THE SLIDE FIRE
This year Ron and I planned a trip to Yosemite for the week before Memorial Day. In a case of perfect irony, one of the reasons we chose that week was to be home during June, the hottest, driest month of the year and the prime month for wildfires in our area. On Tuesday, May 20, the Slide Fire started in Oak Creek Canyon, just north of Slide Rock State Park. It's the only fire that has ever threatened our Kachina Village subdivision. Sure enough, we were in Yosemite, 12 hours away.
Many thanks to our neighbor Deb, who called us right away so we would know. Initially there had been some misinformation about the location of the fire and a full evacuation of Kachina Village had been ordered. By the time we had cell service to call Deb back, accurate information was available and we were in a 2-hour evacuation status. Deb also had contact with our next-door neighbor Matt, who conveniently works for the Forest Service and was part of the immediate local response. He kept her up-to-date with solid information. Because of the good information Deb was getting, she recommended we finish our trip and return Thursday as planned. She asked what we wanted out of the house in case of a full evacuation. Ron and I told her we'd discuss it and call her back.
Ron and I live in the forest, and Fire is the major natural disaster concern. Particularly since the Rodeo-Chedeski fire in eastern AZ in June 2002, we've done yearly reviews of our fire-readiness. That has included what we'd take with us in various evacuation time scenarios. With the current twist of not being home when it actually happened and Deb's need to take care of her own situation, we decided to ask her to take the cat Cinnamon, my violin and flute, and a cash stash. The rest we resigned ourselves to losing.
We felt comfortable enough to continue our sight-seeing on Wednesday and were headed to our evening destination of Bakersfield, CA when our cell phones started ringing again. We called to get updates that the fire was in full gear and we were still in pre-evacuation status. Friend Clif had seen TV news that included camera shots of our cul-de-sac, and generously decided to drive out to see if he could help, which he could and did. Even with good information, being so far away really ratcheted up our anxiety, so we chose to drive extra several hours to Barstow, CA Wednesday evening. That would make us able to get home about noon Thursday. Not surprisingly, planning and speculation about the fire were our sole topics of conversation the rest of the evening.
As we drove east Thursday morning we watched the horizon for smoke. About 120 miles away, we could see the plume across 3/4 of the horizon. My camera couldn't pick it up until were drove through this smoke about 15 miles out.
As we continued east, it looked like this:
We drove through the ground-level smoke to see this:
Yep, pretty anxiety-provoking.
We picked up the dogs from the kennel and a few groceries from the store, and finished our drive. Glad to be home, we caught up with the most recent information from our neighbors.
The Forest Service mounted a massive response to this fire. Peak counts of resources included over 1,000 personnel, 46 engines, 3 air tankers, 9 helicopters, 2 air attack planes. Though they weren't mentioned, we know there were bulldozers because they cleared a line in the forest over a mile long about a quarter mile south of Kachina Village for additional protection.
We went through the motions of our daily lives. Smoke was always present, sometimes the plume, sometimes on the ground. Driving home from town looked like this.
A light amount of ash was constant. We made sure one of us was always at home. We'd signed up for the CodeRED emergency communications network that sends messages to telephones. The fire was national news, and we perused Internet, TV, radio and newspaper sources for information. A NASA satellite took this photo:
A light amount of ash was constant. We made sure one of us was always at home. We'd signed up for the CodeRED emergency communications network that sends messages to telephones. The fire was national news, and we perused Internet, TV, radio and newspaper sources for information. A NASA satellite took this photo:
The pre-evacuation notice was lifted Monday about noon. With the invaluable assistance of cooperative weather, firefighters were able to predict the fire direction and burned ahead of it, so when it reached the pre-burned areas, all the fuel was gone. With 55% containment and weather conditions continuing to hold, personnel releases started yesterday. About 20,000 acres have burned, plenty enough but on the small side of recent fires. No human deaths, no structures burned. We're collectively breathing a deep sigh of relief at this near miss. A friend of our neighbor Karen said it well:
"May the forest be with you."
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