Other (Firefighting) 1:00:00 [1]
Today's plan was some relaxing yoga while 'Bent went biking in Albion Hills. Less than an hour after he'd left, I heard a vehicle in our driveway and peeked out to see a fire truck with lights flashing. I don't deal well with this sort of thing ever since police cars came up the driveway to inform us that a family member had been killed by an impaired driver. I thought that 'Bent had been hit by a car while biking.
As I walked toward the truck, the firefighter wouldn't meet my eye. I spoke to him, then realized why he wasn't looking at me. "We've got a fire here, Ma'am." Huge clouds of reddish-brown smoke were billowing from our neighbour's back yard, about 125 meters away. My first thought was, "Oh good, it's nothing to do with 'Bent." Then... "Oh my God - should we leave?" "How many people are in the house?" "Just me and the dogs." "Well, it's not a bad idea."
It's one of those things you see on the news... people have to evacuate their homes quickly and only have time to take along a few possessions. Inevitably, in their panic, they grab something silly like a Disneyland tea towel and leave their passport behind. So now it was my turn, and here's what I put into the van - in this order:
1) Dogs
2) Laptop computers
3) 'Bent's wallet and my purse
4) Wedding photos and video
5) A bunch of other photos, but didn't have time for all of them
6) My nicest jewellery
7) A couple of good-sized, uncashed cheques.
And yes, I forgot our passports.
In the middle of this, I phoned 'Bent to advise him to come home, but NOT through the forest, since it was burning. In his haste to return, he slid out on his bike in some gravel and twisted his knee. He met our neighbour, VO2Max Sr., enroute, and dropped his bike to take a ride the rest of the way home. By that time, there were two trucks sitting on our lawn, and the wind had blown the fire along the back of our property, so it looked like our house was in the clear - but now we were worried about Crash and the Neumanns. With our pooches and other main valuables stashed in the back of the van, we headed around to Duffy's Lane to see if we could help. No cars at Crash's place, and no signs of dogs around. Good. Over to Neumanns' place where we could see smoke moving over the forest, and it seemed to be staying further north. We went back to Crash's place, which had been established as the latest forest fighting HQ, with trucks lined up along the narrow road. VO2Max Sr. and Mr. Wheelie were conscripted to give firefighters rides into the forest on their ATVs. If the wind direction stayed the same, it wasn't looking good for Crash's house. She wasn't answering her cell phone.
A firefighter casually commented that our next door neighbours had been "having a little fire". We'd heard some construction project going on earlier in the day, so perhaps they were burning some debris. Given that it was a breezy, 30C, sunny day in an area where there's been a drought this summer, some very bad judgment was involved - assuming that the firefighter's version of the story was correct. These are the same new neighbours who blasted booming loud party music across the area till 1 a.m. a few weeks ago, which made me feel that they didn't respect the countryside. If the story turns out to be true, then my gut feeling was accurate, and I will be crossing them off my Christmas card list.
We eventually ended up in the woods with the firefighters as 1-meter orange flames burned across 'Bent's commute trail, just 15 meters from our property. The wind had changed, so the fire was coming toward our place again. Following their instructions, we hauled in big containers of water and went along the perimeter of the fire-blackened area, putting out mini-fires and throwing logs with live embers down to the blackened former grassland, where nothing was left to burn.
They eventually got a mini-pumper truck into the back of Belusas' property, and the water quenched the flames. I have to admit that I now see the value of having a swimming pool out in the country where there are no fire hydrants. For these firefighters, it's all about whether they can get water to these remote forest areas.
The firefighters said that there were other pockets of fire in different places, including in the Palgrave Forest & Wildlife Area. I asked about Crash's house, and they said that no houses had burned - phew!! The new Palgrave West orienteering map might need some updating though. It was around that time that I cracked a stupid joke about our poison ivy problem being solved in the area where we were standing - and then I realized that some of the smoke around us had come from poison ivy, which can lead to throat and lung inflammation. Crap! It usually takes me at least 48 hrs to respond to poison ivy, but I'm going to be taking lots of deep breaths for the next few days, and - knowing me - imagining that things are tightening up.
We are supposed to go out there each day and keep checking for embers, and call them if anything is too big. The ground is smoking, and they can't get it out completely. We love that forest, and we're heartbroken to think of what might have happened in there. I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight... NOT.