Fire in our backyard!!!

Friday, June 29, 2012 started out as a pretty normal day.  I had been doing some cleaning and was just trying to get things done around the house.  Cora and I ended up taking a very late shower (around 3pm).  I had gotten out of the shower and got dressed when my cell phone started ringing.  It was my friend Megan, she said, "Is your backyard on fire?"  I look out and sure enough I see smoke coming from the top of the mountain.....I ask Megan if she called 911.....she said "No, I called you".  I immediately called 911...They said they were aware of the fire....I ran next door to the Browns...They had no idea there was a fire (I also would have had no idea if it was not for Megan)  During this time my mom, sister, two brothers, and one girlfriend were also aware of the fire and were racing up to my house.  This is so important because they block the roads off quickly so if you do not beat the road closures then you can not get up here. 
     Of course Skip is at work.  A few of my neighbors started running over to my house (thank the stars) to help because my side of the street is going to get hit first.  My neighbor Bob was truly a heaven sent.  He started turning on my sprinklers, hoses, etc. He was unlocking both of my fences and getting my house completely ready.
     My family then showed up....My brothers girlfriend Meghan took Cora and Jace, Casen apparently thought he was old enough to stay, and headed out.  The rest of us began grabbing things and literally throwing them in the car.  Every time we looked our our back windows the fire was worse.  Here are some pictures of what we were looking at.

It was coming so fast.  We sent my van and my moms car, completely packed with random stuff, out of the neighborhood.  Because their was no room for passengers in these cars my brother Brady and myself were going to ride bikes out.  We were also going to stay for a little bit and see if the fire actually hit the house (the worst part of a mandatory evac is that you have no clue on if your house is still there or what is going on).  We were brave.  Our plan all ended when the police literally ran into my house (without knocking or anything) and were yelling at us to get out. So we went to grab the bikes...Of course my bike had a flat tire so a police officer/ Friend gave me a ride out of the neighborhood.

     By this time Skip had left work and was heading our direction.  He met us down at the pond where we tried to watch the fire/ fire fighting.  We were hoping that our house was going to make it.  We stayed down there for a couple of hours talked to some neighbors and heard rumors that our houses were still there but with damage.

Saturday, June 30th
     By this time we knew our house was still there but it was a very very close call.  We knew this from talking to a police officer and our neighbor Bob.  The neighborhood was still under mandatory evacuation but we decided to go to the command central and plead our case about going up to our house with a police escort.  We were eventually escorted up to our house....where we grabbed a few things and then was escorted back out of the evacuation area.  This is what we saw when we went up to the house for a few minutes.....Our house was still there but our scenery had definitely changed.

upper deck

lower deck

It was not until 6pm that they lifted the mandatory evacuation and allowed us into the neighborhood.  We did not have power however so we were not planning on staying there.....

In the end we felt very lucky that our house was still there.  Our side of the street had damage to homes and landscaping, ours included, but the important thing was that we all still have homes.  We can not thank Bob, the fire dept, police dept, red cross, and many many more for all they did.  Here is a video that shows a lot of the fire and fire fighting efforts.  I still get chills when I watch it.

Herriman Fire 2012 Video

We totally love where we live (good thing because 2 fires in 2 years is a little much).  We have such incredible neighbors and friends here.