Captain's Log #20 - the 2017 Sonoma Complex Fire

10/22/17

Origin Stories

Sunday night/Monday morning (Oct. 9) at 1:30a.m. I awoke to the smell of toast, like a freshly toasted Oak wine barrel, rather pleasant. Going into the kitchen I was sure Kevin had made toast for his late dinner until the smell of more toast came blowing in the kitchen window. It was smoky outside and an horrific wind was coming from the north, Glen Ellen/Kenwood. I called the non-emergency numbers I had for the local fire and sheriff’s departments, no answer. I went online, no fire news. I went into the bedroom to tell Kevin about the smoke, “I’m not evacuating! This is a subdivision, they’ll save us!” He went back to sleep.

I then girded my loins with jeans, donned my new $200 tennis shoes (with the extra cushy socks), t-shirt and fleece, pulled out my wheeled suitcase and began packing. There wasn’t much I felt the need to take. A last, sad glance at my kimonos, I then began preparing the car for the cats: tightly covered dry food and water bowls, a large cat box with scooper and plenty of small plastic bags. Our cat Alex’s favorite blanket on the back seat and all the cans of cat food in the cupboard, and the cat's china plates, and an enormous bag of dry food. I am grateful that Kevin has been carefully accumulating earthquake supplies for us. I made myself ½ a peanut butter sandwich. By this time two girlfriends had been texting me. Pecking out responses kept me from packing but kindly one of them generously said “You can come here!” She lives south of us in the town of Sonoma. Whew! A place to go. I had learned that the local high school was an evacuation center but all those people? I’d rather sleep in my car. By this time, while it was still dark, Kevin got a call to come into work. All of a sudden he took this seriously. By the time he drove away the electricity had gone off, it was light outside and the sheriff drove through the neighborhood loudly announcing a mandatory evacuation. I had only to load the cats in their carriers, strap them into the car and off we went. This was something like 7:30am, most of my panicked neighbors had left long before the sheriff’s announcement. Me? I only had 78 miles in my gas tank, I didn’t want to get stuck in traffic.

Now, “5” is not a statistically significant sample size but all five male partners of people I know loudly refused to get out of bed and prepare for evacuation believing they were safe. What’s that all about? Later Kevin did thank me for getting myself and the cats out safely. I would have liked it more if he had expounded on that gratitude topic at far greater length.

The cats, of course, were very upset believing they were being taken to the vets to be tortured. I let them out of their crates when I got to my friend’s and the cats and I hung out together in the car for 31 hours except for my short breaks in the house, thank you, Phyllis!

Let me assure you, lion’s don’t sleep at night. If they’re not harassing your village, they’re harassing a herd of wildebeests somewhere, it was quite the adventure with them and I think the three of us have developed Stockholm Syndrome.

Phyllis had electricity and a huge flat screen TV with news 24/7. The fire was everywhere! I had to retreat to the peace of the cats and my knitting. A neighbor cranked up his whiney leaf blower and proceeded to blow and rake and scrape his lawn and street gutters until every single leaf was expelled. We’d had hurricane-force winds that night and leaves were everywhere – except in front of his house. How futile, everything is burning around you and you’re raking leaves. I allowed as how I was doing my self-soothing behavior, knitting, and he was doing his. When I got home the very first thing I did was rake up every d___ leaf in front of my house and street. First, it said to looters, this house is occupied, the exercise burned off some of the adrenaline by-products, and it got the few remaining neighbors to rake their yards, re: looters (which, by the way, weren’t much of a problem.)

The cats and I returned home the next day when I got a call from Kevin that he was at the house. Then, in short, the cats and I camped here at the house without electricity for 9 days. Hot showers but no laundry. It wasn’t too bad, the problem was the stress of being packed and ready to flee everyday with fire seemingly all around us. Kevin worked at the SDC, then at the local school where the clients had been evacuated, then at the Dixon fairgrounds when it was determined the air quality here was too bad for them. He came home every night.

I was required to drive to Dixon (1.25 hrs. one-way on a hellacious 6-lane freeway) on Monday the 16^th but I was able to delay going in until after my job interview at the Napa State Hospital on Tuesday. After all I’d been through, a job interview was like a vacation in Maui. I think it went very well but won’t hear anything until the end of November or mid-December. It would be a promotion and raise.

I can grovel in self-pity but you have only to see 100+ developmentally disabled people packed in a gym unable to get out, depending on other people for everything, to make you realize that you don’t have anything to complain about. These poor people, and the staff! are totally stressed. The staff are working multiple double shifts, Noro virus or flu could sweep through and wreak havoc. No privacy, no walls to contain infection. This is a disaster waiting to happen (not to mention what would happen if a fire broke out in the gym.) Apparently large crews are washing every surface at the SDC in order to get the clients back as soon as possible. While management refuses to give staff any idea of when we’ll return I heard, from a woman whose husband works in Mechanical, that they’re aiming to move the clients back tomorrow.

I must commend the-powers-that-be in their ability to recruit law enforcement, firefighters and equipment from everywhere! We’ve had law enforcement from other counties driving our neighborhood on an hourly basis, blocking our roads so only residents are allowed in. They got the Army to help evacuate the SDC clients! It’s impressive, I am very grateful.

While we have electricity we don’t have AT&T internet or phone, still. Comcast here we come! I’ll have to drive into town and use someone’s wi-fi to send this.

Meanwhile, this is absolutely the best time of the year to plant a garden. I picked up some lettuce, parsley, tarragon, beets and a mess of onions, shallots and garlic. We had 3/10^th of an inch of rain Thursday. Brian planted my Milkweed starts, thank you! I hope to have Monarchs in the garden soon.

There are a few more stories but I’ll save them for next time.

Glad to be here, in my house, and have a job; hope you are well and healthy.

Many blessings,

Karla, mom and k.j.