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When All Hell Breaks Loose
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Intense heat melted the 2” pipes on this fence.
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None of us could have imagined in our wildest nightmare the events that
started on October 26th. I was awakened by my sweetheart at about 4:15 in the
morning. She said, “Mike you've got to come in here, and look at this. You won't
believe it!” Begrudgingly I went into the other bedroom and could not believe my
eyes. On the other side of the valley there was a wall of fire as far as I
could see in both directions. Just one bright red line that went on for miles.
It didn't seem like something to panic over, as it was more than two miles away
as the crow flies and on the other side of a fire break, a dry riverbed, and
a paved road.
I had to go outside and look around. I got in my car and drove to a couple of
viewpoints to see if the fire was close and to see if it had crossed the
valley. There were dozens of people driving and walking around the neighborhood in
the dark and smoke. In the valley below, the two-lane road looked like the
interstate during rush hour traffic jam. At 4:30 in the morning, this was a bad
sign no doubt. I went down to the valley to see if I could help evacuate the
livestock for the people that had horses there.
When I got home I found that I had to start helping myself. I hooked up my
trailer and started loading my livestock. I made two trips from my house to
Imperial Beach-about a twenty-five minute drive each way. During all of this,
I had two friends call me to see if they could help. I had waved them off,
thinking that I was in pretty good shape and that I was just evacuating as a
precaution. One was very persistent and called several times and then told me,
“
I'm coming out just in case.” The other didn't even bother to ask; he just
showed up.
When I got home from the second trip all hell had broken loose. The fire had
crossed the valley and was coming down
the mountainside and had actually made it into my back yard. When I got out
of the truck and went around back of my house, horses were running wild and
strangers were all over trying to catch them. Fire was burning everywhere-down my
fences and my trees. Flames were shooting up over the roof of my house thirty
feet into the air. It was total chaos! My friend who had came to our place on
his own was trying to beat down the fire near my house. The sheriff told him
to leave and he did. Then he ran around the corner of the house and went back
to work. The sheriff came back and told him to leave or be handcuffed. He left.
My other friend, who was so persistent, showed up shortly after him and took
over the fight and was successful. Thank God for friends like this. All of the
livestock was rounded up and evacuated. This time it was mandatory. Total
strangers just drove up and started moving animals. Once they were gone the fight
was on. There had to be twenty people with shovels, hoses, buckets, and
rakes. I only knew two of them. They fought for hours under the most smoky and
windy conditions imaginable. Total strangers just trying to help. Once the flames
had been extinguished, I never saw them
again. WOW!
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Mike McConnell is the principle estimator for A -1 All American Roofing Co., a full service roofing company. A- 1 All American Roofing provides services to building owners and individual homeowners through its residential division.
(858) 581-5177 • e-mail: mmcconnell1@sbcglobal.net |
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