Close call
What happened to Bob Suber, who lives in Oak Park, Ventura County, with his wife Nadine, is as close as anyone wants to get to one of the wildfires in California. We'll let him explain in two emails what it was like :
Bob:
Sept. 30, 2005 1:45 p.m.
It’s about 7 p.m. and turning dark, but you can still see the black smoke in the sky. Fortunately, I do not see any flames this evening. This is an unbelievably huge fire that is burning on many fronts over a very large area. Most of the terrain is inaccessible and the fire is being allowed to burn and the resources are being shipped constantly from area to area, tract, or house as needed. When I went out at noon to pick up a few things from the grocery store, there were 15 fire engines and 5 support/command vehicles staged two blocks from where I live. They were gone when I returned.
This has been a two-legged fire. The leg that burned just north of where I live is now pretty much out. The other leg which burned south is in the West Hills, Bell Canyon, Calabasas, Ahmanson Ranch area and is still going strong. It is about 4 to 5 ridge lines and about the same number of miles east of me. I know the area reasonably well, but when you watch it on TV, consult a map or look out the window it is still difficult to determine where the fire really is. I live in a valley enclosed on three sides by hills (mountains) and when you look out and see the billowing smoke you would swear the fire is going to come over the hill within minutes.
It will be a long night sleeping lightly as the winds are moving this fire unpredictably. I could wake up some time in the morning and find I’m looking at flames out the bedroom window. As I mentioned before, that was sort of the way it went when I woke up this morning. Big surprise!! It would have to travel a ways and burn through about 5 blocks of houses to get to us, so we are reasonably safe.
I drove the perimeter of our tract several times today. Generally the fire did not breach the last ridge line and burn to any property line. But back on the next hill and ridge every thing was black, ash gray and barren. They are predicting another two days of Santa Ana winds about Tuesday or Wednesday. They are the winds that come through the Santa Ana Mountain canyons, get compressed and super heated, and blow off shore long, hard and gusty. Another prime period for the firebugs to do there thing.
AS you may have heard, we have over 3000 firefighters on the lines. And when you review the structure losses it is obvious the fantastic job they are doing.
Oct. 1, 2005 1:25 p.m.
The news at 5:30 a.m. said we still have a dangerous fire. But all stations stopped their continuous coverage of it. The VENCOFD website (fire.countyofventura.org) indicates that it is only 15 to 20% contained and that the 3000 firefighters are still working 15 separate fire lines to gain containment and control.
The smoke for the most part is no longer there. But the smell of smoke and burned wood is inside and outside. Outside it is so intense you can almost taste it. The sky while clear of smoke is hazy from all the garbage floating around. Started to clean up the ash that is on top of and in everything.
It appears the worst of this one is over. With the next Santa Ana winds we may get another one but it would have to be elsewhere. Nothing left to burn here. And with all the vegetation gone, we can look forward to mud slides and flows in a big rain. Hey… who said living in paradise was easy?
Nadine and I survived the fire with no damage. I am not aware of anyone else living in the affected area. My brother Jim in Simi Valley was on the other side of the valley and away from any problem. J.P Cunningham (another '52 classmate) and a few others have either called or emailed wondering how we made out At this point it is pretty much over but for the clean up and the borrowed resources are being redeployed or returned to their respective home locations.
A few of my friends and I had the privilege of buying coffee and donuts this morning for about 70 firefighters that were encamped in one of our parks. This site is located near where the fire burned to the property line and many were evacuated.
