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Lessons Learned During the San Diego Fires By Roland and Dianne Clark The Santa Ana winds were howling, and the smoke became so thick you couldn't see. Then you could feel the ashes falling! Through the terror of October's wildfires we learned some vital lessons.
e live in a beautiful agricultural area in northern San Diego County. We have five acres of avocados and a relatively new home. It's usually an idyllic setting, but we knew there had been fires in this area before. One fire, four years ago, actually burned 80 percent of our trees, but thankfully not our home. So this year we had made every effort to be prepared! Extremely arid conditions and the wild Santa Ana winds off the desert produced tinder-dry brush that led to perhaps a dozen major fires in Southern California this October, and the largest fire evacuation in California history. Concerned for our brethren By Sunday night, Oct. 21, 2007, several of the brethren from our San Diego, California, United Church of God congregation had been evacuated from their homes. The winds were howling and the fires were going so fast they were almost impossible to stop. Because initially the fires were south and west of us, we started calling to see if other members could make it to our home as a refuge. It is hard to believe, but so many streets were closed that they could not travel north or east. Monday we spent time calling to make sure everyone was doing alright. The members all were safe, had found homes to evacuate to and were just wondering if they would have homes to return to. Some were being evacuated for the second time, and others were receiving reverse 911 calls telling them to evacuate.
Reverse 911 calls came in our area at 5 a.m. with a notice to evacuate. Fires can be quite frightening, especially with the Santa Ana winds howling, smoke so thick you can't see and ashes falling on you! Preparing to evacuate
Next we started to load the RV, pickup truck and Blazer with important belongings such as the hard drive, folders with CDs with banking and other important information and digital pictures. We packed papers from the safe, a few clothes, old picture albums and some pictures on the wall that we couldn't replace. Earlier we had placed suitcases ready to fill in different areas of the house where we knew we would take things. We also packed an ice chest with food and drinks, and took some food from the cabinets. We closed our cat in the house until we knew we had to leave so he wouldn't panic and get lost. The electricity then went off just before dawn, but our grove continued to be watered by gravity, although a little more slowly. We then needed regular sprinklers in the yard, as the automatic system didn't work without power. Two goats
The goats seemed to like our home and being around people. They needed security, so they kept right with us, literally right on our heels. Eventually the neighbors got another trailer and picked them up. Next we started driving the vehicles, and trailer with a boat, to a safe place. With the last car ready to roll if we needed to leave, Roland started the grove perimeter fire protection sprinkling system. After two hours, around 7 a.m., we had moved the vehicles and moved anything that could burn from the outside walls of our home and cut the few shrubs around the house.
Answered prayer Then, all of a sudden, when we thought we would shortly have to leave, the wind died. We later found out that two men who didn't leave their groves at the foot of the nearby hill actually put out two fires that could have come up to our neighbor's grove -- and eventually to ours. We also found that the wind didn't slow in other nearby communities until evening. That it stopped in our area had to be answered prayer. At one time during the day we heard the fire, which sounded like the low rumble of a powerful freight train. We couldn't see it but found out it was the fire racing up Mount Palomar just north of us. For the rest of the day we just waited and watched. All of our neighbors kept their groves and yards wet. When darkness came, we all had a system where someone would be awake to call the others if anything flared up. We got calls on Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m., but the fire was not coming into our immediate area. Needless to say we did not sleep well on Tuesday and Wednesday. We all used small generators for electricity until Thursday. It was comforting and awesome to start seeing the huge helicopters with their 1,000-gallon Big Dipper Helibuckets start to drop on the Poomacha blaze on Mount Palomar. The firemen all over San Diego and Southern California did an outstanding job.
What a wonderful Sabbath we had! We all had stories to tell and many things to thank God for. Many of the brethren had a real mess to clean up when they returned home, but they were thankful to have a home. Even when evacuated, they were concerned about each other. As we write this, it is two weeks after the first fire started, and the Poomacha fire is still burning a little along the ridge and on the eastern end of Mount Palomar, but there is no threat. Prayer and preparation So what were the lessons learned? We learned that physical things are not as important as people. We learned that we must be prepared, do everything we can do in each situation, and then rely on God. After previous fires in and around our Valley Center area, we all have fire breaks, weed abatement, perimeter watering systems, homes without trees or heavy brush around them, friends with water trucks and a close community to help one another. This kind of preparation should be made in all areas of our lives. We must have a close relationship with God and feel we are able to call on Him, but we still must do everything we can do. We also learned to appreciate the care, concern and prayers of our brethren in other areas. We had concerned calls from all over the United States and even Australia. The congregation knew who to check on, and they did so. We feel we were personally prepared, but we are very thankful that our system did not need to be tested. We did what we could and then relied on God. Copyright 2007 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Keywords: fires answered prayer preparation reliance on God
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