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RE: California Fires!



I will back this one to the hilt. This date in 1996 we had a range fire
start just about this time a half mile from our place. (police man shooting
tracers!!!!) I was on it with in 20 minutes and dozers in a half hour. It
burned AWAY from us for a while and then the wind changed. Took several days
and lots of manpower to halt it at 15,000 acres.  All I can say is if the
BLM had not foamed our barn we would have lost it. We had cleaned it out but
the barn is handy to have. The horses all had fun by running through the
fire lines during a lull and stayed in the BLACK  for about five days. We
had to carry hay to them as they would not come near the barn.

Anyway, be prepared and be safe. The West is now on fire and the fire danger
is extreme in all areas>

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

-----Original Message-----
From:	JCMaretti@aol.com [mailto:JCMaretti@aol.com]
Sent:	Friday, August 27, 1999 1:03 PM
To:	ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject:	RC:  California Fires!

 California Wildfires Out of Control - What you need to know!

	In case you haven't noticed, California is on fire!  As a City of Chico
Firefighter, I feel very comfortable going to fires at other people's
houses, but this week, contending with an out of control wildfire heading
directly for my house, different feelings crossed my mind.  The usual calm
confidence was replaced with the 3 A's: anxiety, anger and adrenaline.
	 Monday evening, August 21st, we experienced a beautiful lightning storm.
Unfortunately, it was "dry lightning" - not associated with any significant
rain.  In the morning, there were several small fires in Butte County.
After listening to my scanner and hearing the confident Incident Commander
inform his Dispatch Center, "We have this under control," I loaded up the
young horse into the trailer and headed out of town.  After all, there was
no sense in letting a day off go to waste.  While my primary horse, Kahlua,
is recuperating from her suspensory injury  (two weeks before Tevis), now is
the time to get Cathy's endurance prospect Beholdd out on the trail.   I met
a friend at Lake Oroville and we had a wonderful ride.  On the way back
home, while still 30 miles away, I noticed that the small column of smoke
near our house had grown - tremendously! Turning on my scanner in the truck
I learned that California Department of Forestry was working over a dozen
fires in the foothills.  The afternoon winds had picked up and most of these
small fires were joining together to create a huge fire front that was
headed right for our house.  The scanner was reporting that the before
mentioned confident Incident Commander was now  frantically ordering
additional resources and talking about mandatory evacuations!  Cathy was at
work, so I called her and told her to meet me at home.  When I arrived home
with the horse trailer, the smoke was heavy, but it seemed like the fire
would miss us to the south.  Just in case, we casually  loaded the truck
with photo albums, clothes, food and the fire safe previously filled with
important documents and computer back-ups.  Cathy suggested that we start
wrapping the horse's legs in case we actually had to leave.  Being a paid
professional ;-) I thought that it was unnecessary - we wouldn't really have
to leave - but decided to help her - just in case.  I got one leg wrapped on
Kahlua (her bad leg) when all hell broke loose.  The winds changed, the
noise sounded like a jet engine and about 100 yards away a pine tree
suddenly exploded into flames like a giant sparkler. On an ordinary working
day I would be sporting a huge grin -  Firefighters just love this stuff -
but not this time.  Cathy, who used to be a Volunteer Firefighter remained
calm.  In her quiet, confident voice, she was able to quickly catch our
other 2 horses.  They can sometimes be a little excitable and difficult to
catch.  Today, they luckily came right away.  I think that they wanted to
leave also.  As she was driving away, she saw numerous people walking horses
down the main road headed out of town.  The traffic was so congested that
she had a chance to talk with some. Most had friends meeting them at the
edge of town, but some didn't even own a trailer  Most people were panicky
and unprepared.
	I stayed behind to try and save our house.  Kids, don't try this at home.
I had my protective clothing with me and have years of training and
experience on my side.  Once you get the family, animals and photo albums
packed, it's time to leave.  No house, stereo, or big screen TV is worth
your life.  That's why you pay those annual insurance premiums.  The most
important things in life are not things.
	We saved our house.  Others didn't.  Some say we were lucky.  I say you
make your own luck.  The following is a list of things that made us "lucky":
Although we had a 50' clearance from our house to the forest, this spring,
we hired a bulldozer and pushed the manzanita back another 100'.  This gave
the Firefighters 150' of "defendable space".   Also, by having scanners at
home and in the truck, we have access to more timely and accurate
information than the media.  Cathy had left with the horses 20 minutes
before the Sheriff's Office came by to tell us about the mandatory
evacuation.  If we had waited for them, there wouldn't have been enough time
to escape with the horses.  We also keep a "tidy" yard - no pine needles
stacked up against the house.  Although I was busy sweeping the roof and
cleaning out the gutters in the few minutes that I had before the fire hit.
Another concern is electricity.  Power is often interrupted during a large
fire or other emergency.  If you depend on a well for your water source, you
might consider a generator. We have a 5kw 220v generator that can run most
of  the house - although it has a difficult time keeping the hot tub at our
preferred 106 degrees.  If you get a generator, have an electrician install
a transfer switch so that you can run it without "back-feeding" electricity
to the poor guy working on the power pole.  Another rule in our household
is: always keep the horse trailer hooked up to the truck and at least one
tank full of fuel.  We don't use the huge gas-guzzler for commuting anyway,
so this is not a problem.  We also pre-planned what we are going to take
with us if we only have a few minutes notice: our animals, the fire safe box
with birth certificates, marriage license and recently backed-up computer
hard disks; wedding and baby albums, and a little HO train that my late
father gave me.  With one credit card and a stop at Wal-Mart, we can buy
food and clothes to last us through any ordeal.  One more stop at the feed
store and we're set.  Another thing to consider is to pre-arrange a place to
bring you animals in case you have to evacuate.  This is something that we
had not done.  There were some frantic moments and curt conversations on the
cell phone on the way into town.  Remember, it doesn't do any good to have
an agreement with your next door neighbor if the whole county is on fire.
	This story has a happy ending.  Cathy and I are safe.  Our horses got to
run around in a large pasture with some of their old friends for a couple of
days while the smoke cleared.  Our house is still standing, although the
landscape is now more of a moonscape.  Now is the time to prepare.  Sooner
or later accidents happen.  Don't wait until it is too late.


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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



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