 |
Stories from the fire 2007 |
Pastor Jim's Story --
We learned of the fire through phone calls we received at 4:05 and 4:10 am Monday from one friend in the east and another to the southwest who both told us the fire was heading our way. When I stepped outside the winds were whipping through our valley with that dreaded orange glow looming over the hills to the east and south. We took about an hour to pack valuables. Between 4 and 5 am the orange glow grew brighter in the dark sky from both the east and the south, the smell of smoke increased substantially, and ashes began to fall everywhere. When we left our house at 5 am, the winds were blowing so fiercely that I could not imagine how anyone could stop the flames from taking whatever was in their path. The news reports made it clear that the fire was totally out of control, and I had serious doubts that any of our homes in south Escondido would be standing by the end of the day. By the end of the day some 30 homes to the east and southeast of our community had burned -- the nearest was about a half a mile away (by contrast, in 2003, the fires stayed over five miles away to the north and east of us).
The 'reverse 911' phone alert system worked pretty well for most communities, though some people from our church found out about the fire when they awoke to see an orange glow through their windows. (Our official evacuation notice came a little before 9 am – so I was glad that our friends had thought to call us and give us an earlier warning).
Here are photos of our new sanctuary with the smoke moving over us a little before sunrise Monday morning facing East. The sky was totally clear above us, and the ominous dark smoke would eventually come to engulf the area. The dull white spots in the upper half of the photo are falling ashes illuminated by the flash of the camera.
Below is a photo looking West from the front of the sanctuary at dawn as the smoke covered the sky. Winds were raging and blowing generally westward, and the fire was raging to the east, so we wondered if we would need to abandon the church within the hours ahead. The smoke was so thick and black that it kept our community in darkness long after sunrise.
By 5:15 we arrived at the church and started checking in with people to see who needed help evacuating. I took a team out to one member's neighborhood to help remove a large tree that had fallen across the road, preventing anyone from driving out of the area. It was huge Chinese Elm that broke off at ground level and crushed a car as it fell. We used hand saws I had loaded in my trunk to cut off several large branches, since the one chain saw on the scene wasn't working very well. Within about a half an hour we had enough of the road cleared so that cars could get past.
Our new organist in RB literally found the house next door on fire before she even knew she was supposed to evacuate. There were several close calls for other members of our church, with homes right next door burning to the ground. Thankfully everyone made it out of their neighborhoods safely, and most had at least an hour to pack up valuables and secure our homes.
Our church served as a mini evacuation and communication center. We had many families in RV's in the parking lot, and many dogs and cats inside our Fellowship Hall. We fed about 30 people for a few days, and about ten of us spent the nights in our offices and classrooms. Elizabeth and other volunteers staffed our phones so that we could assist those in need in our congregation. Others in our church opened their homes so that we were able to find places for various elderly people to stay since hotels were hard to come by and the official evacuation centers were pretty crowded and overwhelming.
 
Here is an email from Bruce, pastor of RBCPC in the community just to the south of us.
Finally back in email connection. Time to write down a portion of our story. Sunday night we were breathing ashes from a fire up the hill 20 miles away. NO immediate danger to our area so went to bed. Monday at
5 AM our back door blew open with a crash! Woke us up out of a sound sleep. The door was bolted and had a child safely lock but still crashed open with a gust of wind. God's providence! One minute later a phone call from someone whose dad was being evacuated (nearby senior
center) told us to wake up and flee. We started to pack and get the grandkids up, when the fire broke over the hillside and we realized we have less than five minutes to get out. I carried our two grandchildren to the car and discovered we were already in the midst of live embers raining down on us. The tree across the street exploded in a fire shower as I buckled o0ur granddaughter into her car seat. We could already see some of the neighbors' homes were on fire with flames shooting from upper windows and off roof tops. I ran back into the house where my wife was still grabbing medicines etc and shouted "GET OUT NOW!" SHE HAD NOT REALIZED OUR NEIGHBORHOOD WAS ALREADY LOST. We got daughter and son-in-law into one car, wife Kate into her car and me with the grandkids in my car. I shouted over the fear and fire that we needed to get out of RB so I told everyone to meet up at a distant parking lot ten miles away. We turned the corner and found the main road out like a parking lot with everybody in their cars at the same time. Amazing that we had no loss of life! Finally gathered with family a half hour later and I burst into tears as we hugged and realized we were all alive and safe. No shoes on the children. Just the clothes on our backs. Amazing ending to this story... while dozens in our congregation have lost their homes, (most in our neighborhood) our home is standing nearly alone in the neighborhood. Hoping to get home to the house by the weekend. Electricity off so we'll have days of practical adjusting and will live in the midst of the impact of this for months (years?) to come. Thanks for your prayers. Jesus is still Lord!
Bruce
Gina's Story-
We first heard of the fires in Malibu. We were at the National Youth Workers Convention in Mission Valley and they had announced that Malibu Presbyertian Church had burned down and their youth workers were at the convention. So everyone huddled around them and prayed. My friend Carmen was in tears. That was her home church in college and where she heard God's call to ministry. We went out to PF Changs for dinner with Sean and Carmen. When we walked out of the restaurant we smelled the smoke in the air and knew something was wrong. We picked up our kids in El Cajon on Sunday night so they could enjoy the hotel for one night and hit up Sea World the next day (shhh the kids don't know about the Sea World Plans).
Sunday morning we got a call from our dog sitter in Escondido saying, "What do you want me to do with your dog, I have to evacuate my house." That is when I knew this was bad. I turned on the news and realized that there was no going home on Monday. I braced myself for whatever was to come and called Carmen to say that we probably could not get to Escondido tonight. We fortunately had people around at church to take care of our dog. We stopped for a bit at Carmen's grandparents house and as we unloaded our cars we were immediately identifiied as evacuees and greeted by neighbors who were on their doorsteps already offering us assisitance! That made my heart happy because from the way things looked, I was thinking all of Escondido might burn down.
After the kids napped we headed to my parents house in El Cajon. Their home had burned down in the Cedar fires of 03 (see video here). Thankfully they moved to a different area of town and were not in any immediate danger. It was interesting to stay with my parents that night and "relive" the Cedar fire of 2003. Thankfully their home was safe this time around! We woke up on Tuesday to discover that my brother and his family had to evacuate from Spring Valley at 3am in the morning. After breakfast we were able to get back up the freeway to our home. We made it home on Tuesday and like most everyone, found a mess of debris and ashes everywhere. Our pool looks like a science experiment gone wrong.
Our church (we live on our church campus) was used as an evacuation center for several families so Tim and I had our hands full entertaining youth group teens and chasing after our own kids who were tired of not being able to go outdoors. Several of our youth were unable to return home until Thursday.
Thankfully today (Sunday, Oct 28th) was our church's annual Harvest Festival and my kids got to FINALLY go outside and play! We had 2 jumpers dropped off early this morning so my kiddos got to "jump" and play to their hearts delight! (A perk to living on campus!) It was great for them after being cooped up all week. They played games and ran around to all the fun booths collecting lots of goodies. They both fell asleep happy and it is always nice to hear my 5 year old say "mommy this was one of the best days of my entire life!"
Now I am working to help with relief efforts in any way that I can. See our WPC Fire Relief page for ways you can help.
Share Your Fire Story- email
Youthleadergina@mac.com
|
