Thursday, August 26, 2010

That Was Too Close!---The Day We Almost Lost Our Home


The ivy was scorched by the fire,but the fire crew managed to save not only the house but our little gazebo. This shot was taken on the empty lot that was where the fire crews stopped the blaze.

On Tuesday August 24 I was returning home from work on the freeway south from Medford fifteen miles to Ashland. I noticed a large amount of smoke coming from near where my end of town was. As I drove closer the view only got more ominous. I soon discovered my neighborhood was on fire!

A fire that started about four in the afternoon by a careless or malicious transient jumped the four-lane section of Interstate 5 near where Shirley and I live. It burned down eleven homes in all. By the time I got to the block where I live the police had cordoned off the area. I stood about with other residents and photographers from the papers.

As carelessness would have it, I had forgotten my cell phone so there was no way to contact Shirley who I assumed had left work and was heading up to the area. All I could do was manage to slip past the police roadblock on foot and take a walking trail toward the back of my block.
Imagine my relief when I saw the house still standing! There was a fire truck parked right in front of our place and the next door neighbor's. I could see part of my back fence was gone. I looked above me and two or three helicopters were bumping large buckets of flame retardant right in the narrow field just in front of our back yard! It looked very touch and go at this point. I thought about our Westie terrier, Isobel, and hoped she was safe.

When I caught up with Shirley--who had been with two ladies crying their eyes out because their home was burning--I took here the back way I had to see the house. A fire fighter from the State Forestry Department told us we had to leave. There were maybe a dozen firefighters around the area and we were really just on the perimeter of being in the way. Seeing that they were doing all they can, including hosing down our roof, we left to go and get something to eat. I help so helpless but I was also hopeful the fire would be contained.

It was. After some two dozen firetrucks and several units coming from all parts of the county, the near-by cities and the state forestry department fire/rescue teams, our small subdivision was spared only a few singed roofs and our fence. The folks in the next block over were not so lucky, although some houses in the area were spared.

As it stands a suspect is in custody. What was going through his mind if he did set that blaze in 103 degree Fahrenheit heat I don't know. I do know Shirley and I were spared being burned out of our house. I told one of the firefighter crews I would gladly go door to door the next time there is a bond issue to get them a new firetruck.

The next morning around seven a city planning inspector came around. I was standing in the back yard with Shirley in the early light. "That was sure close for you folks," he said.

A little too close.

Oh, yes, Isobel came through okay.

46 comments:

  1. Glad this all worked out Doug, now this is a huge encounter that one never wishes to have take place!

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  2. This must have been one heck of a day to say the least.

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  3. There were amateurs and news and television crews all about the streets. I was just walking back and forth, with no camera, hoping for the best.

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  4. As I said above, Jack, we were just plain lucky!

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  5. Wow... I am at a loss of words... I want to say ~*Amen*~ that you have your house... but my heart goes to those who lost their homes. I know a house is a material object, but I know I would be heart broken, because I sleep in my bed, I watch movies with my kids, and we have memories here... so Thank God you have your home! Cling to that pillow a lillte tighter?

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  6. We will Beverly. And, you're right, the prayers really belong to those who have lost so much of their sense of safety and home. They have to fall back on friends and family and the community just to have a place to live.

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  7. Doug regardless of all that has happened, I extend the best to you as I can see that this weekend is your birthday. As despite all of this before you know it you will it will all come together and at least the entire house didnt burn down and there is something good that comes out of this as in a month from now all will be back to norm.

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  8. Your most welcome as there has been a very decent gent that has had a demeanour and intelligence that I am think highly of and before I head of to bed I just wished to mention that as within all of this there is something good. Someone seemingly in the past has done very decent things to this end and as well I have come to realize that things happen but they pass and there is always something good within something that is temporally malice.

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  9. Glad your home was spared Doug. Now what caused the fire? I read it but was unsure about what jumped what out on the high way?

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  10. Terrifying Doug. We've watched as our back fence burned, but our back fence is 1/4 mile away - it's a totally different scenario. I'm so glad you were spared, and so sorry for those who lost their homes. A nightmar everyone dreads. Who can say what goes through the minds of people like that.

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  11. Sorry to hear about your neighborhood. I am glad your house was left unscathed. Fences can always be mended. When I was a child our apartment complex and our apartment had a fire. My parents lost a lot. We were OK. I remember having to move after that.

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  12. Such loss at the hands of a truly malicious person. How tragic.

    I am glad you were spared!

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  13. It is not something I've wish my worst enemy to go through Melanie. And what the people who lost their homes are going through has to be a thousand times worse.

    It certainly does give you a strong reminder of that "nightmare" being a reality without warning.

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  14. Well, Mary Ellen, they arrested a homeless person who hangs out at a local shopping center and charged him with starting the fire. Apparently the fire started in a large field across the freeway from our subdivision and somehow a spark of fire they say carried over in the air to the trees and brush around the houses. The weather was very hot and there was a lot of tinder-dry brush in this area. It's scary in no small way because this could happen again not only here but wherever you have tall brush and high temps.

    Thank you for your kind thoughts. I wish we had got the worst of it, and all the other homes only had slight damage. The firefighters got here in time and in force and they did an amazing job under bad conditions.

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  15. I'm afraid it was an act of senseless malice. And thank you. I'm hoping the next decade or so around here will be less eventful.

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  16. I'm glad you came through safely Doug and feel so sorry for your poor neighbours.

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  17. When I saw this on the news up here in Portland, I thought, "Here's hoping Doug is all right."

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  18. Life is more precious than any materials in this world, and the Almighty gave you and your loved ones the second lease ... and not only that, your house was spared, what a great gift there, you just recieved ... hugs to all.

    CHEERS on your coming birthday! Happy birthday, Doug.


    By the way, i followed the link on my good friend Jack's page ... :)

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  19. Thank you Jim. One neighbor I'm pretty close with made it through all right, but he was just across the street from a nice family whose place was a total loss.

    Yes, the neighbors who lost so much so quickly were devastated. So sad. One other odd thing is that a lot of people have been driving around the neighborhood to look at the devastation one block over. I look out our front window and see a steady stream of cars--its like they think we have Brad Pitt and Angelina staying with us! Shirley told me one car stopped near our house and a family jumped out and went up the ten-foot birm next tot the freeway to get a look across at the charred
    houses. I didn't realize so many people wouldn't be satisfied from the media coverage.


    At times like this, some people can make quite a spectacle of themselves..

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  20. Thanks for your kind thoughts Astra. It's one of those things I thought "only happens to other people" and suddenly it almost hits home!

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  21. Welcome Maritess! I agree it is a gift indeed from the Almighty whenever one can realize what really matters in this world--life and loved one--and what else is just "stuff".


    Thanks for the birthday wishes! Jack has great friends.

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  22. Thank you Fred. I know its been hot, hot , hot down your way and I hope that abates soon as well.

    I've been really lucky in this life--as a kid or an adult I've never had to move because of any fire or disaster. Sorry for you and your parents--it must have been a wrenching experience. The important thing of course is that you were still together.

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  23. Glad that you came through OK. Hopes, prayers and good thoughts go those of your neighbors who lost their homes.

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  24. Thanks Stephen. I hope I can send out a good news blog about those who lost so much sometime in the coming months.

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  25. So true Doug. I fear we are all guilty of the 'rubber necking' syndrome and don't give a thought to the distress that causes others.

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  26. If the guy on custody is guilty I hope they give him a proper sentence. He could have killed a load of people by the sound of things.
    Hope Isobel wasn't too stressed.

    Firemen are the best!

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  27. Yes, if he is guilty I hope he gets a place to go where away for a long while.

    Isobel came through quite well, Oakie. Her Scottish ancestry gives her steady nerves.

    I can't say enough about the fire personnel. They did a great job reducing a terrible situation from turning much, much, worse!

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  28. If Isobel is a true Scot I do hope that you feed her a proper Scottish diet of Sheep's stomach, whisky and fried Snickers Bar.

    The firemen who were there on 911 took fire brigades status to a whole new level, but all firemen risk their lives to save lives every single day and aren't exactly over-paid. Ordinary guys, sometimes seeing things that one would normally only see in a warzone. Truly a vocational job.

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  29. A close thing indeed Doug, what a shock it must have been to find the locality engulfed like that. I hope you and Shirley are both okay now, you were very fortunate that your home was saved by the firefighters, as you point out and as the pictures show.... it was touch and go at one point. Isobel probably has some deeply rooted folk memory of villages torched by Redcoats, so she instinctively knew what to do I imagine. After such a drama I hope the weekend has settled down to a more relaxed pace. I'm glad to see you escaped the worst of it....a bit close for comfort though all the same Doug better crack open a beer in celebration methinks

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  30. It was a shock, AA, leavened by the relief of having the fire crews and the helicopter water dropping operations save our house and the little street where we live. I had some serious doubts for a while there indeed.

    And I found Isobel in pretty good shape, camped in the utility room, quizzically looking to me like she wondered where the heck I had been. Indeed she might very well have had a ancestor or two survive a British or Indian raiding party. That bitch is no simpering colonial, that's for sure!

    Both Shirley and I did indeed just get back from a small birthday dinner so, yes, things have relaxed and and adult beverages were in order. Just glad to still be in the old homestead and not having to type this on a computer in some shelter. May you and all the others here reading this be spared this "close call" happening to yourselves and your neighbors.

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  31. I cannot imagine how hard that was. a friend sent me over to wish you Happy Birthday. Have a beautiful day

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  32. Thanks Deb. Best wishes to you from this little part of Oregon.

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  33. All things I would imagine you have in place for this next week Doug.

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  34. I'm looking forward to a better week coming up, that's for sure Jack!

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  35. Well regardless a Happy Birthday and that is a start within it all Doug.

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