This was the garage when we had just finished it.
This was the view from the grade road when it was still on the other-side of santiago.
This was the view from the park when we thought it was all over.
This picture was sent to me before I even knew what was going on. Bruce Chambers (OC Register)
Side shot of the garage. Fire was hot. Explains why the engine block of my motorcycle was melted to the frame. Bruce Chambers (OC Register)
When I said they saved our house, I meant it.
This was one of our gardens and playgrounds for the kids
The one thing I forgot in the garage.
It was just like any other Sunday. We had a great weekend, and were getting ready for Monday. We had gotten word there was a fire north west of us. I thought it would be good for Lily who is now 3 to go up on the grade road and see a fire for her first time. I spent a good hour with her looking at the fire and trying to explain exactly what it was. Quite frankly I had trouble. Here was this orange thing, moving through the hills - slowly but surely. How do you explain what fire is to a three year old? I went to bed trying to understand myself exactly what this thing was.
I woke up Monday with a sense of calm. The fires were on the north west side of Santiago Canyon road when we left that night. I had some breakfast and walked down to my office to start work. It was another day in paradise. Blue sky, birds, and the smell of our gardens. The kids were excited as always to go outside and run around with mom.
The winds from the east were starting to come in stronger. I figured it was the Santa Ana's, its a normal thing. Mondays are usually a busy day for me as clients start calling in. However, I started to receive a couple of calls from concerned friends from Dana Point to Costa Mesa. While it was blue skies here it was raining ash and smoke in all of the rest of Orange County. It was the calm before a storm.
At about 10AM I drove up the grade road to see the fire had advanced south. I then drove down the grade road and got the wife and kids and the dogs loaded into the car. We went to Mustard Cafe in Portola and got some lunch. As we were eating lunch it was apparent that the fire had moved south west into Whiting Ranch. We jumped in the car and went home to see how it was on the east side of portola hills. When we got home I felt it was unsafe for the wife and kids and sent them to Shannon's mom's house. As Shannon left she said make sure you get the photo albums. I got my classic car out of the garage and that would be the car I would leave in. I ran from room to room snapping as many pictures as I could. As I jumped in the car, I turned around and took a look at the property, something just didn't feel right. Oh yeah.. Picture albums. I ran down and got all the picture albums and loaded them up in the car. At this time I was torn, I wanted to get everything I loved to a safe place and I couldn't. I couldn't take our home, I couldn't take our gardens, I couldn't take all the oak trees that are 10 of times older then me. It made me sick.
I then proceeded to drive up the grade hill to get a view of how the fire was progressing. It was quite clear, regardless of the winds blowing east at 30-70MPH, the fire was moving west. How could a fire move in the opposite direction of winds like this?
We continued to sit up at the top of grade road with our cars pointing down the hill. It was weird to see people that don't live in the canyon sitting up there like it was a party. For them if it jumped the road, it meant moving to a better spot to get a view. For the few people that lived in the Canyon, it was the only thing separating our homes from a fire we knew would be bad.
I thought we were in luck, the fire was moving south and staying west of the road. Then all of a sudden it went into a canyon and flared up like the sun. At this point everyone jumped in their car and headed down the grade road. The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck in the canyon without a exit. I had two choices at this point. I could either go to my house and fight the fire, or leave. I choose to leave, sadly. At this point, even though the fire flared up I was optimistic that the fire would stay on the other side of the road. I went to my friend Darrin's to stay the night.
I received a call at 10 AM the next morning that Modjeska Canyon went under mandatory evacuation shortly after I had left. Furthermore, I had been told the fire had crossed santiago canyon road.
The next call was my Dad, he had lost his Mom. It was my last living grandparent. I can't handle this. Dad left to Chicago.
I arrived at a park with a street named Modjeska View next to it. When this street was named, I am positive this was not what they intended us to be viewing. OUR CANYON WAS FULLY ENGULFED IN FLAMES AND SMOKE. I had just arrived at a park that is usually filled with kids playing and laughing. Instead, I had arrived with 30-40 residents of Modjeska Canyon. Many of which are family to me. I sit here struggling to to find the words for what I felt and what everyone else was feeling. Based on the view from the park our Canyon was gone. Besides the flames and silver smoke, big puffs of black smoke would poof up every 5 minutes. It was like big matches going off. I was devastated as everyone around me was. We all sat on the side of the curb behind the fire breaks of portola hills with our heads between our legs, crying.
These curbs were all we had, we had no where to go. My wife arrived at this point, and when she saw what we had been watching for the last hour, she was right their with us on the curb. As I sat their watching big black puffs of smoke every 5 minutes and hearing about the next house that had just burned, I could no longer take it. I had to leave this terrible scene.
We then gathered about 10 close friends and neighbors and went to Portfola to try and get to the news. We sat glued to the TV. It was hard to see what was what. Even in a clear day you cant see most of our houses from a helicopter. So we just sat around, waiting and waiting to hear. We were all in shock at this point, unable to speak or listen coherently.
I get a SMS on my phone. It was my friend sending me a picture that he had saw at the OC Register home page. It was my garage. This was not an ordinary garage, this was the garage where we had my daughters first, second and third birthday in. My sons 1st birthday. This was the garage we would open up on all ends and watch the birds play in the trees. It was special to my family, myself and everyone who ever had a chance to create memories in it, and there it was on fire.
This was my first bit of knowledge of what might be happening on the ground. I asked my friend where he found the picture and if he knew anything more. He said, the picture was on OC Register's home page and the caption read "Garage lost, but car saved." I could not believe what I had heard. These people at the register were on my property taking pictures and this is all they could say? What about the house? I couldn't get any more answers. All I could do at that point was stair at my little cell phone screen wondering what had happened to everything else. My assumption unfortunately did not change about how bad things were. If anything, it just confirmed them more. Shortly after i start to get reports that My house is okay.
As night time fell Ben, Nick Melville and I felt we need to get some answers. We had to see what was going on. We drove to the road block and convinced the CHP to let us get to our houses, I wanted to get water on it if it was still up. He said go ahead, but be careful. We proceeded down santiago canyon towards the grade road. I didn't quite realize what I was getting into. As I drive we almost hit a telephone pole that had burned and is now leaning into the street. I swerved around that and made it to the grade road and proceeded up. I look to the left the chateau is gone. Go further up and the dome house is gone. We then start going down the grade road into the canyon. We can no longer go any further as their is fire trucks everywhere blocking the road. We didnt want to get in the way. We park the truck in a safe spot, and start to walk down the grade road. There are parts of the grade road when you look to the right that gives you an entire view of the canyon and mountains surrounding it. The scene I had witnessed at this point was completely unbelievable. There had to be 100 fire trucks scattered around the canyon. Both canyon walls were fully engulfed. We could see the fireman setting back fires that would start blazing up the hillside immediately. There was a war going on in front of our face and from the untrained eye it looked like they were loosing. At this point the variance from what I have been able to verify with my own eyes and what I had imagined and heard at the park that afternoon were being confirmed. At this point I continue to be in shock and really don't know where to go. At this point Shannon had gone home with the kids, and I was trying to see if the last thing that I loved might still be there, my home. I still did not have any answers.
I went to stay at my friends Darrin's house again. I couldn't sleep. I felt like a part of me had died. It was hard for me to get out of bed the next morning. I get a call first thing from Ben and he wanted to attempt to get all the way down the hill and see if we could get some answers and belongings.
We get to the Portola check point and CHP did not let us go through. We all then sat on the curb wondering what we are going to do. Then a man drove up in a classic VW bug. He is a volunteer on the department. He said he could take 3 of us in to get some belongings if our houses were still there. We jumped in the VW and proceeded up the hill. I was able to catch a few minutes of the stories that he had went through over the last few days. Hopefully at some point you will here these.
We drove up the grade road the same way we did the night before, 3 houses were destroyed. I braced myself. We headed down the grade road and turn right. Anyone that knows this area knows that after the hard right their is a full view of the canyon below to the left. I looked... The trees were there, the houses were there. It was unbelievable then, and it's unbelievable now.
We drove into the canyon a bit further and only saw a handful of other homes lost. It was terrible we had some loss, but the canyon as a whole was still there. The trees that take hundreds of years to grow were there. As I said, It was unbelievable.
I drove up to my property and got out, and sure enough the garage was gone. The children's playground was gone, our lower and upper terrace gardens were gone, but our house was still there!!! I ran inside and grabbed a bunch of clothes and through them into my a bag. I needed to get some things out of my office so I ran outside and started to go down stairs and stopped! I was stunned with what I had saw. The fire had gone all the way up the stairs and stopped two feet at the house. I couldn't believe my eyes.
I hurried around the other way and grabbed my stuff and was escorted out of the Canyon. When we got back to the checkpoint a news crew from CNN was sitting there. As we jumped out of the car, we were asked what we had saw. They tried to pull doom and gloom out of us. But all I could say was "They saved my house, these volunteers don't even get paid and they risked their life and saved our house.". All the firefighters from all the companies are heros in my book, the volunteer department is just people you know. You know what they go through to try and help (with funding, etc).
After this, I was in great spirits. The trees were in place, we had a home to go back to. We stayed in Irvine at a hotel until we could get back in. It was hard for Shannon because her expectations of what happened were inline with mine from the day we watched the canyon from the park. I continued to try and reassure her that everything was great.
Over the next couple of days, all I could think about is how it might have felt for the people who had lost their homes, I also couldn't stop thinking about what we as a community had been dealing with for a week or so. It was all so overwhelming. My mom and dad came down and went to the annual halloween party with us.
As we are walking down the canyon road my mom asked if the trunk that she had made me with all my childhood memories was in the garage. My heart had dropped like I have never felt. The look on my Mom's face I will never forget. I was completely devastated, and still am. I can't believe I forgot about it.
There are certain events in a person's life that change them, this has been one of them for our family and I. We had that big garage surrounded with stuff, stuff we didn't need. Stuff that got in my way of seeing what is important. I only needed one thing in that entire garage, and I forgot it. I found the rings that were once the picture albums, and the trunk latch that held it all together yesterday in the ash. All I could think about is how my Mom feels. I feel terribly guilty about it, I always will.
Shannon and I have been emptying our house and getting rid of everything we don't need. Much like the fire did when it burned through these hills and our property, getting back to the core so we can start to grow again.
The plant drive we are putting together at http://www.plantmodjeska.org is a small token of our appreciation for the community and firefighters.
Thank you everyone for your support and hard work during this time.
November 4th, 2007
The kids came home today for the first time in two weeks (except for the party at the fire station). Lily looked confused. We had told her that the garage would be gone. My Mom tried to make it positive and told her that she can ride her bike around on the slab. Sounds good to me.
They were both so excited to be home! North can now say Mom and Dad perfectly. That is all he said. He pointed at all the trees, and landmarks that he spends most of his time around. These kids really live here. They don't leave much and they were excited as I was.
Lily started to run around and look for flowers to pick. Most of our plants are in bad shape. She ran around and gathered flowers, she loves to do this. She also just wanted to help, she could tell we were really busy and had a lot of work had to be done. Jokingly, I told her that she could go rebuild the garage. She actually started to walk up towards it as if she was going to do it. She then turned around and said, I might need some help. We all had a big laugh.
Fall is in effect. It as if the trees know they have to get all the charred residue off their leaves.
I learned today that oak trees actually have burn marks as part of their growth cycle. When they come down you can actually view the rings and see if they have burnt before.
It was weird at Home Depot. I saw two neighbors looking for a better chain saw. One that would cut the trunk of large trees. I was there for the same reason. We both were very depressed about having to do this. It will be interesting to look at the rings of these large oaks when we have to cut them down. Have they made it through a fire like this before? They currently sit wrapped with tape that has a picture of a skull and cross bones and the words "killer tree" on it. These trees that sit in the yard that were so beautiful now risk falling on someone because of fire damage.
It seems so ironic to me. I have no choice but to cut them down, the risk is too great.
There are a couple trees I am going to let fall themselves. If they fall, they will fall away from where anything will be. The other trees have to go. It's not going to be easy doing it both physically and mentally. There is so much wood.
We have found two rattle snakes and all kind of wildlife scurrying for brush. A mountain lion was spotted on the grade road. Most likely confused, no smells, no land marks, just trying to get a grip of what happened.
The kids are with their grandparents, it's still too dangerous for them. We need to get the trees down, and wait for the wildlife to settle down. I also need to get our dogs back home so they can start to run animals out.
November 5th, 2007
Today was interesting, I feel like I am moving in reverse. I work on things that I had finished just weeks ago and find myself doing them again.
Having no tools around to do work is pretty frustrating, I have made so many trips to Home Depot. I am now doing my normal work and trying to catch up. It's going to take years to get this place back to where it was. A lot of people have lived here for 20 years and are totally integrated into their property. I cant imagine how they are handling things.
The OC Register called today, I guess they want to do a write up in the paper about what is going on after the fires, they are coming over tomorrow for the interview. Hopefully they will mention the plant drive.
Shannon and I and saw the kids who are staying at still at Nana and Papa's house. They are doing well, but we miss them so much. We also saw the dogs, they have gotten bigger. I am sure they are excited to get home. I know Shannon's parents are excited to get them back because they keep eating things in their yard. Happy Birthday Nana.
The air quality is still bad, I would love to go mountain bike riding soon.
Tomorrow is a meeting about what we are going to do about the mud slides. This is a big concern for myself and the residents. I am going to just listen. A month ago we were praying for heavy rains, now we hope it sprinkles.
It's nice spending time with Shannon, she is some woman. Its our anniversery on the 17th and it turns out that is the day of the plant drive! I am hoping this will be a great day for everoyne.
A lady came up and asked if we could help move some stuff, so we walked down to her house. We thought it was related to the fires but it turns out they are moving out. I don't think they can handle the stress this land brings.
More moving in reverse tomorrow. Need to get moving forward, onward and upward. Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow a vision of hope, look to this day - for it is life.