On Wednesday, June 11, Nancy and I headed out about noon on what promised to be a wonderful road trip. And I
was way behind on road trips. She had found on Craig's List, a cook top and an oven to replace ours. Mind
you, if we had expected our house to be burned down before we returned, there was little incentive for this
trip. Had we thought a new start on our kitchen was imminent, we would never have committed to replacement of
our cramped 24 inch oven.
The offshore breezes of Tuesday and now Wednesday had me concerned for a forest fire, and I think that's
because some CDF person had told us that's the kind of breeze that brings the really bad fires, as it had in
1948. And now that we were leaving with the pickup truck, which was bought for the main purpose of
evacuating our prized possessions in the face of a forest fire, I figured IRONY had us in its sights. I said
this to Nancy and I invite you to confirm that. In any case, I decided to shut all our windows and doors just
in case of a fire ... and to some degree, so that the wind would not blow shut any interior doors that would
trap our cat from food or litter box.
After collecting our cook top in Pleasant Hill and our oven in Folsom, and being pleased with their condition
and our remarkable value, we had a barbeque dinner that couldn't be beat in Lincoln City with some very
wonderful long-time friends. At 10:30 pm, still an hour and a half from home and on route 680 in the east
bay somewhere, we turned on KGO (AM 810) to break the drive. Within 10 seconds they announced something about
the "Martin Fire in Bonny Doon". After a panic, we decided to call Nancy's oldest son and her mom, both in
Santa Cruz. Her son had tried to drive up and evacuate our cat but had been turned away. His story convinced
us we weren't going to get home Wednesday night, so we stayed with friends in San Jose. Checking our home
answering machines, I found KSBW and the Sentinel had contacted me after finding our Bonny Doon website. AAA
had called to see how our house was, which I thought was a nice touch, and the Santa Cruz Association of
Realtors wanted to see how the Bonny Doon agents were faring.
All the news we caught Wednesday night was that the wind was still offshore and likely to keep the fire away
from our Pineridge neighborhood. We knew offshore breezes were not the norm, and zipping back in time with
TIVO, all the Thursday morning news had the fire shifted toward our area. There was news of the fire jumping
a containment line, which I think turned out to be not quite right, and the Pineridge neighborhood was under
mandatory evacuation. Well that caused a mental shift in me that seemed most curious. I had been uneasy
before but this was something new. I later thought there is perhaps some separation of identity to the
degree that "who you are" is wrapped up in houses, possessions, and pictures. My older sister told me that
that is the same feeling she gets when they have a hurricane evacuation from Hilton Head on the South
Carolina coast. Surprisingly the concern for our possessions faded away completely, but the future battle to
rebuild our home remained a weight on my mind.
Nancy phoned our nearest (Thank you Jerry) neighbor who was moments away from evacuating himself. He agreed
to grab the cat carrier from the shed and load up the cat and Nancy's laptop. She paused to request some
jewelry, but that just didn't seem important anymore. The cat was life, and the laptop contained her soul's
investment of two books she had written this past year. A check of my home phone answering machine found
"Fox News from New York City" had found our website and wanted to talk.
Nancy's younger son and his wife were in France and I had a key to their place on my keychain, so we had a
Santa Cruz pad for Thursday night's crash. And now we had our cat. We did make an attempt to get back home
around 6 pm. We were turned away by CHP officers Frank and Rose, but we enjoyed our 20 minutes chat with them
and the world seemed so much better seeing the green forest all around the intersection of Empire Grade and
Smith Grade, and realizing that we were so close to home - it must be green and beautiful there too.
Friday we were hailed by fellow Pineridge neighbors while eating lunch at Costco. They had heard on some AM
station that we could go home - some roads had been opened and then the Pineridge area had been opened. So
we picked up our cat at the kid's house and headed up Empire Grade. We were stopped again at Smith Grade and
got out of the truck to talk with the fire chief and other people. One lady recognized me from a fire
prevention meeting from a few years back, and then a friend who had bought a home through us stopped to say
hello. He had paced off 600 feet from his house on Quail Drive to the fire's edge. That's how close he
came.
Since Smith Grade was open, we drove through to Pine Flat and turned up Martin Road but could only get to the
edge of the fire area. By this time our cat was complaining non-stop about having to pee in her cat carrier,
so we had to park on Martin for a while to let her out, drain the carrier, recapture her and wipe off her
paws as best we could. That was enough stress on all of us for the day, so we headed into the sunset for the
coast road and town. You can imagine our surprise, when after 6:00 pm we called a Cal Fire number and got a
live person who told us the evacuation of Pineridge was over. The surprise was the live person, in case you
were confused.
So back in the car with the cat and up the hill one more time. Finding Santa Cruz Sentinels for Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday in our box at the top of the drive, we were starting to wonder who exactly was not
allowed into our neighborhood, and it was seeming to be just us residents.
Our house had been prepped - that may be the word - by some unknown fire personnel. Hoses were stretched out
in various directions and the valves turned on (and we have hoses at every corner of our house). Coming
through the carport, I found all our pool chemicals and equipment had been moved to the far edge of the pool
apron. Our Spa cover had been removed and folded and shoved up our barbeque flue. We have a pretty large
brick outdoor fireplace with a brick chimney, but if someone had suggested I put my Spa cover into that space
I would have thought them mad. But there you have it. Lastly, we found all our patio furniture and cushions
in one large heap as far from the house as possible on our brick patio. All in all, it made sense. Even the
Spa cover, as it would likely burn, was well placed to funnel all the noxious gases up the chimney and into
the blue sky.
And the sky was blue, a beautiful blue, and the pool water looked inviting, and the redwoods and oaks were
all green and wonderful and bouncing in the light breeze, and the bricks were red, and our house was still
there, and our view over the trees and ocean was still there, and we hugged each other with a big WOW! - How
could we live anywhere but here? Champagne and pizza!
Friday night and Saturday morning were filled with calling family and friends and getting caught up with
three days of the Sentinel. I am so proud to know all of you who worked on the fire. Doug Stewart whom I
don't know, but there was Steve Sohl and Buel Proffit and others. Steve! Wow! Saved your dad's house! Is
Bonny Doon a great place or what!?
It is now Saturday morning and we are hearing chain saws and helicopters still fighting the fire about 3/4 of
a mile away.