An Unexpected Emergency Evacuation

One day when I was working on my teaching credential and still living at home in 2003 there was a giant fire called “The Old Fire” in the San Bernardino Mountains. My mother woke me up at around 8:00 on a Saturday in hysterics. I ran out of my room and looked across the mountain valley to see a giant plume of thick gray smoke going up into the sky. It seemed we were on a collision course with an emergency evacuation. At first, I thought it might of been a nuclear bomb, it was so pronounced.

My mom was insisting we start packing up and evacuating, gathering important items and preparing our pets for transport. I thought that might be an extreme measure as wildfires are not uncommon to the area. I drove up to the outer part of the mountain or “The Rim” and looked down the mountain. The fire was maybe a mile or two away being whipped up the mountain by dry Santa Ana winds of high velocity. It became clear it was time to go.

Evacuation Ordered

Shortly after I returned home, an official evacuation notice was announced on the news for our community. We began frantically loading up our cars. Luckily, I had a truck at that time and due to the semi-nomadic lifestyle I was living at the time, could fit just about all my belongings into it. The first things I packed up were my snowboards, then my ski equipment including jackets because it might be cold where we were going. Golf clubs and fishing equipment was next, then my regular clothes and mementos and of course my PlayStation 2.

Mom had already thought this through many times, she clearly had a plan in place for this moment. She had recently moved a lot of valuables such as pictures and family heirlooms to a storage unit down the mountain, specifically for this purpose. All she needed to pack up was the pets, clothes, and some valuables still in the house. Once the car was loaded, we left the mountain wondering if we would every see our home again in its current state.

The Fire Rages On

We spent the night about an hour away in the Mojave Desert area at a Motel 6. We were both pretty distraught eagerly listening to the news for any updates on the fire. It did not look good, we could tell the fire was getting closer and closer to our community. When the sun went down, to our horror, we say the fire spreading to the backside of the mountain. From where we were, we thought for sure the house had been in its path and we would likely have to start over upon the culmination of this natural disaster.

My father invited us to stay at his place despite my parents being divorced for a while already. So we went up to Kernville and setup shop there. We made the best of it, my dad and I going fishing and hiking almost every day. It was some of the best fishing I have ever had on the Kern River, which helped me put the fire out of my mind for a bit.

An Early Snow Saves Most of the Town

As more information came in about the town we lived it, it became clear that it had largely not been destroyed as we had feared….yet. Firefighters had been able to push it around the community, but it never got into the main town, although a neighboring community Cedar Park was not so lucky. The fire was still raging though, humidity was close to zero, high winds continued and we wondered how long we would be spared.

Then, out of nowhere, we went from 90+ degree fall temperatures to a major cooling trend that seemed a surprise to forecasters. It rained a little bit in Kernville, but actually snowed back home. This freak snowstorm gave firefighters the upper hand and helped them contain the fire and eventually get it out completely weeks later.

What I Learned About My Possessions

This taught me a major lesson on what was important in my life. My family, including fur-babies, and avian friends, were obviously most important. Mementos, pictures, irreplaceable items were next and then my sports equipment. I thought it was kind of amazing that we could just load up all our stuff in an hour and basically live somewhere else on a moments notice. It certainly gave me an appreciation for what refugees go through when they must evacuate their homes unexpectedly due to a natural disaster or political violence.

In a way, I was proud of us for living a simple life and not being hung up on a bunch of material things. I was reminded of a quote from one of my favorite films at the time “Fight Club”, where Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) tells Eduard Norton that:

“The Things You Own End Up Owning You.”

Tyler Durden (Fight Club)

Keeping ones life simple, is where true freedom lies.

Daily writing prompt

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

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Thanks for stopping by The Lifelong Learning and Education Blog! I hope you have a great day! Congratulations to all the graduates out there! We have our high school’s graduation tonight! Check out some of my other recent posts if you have a moment!

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