quality affordable preschool and after-school care. Our son
has forged friendships there not only with his peers but with the farm animals,
Tiny the pig and Jazzy the goat....
• Mountain Bob -
Chunk/Roy (10/25/07)
…I parked behind Cook's and started walking up Harris
Grade. I figured the cop was too busy to notice me. He was.
It was hot, and I wasn't really dressed for a midday hike, but it's only a mile
to the top of the grade and it isn't much further from there to Lambrose
Canyon. . . .
I walked through the oak trees to Lambrose Canyon and
spotted "Mountain" Bob at the entrance of our little colony. He
commenced telling me stories. "The flames," he said, were "200
feet high." "I'd never seen anything like it."
"I got religion," he said.
Bob is pretty ironic. So I don't think he was serious.
Later, he asked me, "Do you believe in God,
Chunk?"
"Nope."
"O.K. Ever heard of Herbert Spencer?"
He went on like that. Bob's a character, he is....
• Blaise Pascal was an a**hole -
Chunk/Roy (10/26/07)
...My time of uncertainty was late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Short-lived and feeble, I know. Since then, I've been living with the improbability
that my Stuff (that's "stuff" with a capital "s") will be
destroyed (including all of my Dissent stuff, which, to tell you the truth, I
don't give a rat's ass about).
At this point, the probability of disaster-for-Chunk has
declined to about .1 or lower, I guess.
Living with the likelihood of personal non-disaster is like
holding a grenade that is very likely not going to blow up. If somebody comes
up to you and says, "Hey, Grenade Boy! We just heard that the likelihood
of your maimage and/or death with that grenade in your hand has gone down further!
Ain't that good news?"—well, you smile, but you also cringe.
 |
| Somber travel in the night |
• Where's your sackcloth, Laughing-Boy? -
Chunk/Roy (10/26/07)
...Outspoken UC Irvine author-historian Mike Davis will
give a free public lecture Oct. 31 titled “Katrina in the Suburbs? The
Politics of Fire in Southern California.” He will speak at noon in Room
3008 on UCI’s Calit2 Building, next to Bren Hall, on Ring Road....
• Friday; the power of ritual -
The Reb (10/26/07)
...As we drove back to our temporary quarters at our lovely
friends' lovely home, we heard the news that the fire had moved into Silverado
Canyon. By the time we got home, the OC Register had posted a front page
picture of my son's teacher evacuating on foot, her arms full, her face, well,
her face showing what you feel as you leave your home with the fire moving in
behind you....
• Friday Night -
The Reb (10/26/07)
The word tonight is that the fire in Silverado Canyon may
reach houses by tomorrow afternoon.
• The OC fire situation improves -
Chunk/Roy (10/27/07)
Flames menacing Silverado Canyon have not moved closer and
"may not be as threatening as they once were," said Orange County
Fire Authority Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion....
• Locating the homes of Reb, Red Emma, Limber Lou, and Chunk in the Santiago fire -
Chunk/Roy (10/27/07)
...Right now, things look good for the Dissenters, canyon-domicilewise.
It even seems to be sprinkling right now! Yes!
We're still waiting to be allowed to return to our homes. Reb and crew at least
got a chance to visit their place earlier today. RE told me that it's kinda
"ugly" out there, but that won't last long.
Again, we're mighty grateful to the firefighters.
• Worse than the fire -
Chunk/Roy (10/27/07)
...THE REB finally explained to me why she opted not to
evacuate (on Monday) to my place in Trabuco Canyon. She went to her friend's
house in Lake Forest instead.
What's up with that?
"I just knew," she said, "that your canyon would be
next."
"Well, I sure as hell didn't know. How did you know?"
I said.
I looked at Red. He shrugged.
"I just knew," said Reb.
We all nodded. Can't argue with that....
-
Chunk/Roy (10/28/07)
...So I finally called the OCFA. I nice man answered the phone.
I asked him when I would be allowed to return to my home.
“Where do you live?”, he asked.
“Along Live Oak Canyon Road.”
“Let me see. [A few seconds pass.] No, you can’t return home yet.”
“When will I be allowed to return?”
“I don’t know.”
After a little more conversation, the fellow advised me to go to the OCFA
website.
“But I’m looking at that now. It doesn’t tell me when I will be
allowed to return home. It gives me no information about that at all.”
Clearly, this fellow at the other end of the phone seemed to believe that the
OCFA website was chock-full of helpful info.
Like what?
“Well," he said, "it tells you that different canyons will be opened
at different times!”
“Yeah, that makes sense."
After a few seconds I said: "But is there no place I can go, no authority
I can speak to, to learn anything about when I can go home?
ANYTHING?”
“Go to the website,” he said.
OK, I am now officially pissed....
• A happy crew -
Chunk/Roy (10/29/07)
...The cop at Cook's Corner didn't seem very interested in my
ID. He seemed more interested in Sunny Bear [my 6-pound cat], who must have appeared like some
sort of weird appendage sprouting from my right arm pit, where she hid her
head. She didn't pull it out of there until I rolled up to my place. I let her
out of the car and she weaseled around like a lunatic. Then she ran inside and
yammered piteously, but not for long....
-
Red Emma (10/31/07)
• Labradoodle in Trabuco Canyon -
Chunk/Roy (11/1/07)
MY SISTER FANNIE is down in So Cal visiting. This afternoon,
she decided to go check out this little place in Trabuco Canyon that she thinks
she might want to buy. She asked me to tag along.
"Maybe there'll be a fire sale," I said....
• Home -
The Reb (11/2/07)
WE'RE BACK, just like the goats down on Modjeska Canyon
Road. Those two goats, by the way, used to live on San Clemente Island and were
rescued before they could be shot. The plan was that they'd join the local
landscaping crew but they proved too wild for that and so now they just live on
the side of the road. We often stop on the way home from school and feed them
the leftovers from our lunches.
It's nice to see them again.
It's nice to see everyone again....
• Appearances are deceiving -
Chunk/Roy (11/3/07)
...Fannie drew my attention to the smoke billowing from behind
Modjeska Peak, over to the northeast.
“Wow,” she said. “How often do you see that?”
Actually, we'd seen quite a lot of it in the last two weeks. We were under the
impression that firefighters were going to make great headway against the
Santiago fire today, but that was hard to believe, looking at that plume of
white smoke, and listening to all of the helicopters coming and going and
disappearing over the mountains.
But appearances are deceiving....
-
Chunk/Roy (11/11/07)
Jan emailed. He wrote me that Mojo, son of Sunny Bear, had
died "in his sleep," last night.
Mojo was an excellent young man, and I will miss him. He was about 16 years
old.
EVEN THOUGH there was little sun, I decided it was a
good time to visit Hamilton Trail, which is very near Lambrose Canyon, where I
live.
I walked up Live Oak. Then I hopped the fence up at the crest of Harris Grade.
It looked very bad. It looked worse as I got further in....
• Yikes! Ash + wind = pseudo-smoke -
Chunk/Roy (11/12/07)
THIS MORNING, from my place in Lambrose Canyon (in Live Oak
Canyon), I noticed lots of ash on my car. Uh-oh!
I looked toward nearby Hamilton Trail—one of the areas hit by the great
Santiago fire—and I saw something that looked like smoke.
But wait. Is there anything over there left to burn? Not much. (Check out my
pictures from yesterday:
Visiting
Hamilton Trail.)
It soon became clear to me (I think) that I was looking, not
at smoke, but at the result of winds picking up ash. That's all.
I hope....
• Come See the Canyons! -
The Reb (11/15/07)
EVEN THOUGH, as you may know, the Inter-Canyon League
received an unprecendented ONE MILLION DOLLAR DONATION from an
anonymous donor (rumored to be a reclusive billionare from Newport Beach who
has a soft spot for the canyons)—more help is needed....
 |
| Modjeska Canyon after the fire: hills denuded |
 |
| I held her tight as we viewed the fire from a park ten minutes after evacuation. |
