34 days ago  10 comments

Through the Fire

Geez, I've missed this place! I'm sure those of you in SoCal have seen all the fire coverage on the news. I awoke Monday morning at about 5:15 a.m. to DaddyMartini asking me where the camera was because he wanted to take pictures of the "red sunrise." A few minutes later he came running in to inform that the hills our house is situated between were on fire. We were fortunate to have enough time to get dressed, pack important papers, photos, and a change of clothes for each of us when we heard the order for mandatory evacuation over a loud speaker. I kid you not, within 15 minutes we were surrounded by thick black smoke and falling ashes; we could feel the heat from the fire. We loaded the kids and our dog into the car, helped my dad get my wheelchair-bound mom into his car (more on that situation in a future post ~ also why I haven't been too active around here lately), looked back at our house for what very well could've been the last time, and made our way down the hill to the safety of my best friend, Lily's, house.

We spent the better part of the day glued to the TV watching the Marek fire (ours) and the Sesnon/Porter Ranch fire (the one threatening GirlMartini's school and the homes of several of our friends). Around 8 that evening, the flames around our house were out and we were allowed to return home. The wind had blown away the majority of the smoke, the sky was clear, and with the exception of a small red glow at the top of a hill in the distance, it looked like we were out of danger. We put the kids down for the night, helped get my mom settled, and decided to check on our good friends who live about 2 miles away and had also been evacuated.

We stayed a their house for about an hour and a half, has a vodka tonic to celebrate that both our homes were still standing, then headed home. That's when the real fun started. Lily called my cell to ask if we were ok and when I asked why, she said the hills behind our house were burning again. Now the friends we were visiting live about 10 minutes away from us, maybe less, so we weren't far away amd we weren't worried. Yet. We started to worry (ok, I was at a full-blown panic) when we saw that police officers had blocked every possible street that leads to our neighborhood.

We started a half a mile before our house and tried every street for about 5 miles and not one officer would let us through. We drove as far as the mountain pass that takes you out of the San Fernando Valley and into the Santa Clarita Valley. No luck. They weren't phased when I told them we had our kid's carseats in the back of our car and that my dad would have to evacuate our kids, my disabled mom, and our dog all by himself. They offered to send a unit to 'bust down the door and drive them down the hill,' but that seemed a little premature to me. A mandatory evacuation had not yet been ordered and all I wanted to do was drive up, CALMLY load everyone in the car and go back to Lily's. The kids were traumatized enough by our hasty early morning departure, and needed so much reassurance to go to sleep that night, that I didn't want to exacerbate their fear by having the door knocked in only to be carried out by strangers and thrown into a patrol car. Don't get me wrong, if they were in imminent danger I wouldv'e been grateful for the offer, but given the situation, I didn't think I was being unreasonable in my request to do it myself. Finally, DaddyMartini said we would have to park the car and walk home.

We parked on a dead-end street (hence, no officers diverting traffic to stop us) and set off on foot for the 3-4 mile walk. We walked across a bridge over the deserted freeway, and continued down a dark, unlit residential street. The smoke grew thicker the closer we got to the fire, so we tied our jackets around our heads to cover our mouths and noses. Our eyes were stinging, our chests were burning, and my heart was aching as we walked and watched helplessly as the flames stretched further and further down the hill. I remembered the countless times I made my children the same promise my parents made to me as a child: 'If there is ever an emergency and you are in danger I will always come for you. If I can't drive, I will walk, but I promise I'll get there.' I couldn't believe it was happening. Tears stung my eyes and DaddyMartini squeezed my hand tighter as we continued in silence up the hill, surrounded by dark smoke.

It took about an hour for us to make it home, but we did. When we arrived, our sweet little monkeys were snuggled safely in their beds, where thankfully they remained for the rest of the night. The fire was, once again, contained and we were ,once again, safe. Nonetheless DaddyMartini and I still stayed up keeping vigil over our family, ready to evacuate at a moment's notice.

By mid-Tuesday morning the fire was 80% contained. My parents watched a movie with the kids so that DaddyMartini and could take a much-needed nap. We spent the remainder of the day returning pictures, papers, laptops, and everyone's respective irreplaceable items to their rightful place. They teased me for taking my make-up and wedding dress; I teased my dad for packing his Bruno Magli dress-shoes and Tommy Bahama shirts. We teased my brother for packing the chili beans I'd made the day before, and DaddyMartini for leaving the bills behind. We laughed about having to take my mom's commode. We talked, and we laughed, and we reflected on what we'd just been through.

It's been a rough year for our family, as it has been for many others. We've been through a lot; my mom's injury, the effects of the economic decline on DaddyMartini's business, his father's illness and subsequent move to a convalescent home; I could go on. It's really challenging being a parent in the sandwich generation; it has broken up plenty of marriages and caused irrepairable damage to countless parent-child relationships. What it comes down to is that I am so grateful that, once again, we made it through the fire. This time literally.