Firestorm 2008

We had an exciting couple of days in Paradise, that I hope we never have to repeat again! Wednesday at noon a small fire started off of Hwy 32 and Humboldt. It started with just a tree and didn't seem to be much of a threat. Unfortunately, the conditions were perfect for a fire--low humidity, gusty winds and hot weather! By Wednesday night it had burned about 6,000 acres. Thursday morning the fire jumped the Skyway and it was downhill from there! At about 2pm on Thursday I was out on the back deck and could see huge clouds of smoke. I knew it was moving quickly, but still didn't think we were in danger. The power went out a few minutes later and I calmly asked the kids to get a backpack with at least one change of clothes and things that were the most important to them. Braden grabbed his sports trophies and his box of change he is saving to buy the new Indiana Jones Lego's--how cute is that? I began gathering insurance policies, birth certificates, social security cards, property deeds and pictures! I gathered everything in the dining room "just in case". Within a few minutes, "just in case" happened. My friend, Dawn called. She is a dispatcher for the Town of Paradise and let me know that they would be issuing a mandatory evacuation for our area within the next 20 minutes. I loaded up the dog, the kids and my stuff and headed out to Gridley. Traffic was awful with only one road out open. As we got down to Highway 70 all I could see in the rear view mirror was thick, black smoke. At about 7pm, Aunt Anne called and let us know that she had just heard on the news that they didn't expect any homes on South Libby to survive the night. I started thinking of all the things I should have grabbed and hoped for the best. Rob drove in at about 9:30 pm. He had been able to get back to the house and get a few more things, but now all roads in were closed. We didn't sleep well and were relieved in the morning that the winds had changed in our favor. Long story short--we still have our home. 74 other homeowners were not as fortunate and over 23,000 acres burned. We have three families in our ward who lost homes. We were able to come home Friday night to a deserted neighborhood and yellow crime tape tied to the front coach light to mark that no one was home. I guess just after I left the Sheriff came through with a bullhorn telling everyone to leave and there were two reverse 911 messages on my machine. I am so thankful that our family and our home were safe! I feel bad for those who lost their homes and businesses. Today we donated clothing and toiletries--it was amazing at how full the school cafeteria was of donations from people who wanted to help! The fire fighters were amazing! It is unbelievable to see the black, charred ground and a house standing in the middle of it. Firefighters came from as far as Nevada and Oregon--4000 in all. The fire was declared a stage 2 disaster on Thursday night--Katrina was a 5. I will be better prepared for the next one. This experience has made me really think about what is really important! These are pictures of the smoke from off our back deck at about 2 pm.