Anxious moments this afternoon when fire broke out in the garage of a neighbor who is just on the other side of the immediately adjacent neighbor. But he is almost a next door neighbor because the lots have funny shapes and short dimensions right here where the street curves. The neighborhood is heavily wooded and I have a couple of giant eucalyptus trees on my property. This time of year, eucs are basically enormous roman candles just waiting for a spark, so my heart was in my throat for about half an hour as I and other neighbors got the guy and his dog out of his house and called in the fire to 911, then watched the progress after the engines arrived. After the first engine got there -- the station is only one long block away -- I raced the short distance back to my house and got my wife, who suffers from advanced Alzheimer's, ready to evacuate. I put her in the car, called my daughter and told her to meet us a block away, and swapped cars with her there. She took her mother down to her house, and I went back to ours, where I moved a cat and a portable computer into the car in case the fire got into the trees and took my house too. I wondered briefly about the guns and decided that other things had greater priority. Most of the best ones were in a one-hour safe anyway. I grabbed some data chips that had photos and documents on them and stuffed them in a pocket along with an extra cell phone battery.
Then I just stepped outside, avoided the cop who had told me to leave, and watched the fire response teams knock down the fire while cycling glances at surrounding trees and the different planes of my complex roof every few seconds. Why hadn't I gone up there to get the dry eucalyptus debris off when I thought about it two days ago?
I and my flanking neighbors live on street-to-street lots, so there was one engine down in front and three on the upper street where the fire was. Local police asked the closest neighbors to leave while they kept the more remote neighbors from getting too close. The flames were out in minutes under a combined water and foam attack, and the firefighters then chopped holes in the roof to hunt down hot spots and foamed them from above. After four hours on scene and long after sunset, they finally left a cold house.
I had been sure when I first saw 50 square feet of flames surging out of the open garage door that the whole house was going to go, but about 90% of the house is still there, though heavily smoke damaged, I am sure. Part of the garage and a large overhead bathroom are gone. I'm not sure from the outside whether the fire burned sideways in the upper levelor not. If so, it probably took out the largest bedroom.
The fire started in the garage bay my neighbor devoted to lumber storage and project supplies. He has been residing his house for the last year, taking out dryrot and mold wood as he goes. It's not yet clear what triggered the fire, but investigators will be back tomorrow to see what they think.
Nobody needs a fire in their lives, but my neighbor, a retired LEO, needed this distraction right now less than just about anybody else I know. He has a bunch of challenges already, and this is just one more. He and his lady are both big believers in the power of prayer and directed positive thought. If you all can spare a moment to think about them, I'm pretty sure they will both get the message.
I didn't have a chance to take a photo while this was all going on. I may be able to post one tomorrow.
Scary. I am looking at my own woodpile and storage policies now. I think I am going to change a whole bunch of things starting tomorrow. Including the trees, which need to be mercilessly cut back and thinned out.
Then I just stepped outside, avoided the cop who had told me to leave, and watched the fire response teams knock down the fire while cycling glances at surrounding trees and the different planes of my complex roof every few seconds. Why hadn't I gone up there to get the dry eucalyptus debris off when I thought about it two days ago?
I and my flanking neighbors live on street-to-street lots, so there was one engine down in front and three on the upper street where the fire was. Local police asked the closest neighbors to leave while they kept the more remote neighbors from getting too close. The flames were out in minutes under a combined water and foam attack, and the firefighters then chopped holes in the roof to hunt down hot spots and foamed them from above. After four hours on scene and long after sunset, they finally left a cold house.
I had been sure when I first saw 50 square feet of flames surging out of the open garage door that the whole house was going to go, but about 90% of the house is still there, though heavily smoke damaged, I am sure. Part of the garage and a large overhead bathroom are gone. I'm not sure from the outside whether the fire burned sideways in the upper levelor not. If so, it probably took out the largest bedroom.
The fire started in the garage bay my neighbor devoted to lumber storage and project supplies. He has been residing his house for the last year, taking out dryrot and mold wood as he goes. It's not yet clear what triggered the fire, but investigators will be back tomorrow to see what they think.
Nobody needs a fire in their lives, but my neighbor, a retired LEO, needed this distraction right now less than just about anybody else I know. He has a bunch of challenges already, and this is just one more. He and his lady are both big believers in the power of prayer and directed positive thought. If you all can spare a moment to think about them, I'm pretty sure they will both get the message.
I didn't have a chance to take a photo while this was all going on. I may be able to post one tomorrow.
Scary. I am looking at my own woodpile and storage policies now. I think I am going to change a whole bunch of things starting tomorrow. Including the trees, which need to be mercilessly cut back and thinned out.
