Twitter spreads wildfire information like, well, wildfire

Amazingly, this home didn't burn.

I don’t know when, how, or why it started but I strongly suspect that somewhere in my distant lineage must be the caveman who discovered fire. Either that, or someone slipped some Hedylidae DNA into my Cheerios. What I’m getting at is that when it comes to fire I’m like a moth to flame. It’s not that I enjoy starting or playing with fire, but rather I seem to have some sort of sixth sense about it. If I see a plume of smoke 20 miles away I can usually tell if it’s a farmer burning his fields, a house fire, or even a wildfire. In fact, it’s not uncommon for me to be on the scene before the fire department arrives.

Experience has taught me to recognize the different colors of smoke, the different odors, and even how the smoke plumes. A home fire smells like a caustic combination of burnt rubber, plastic, and chemicals. A fire prescribed agricultural or forest burn can put up a lot of smoke, but there is still a sense of order to the chaos. Now a wildfire, that’s something different altogether. The billowing plumes from an out of control wildfire are virtually indescribable. Pictures don’t even do it justice. It’s something you have to see with your own eyes and, in my case, as closely as possible.

Our community is experiencing a wildfire right now as I type. The worst of it is hopefully over but strong winds are forecast for tomorrow, so things can change quickly. Yesterday afternoon I looked across the valley and saw the telltale sign of a wildfire. When I first saw it it was still behind a couple of ridges and I knew there would be no point in trying to get any closer to see it. But as the afternoon progressed it really started to move. Fast. And it was headed straight for the community built on the hillside on the other side of the valley. So naturally, I got two sets of binoculars, a camera, threw the boys into the truck and headed towards the fire. My wife no longer bothers to question where or why I’m going. If she smells the smoke she knows I’ll be chasing it.

The view from my home, 10 miles away

Now let me make clear, I enjoy being up close, but I am not someone who will get in the way of the emergency workers. At one point I actually had a job where one of my duties was to chase fires (I know, someone paid me for that?!). Over time I came to recognize and know many of the firefighters in my area, so with my very official looking (but not actually relevant) ID badge I was able to cross many fire lines and get up quite close to the action.

When the boys and I left our home it was mid-afternoon and the sun was still shining brightly. But as we got closer it became darker and darker to the point that my sons thought that nighttime must be coming. If I’d of thought of it, I would have told them to lay down in the truck and go to sleep. But I wanted them to see this. We parked ourselves at the base of the mountain and watched as the glow from the other side became brighter and brighter. Everyone watching (and their were thousands of us) were waiting to see if it was going to crest the mountain and come down the other side. Well, it did. And then things started happening really fast. The voluntary evacuation of homes was now mandatory and there was madness on the streets. We kept changing our position to stay away from where the police were ordering everyone out, but every now and then I would take a wrong turn. The normally empty streets of this residential neighborhood were now jammed with trucks, cars, trailers, horses, motorcycles, and ATVs. It was complete gridlock. By taking this and that side street we finally ended up in spot that seemed clear of emergency vehicles but still gave us a good view of the fire as it raced down the mountain toward us.

We were parked beside a large property that sat right on the edge of the foliage. The homeowners were loading up what they could and were just about to race away. By this time my boys were acting like scared little girls. Partially because they were worried about the fire, but mainly because they’ve known their dad to occasionally do crazy/stupid things. I got out to try to snap a couple of pictures, but the smoke and ash were so thick that I literally couldn’t breathe. I could see the wall of flame headed toward us. I positioned the car so it was pointing in the right direction. And from 100 yards away we saw the entire landscape erupt into red hot embers. I hit the gas, and as I looked in the rear view mirror I could see the flames start to engulf the home we had been watching.

The home we watch catch on fire

Well, we actually made it down to safety quite quickly because the masses had already left. The kids were now up well past their bedtime, I hadn’t fed them dinner before we left, and we all smelled like we’d been camping for a week. As we pulled into the convenience store I glanced at the boys and saw that parts of their faces were covered with soot. Maybe we were a little too close.

I got home and sent the kids to bed, and then went on the Internet and found a couple of the emergency scanner frequencies used by fire and police. More than 1500 homes had been evacuated. The original emergency shelter had to be moved from the junior high to the high school because it was now in the path of the firestorm.

Twitter was amazing. I tweeted to friends who lived near the fire, I read the tweets put out by the media, and I tweeted my own updates from the information I heard on the scanners. When I went to bed at 2 a.m. four houses had burned, but I figured it could easily be over 100 by the time I woke up.

Luckily however, when we all woke then next morning the media was reporting that only 4 homes had burned. It was still dark, so I knew the numbers would probably shoot higher. But as the day went on the numbers actually decreased by one. One of the homes they had counted was really only an outbuilding, so now the number was three. And me and the boys watched the first one start from just couple hundred yards away. The last update I saw was that even though only three homes were burned to the ground, over 400 received what they called serious damage.

It was a fun night. It certainly qualified as a dadventure. And my boys who are normally not morning persons, jumped out of bed (still smelling like campfire) and rushed to mom to tell them of their great adventure and how cool it was. It was one of those events we’ll all remember for the rest of our lives.

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