Thank you all for your phone calls, concern and offers of help. I am finally back on line and have been home since Monday afternoon. Coming home was a mixture of sadness when first seeing the destruction of all the burnt areas, the tragic loss of 8 homes (several that belonged to very close friends), and great joy at reuniting with everyone again in the canyon. We really missed each other, it was very strange being so far away from our neighbors, these folks we are used to waving to daily. I felt isolated and out of touch, not knowing the cell phone numbers of many friends. We are truly a community held together with long friendships and the bond that draws us all to live in this wonderful place. So many people have been so kind to us in providing housing and now in offering help with clean up. We hope our friends in Silverado Canyon will be able to return to their homes soon, its been 12 days now and it looks like several more days until they will be allowed home.
It is beyond amazing what these firefighters have done to save our homes. Our own brave volunteer firefighters worked day and night protecting our homes while professional firefighters from all over joined in to beat the flames. About a dozen homeowners did not evacuate when told and they helped firefighters by hosing down their homes and yards and putting out golf ball sized embers. Some actually helped save their homes that firefighters could not get to. Many folks have lost outbuildings, garages and lots of property damage but no lives were lost.
When the fire broke out and the first phone calls were coming about the canyon I had been in New Hampshire for the wedding of Janet(Wilson) and Frank Ehret. I missed the haunting repetition of the fire alarm at evacuation time, the deputies and firefighters pounding on doors in the middle of the night to get the residents out of the canyon. I missed the last look back my neighbors must have had of their houses as they had to leave, comforting pets and holding their few possessions and memories as they drove out to hotels or to knock on a relatives door at 3am. I came back Tuesday night knowing that Josh had rode his bike back into the canyon to protect my home after removing my boxed ‘in case of fire’ photos and paperwork to safety. I waited on the hill of a nearby community for him to come out not realizing that many of my neighbors had waited there earlier in the day some watching the flames consume some of their homes, others convinced that their homes had surely perished. When he didn’t come out I sensed that he was okay and that my house was too, I was right. He and the other homeowners who stayed were hosing roofs down and helping in any way they could and putting out embers in yards. The firefighters had their hands full with this raging fire and those winds. Our street and most of the center of the canyon were spared. The view out my window today is just as idyllic as ever. Sycamores, Oaks, amazing. If I look beyond, I see an entire charred landscape surrounding our community, as far as the eye can see the moonscape of charred hillsides is seen. It still burns up by Santiago Peak and further into the Cleveland National Forest. Aside from smoke damage, I am one of the lucky ones thanks to those firefighters flanking Olive Hill with rows of trucks on every street and Josh on the roof of my house below. The firefighters set backfires at the very top of our hill and the flames raced up to meet the racing flame headed towards our homes. They knew that once it came down the hill all those homes would be lost. I am so grateful to all those brave people!
I have some photos of the canyon after the fire and included some before and after photos of my morning walk up the hill above the park. It has always been a place of reflection and peace for me. Now I am seeing the birds return, quail scurrying around for a place to hide and in my eyes I already see the first bunchgrasses sprouting and the incredible wildflowers that will come alive this spring. I am so grateful to live here. Soon it won’t smell like smoke and it sure isn’t going to burn again for a long time.