Thanks for all the calls and emails... OLD FIRE

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Posted by Joel Briggs on October 28, 2003 at 12:45:23:

Thank you all for the emails and phone calls. Anne and myself are doing fine. Emmett and Ruth are also doing fine.

This is what I sent out this morning to some of you via I email. I was ask to share it with you all. It has not been editted or proofed.

______________________________________________________

October 25, 2003 was supposed to be just another typical Saturday. A day of doing yard work, laundry, and just being lazy around the house. Guest (Tom Worker) were to be coming by that afternoon to pick up some old mining relics.

At 7:22PM, all that would change.

My day started around 8:30AM when I saw my wife off to work. After she left, I went into the kitchen to make a sandwich, afterwards, heading into the living room to watch some TV. Of course, all the local channels had coverage on the Grand Prix fire, 30 miles away. I finally ended up watching some documentary about Alaska.

Around 10AM, I finally went outside and notice smoke billowing up east from my house, near Cal-State San Bernardino.

Not paying much attention to it, I started on a bit of yard work, raking leaves, when ash started to fall down everywhere.

I leaned the rake against the garage and went inside to see if anything was on the news about another fire. Switching to channel 4, a news reporter was on the scene of a fire near Waterman Canyon, just north of San Bernardino, already burning several houses.

Knowing Waterman Canyon being about 6 miles to the east, I figured it would never reach my home. It was now 10:37AM.

Around 12:30 PM, I received a phone call that they were doing mandatory evacuations north of 40th Street up to Palm Avenue and the Cal-State San Bernardino Campus was on fire.

At 2:30 PM, my wife called asking if everything was ok. I told here yes and that the fire was still far away.

Finally, around 3:30PM, I joined several of my neighbors on the hill to see the fire. It was know about two miles away and was easily 3 miles across. We joked about it and even talked about the Halloween party. Around 4PM, the sheriff drove up the street announcing on his PA system that we should start to prepare to evacuate. It was know getting serious, and a tension filled the air. We left to our homes. This would be the last time I would talk to my neighbors – as neighbors.

Still doubting the fire would reach us, I ignored the warnings and figured it would never cross the 80’ wash near the Devil’s Canyon pumping station.

How wrong I was.

It was know 5:45PM and the sky had turned to a dark brown with streaks of bright orange. Hot ash started to fall everywhere.

It was 6PM when the announcement came by the sheriff that we had minutes to get out. In just a matter of minutes, the canyon before me engulfed in flames. Flames 60’ shot up in the air. It was about a ¼ of a mile from the house.

Not knowing what to do, I grabbed the dogs and my laptop and jumped in the truck. Hot ash burned my eyes and burned skin that was exposed. The first wave of fire trucks raced up the street quickly setting up a line. But it was to late. The flames engulfed the house across the street and I notice another house further up the street also in flames. The fire trucks retreated and so did I. It was know 6:20PM.

Racing down the street, fire trucks were everywhere and how I got down in one piece, was simply a miracle. As I turned the corner on Meyer’s, I looked back and notice the trees in front of my house on fire as with two houses down the street in flames.

I knew my house was gone.

The drive down the hill was long and painful. Ash was taking a toll on my eyes and the dogs whimpered on the floor. Horses ran wild. Fire trucks raced up and down the street. Everywhere was fire, smoke, and ash.

I finally reached Palm and Kendall, following the lines of cars. Finally looking back up at where I lived, all I saw was a wall of fire at least five miles across. I shook my head in disbelief and slowly drove away – not knowing what had happen – I was in shock.

I finally pulled over, let out a high sigh, called my wife, and wept. It was know 7:22PM.


It would not be until Monday afternoon that we finally got to go back to our neighborhood. What was once a typical neighborhood now looked like a warzone. The terrain was just a swirling cloud of gray and black ash. No longer stood the trees that dotted the sidewalks. White fences and brown fences all but gone. I was amaze to see houses still standing, but turning the corner, that amazement would be replaced with awe and tears.

Our neighborhood once had twelve homes, today, it only has six. I was one of the lucky ones. I pulled up to my drive way, and leaning against the garage was my rake. In my backyard once stood a barn. In my barn I kept my camping equipment, a landcruiser I was restoring, and my mule trailer. All that remained was their shells.

I was one of the lucky ones!



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