Abstract
0 n Sunday, August 14, at 3:57 P.~1., Pam Burgett phoned in a fire on Hwy 41. She and her husband own Richies Market & Grill which is less than a mile from my house on Frog Pond Mountain. John and l smelled the fire shortly thereafter. Spotting it was a simple matter of walking to the cactus garden and looking out over the valley. We could see that it was close and we knew we were in peril, how much, only time would tell.
I dialed 911 and the operator said the blaze had been reported. As I replaced the hand set into the cradle the phone rang. Ir was Forrest, with some information about the up and coming CCAS Bird Mart, October 9th, in Templeton. I told him there was a fire near me and we talked for a moment or two before saying good-by. The next thing I knew, he was pulling up to my gate with buckets, burlap bags, water and moral support. Forrest was a fireman for many years, and he checked out our property for problem areas. We were discussing the possibility of evacuation when Debi
arrived. David came back,
as he had worked that day
and we all stood around
watching and surmising.
As we spoke the fire was
growing enormously.
Finally the airtankers showed up, (later we were told that they had to come all the way from Lancaster so we understood the time lapse). The afternoon winds that whip through these canyons were a terrible hindrance to the planes dropping fire retardant. They were a hellish aid to the inferno. About sundown, everybody left with a "Call if you need me."
John went to work Monday morning but headed for home when I told him, Tm watching the flames from our living room windows." The only one I callee! was Forrest. That was about 10 A.i\1. as I saw the flames top a nearby ridge. By noon my driveway was filled with the cars of people who decided to find out why I wasn't answering my phone. I was still in denial, hoping against hope that the inevitable would be unnecessary and I would be spared the horror of evacuating my birds. I put that decision off as long as I safely could. I was already overwhelmed by everyone's response to my emergency.
We evacuated the African birds whose compound was closest to the path of the fire and then we waited to see what would happen. By mid afternoon it became apparent that the South American birds would also have to be caught up. I was resigned to putting them into pillow cases when I ran out of carriers but just
then Dorine drove up with a car full of crates. She went back for a load of cages but CDF refused her reentry past the Zoo. (Later I was told there was a veritable log jam of people trying to get to me who had been turned back and mer up with each other at the Zoo.)
Norma Johnson was the last person to get to my house that Monday. They probably let her through because she was driving her "Student Driver" car. She came straight from work, dressed in a skirt and a white blouse. She said, "l can catch birds," and so she did, along with Debi, David and myself. I don't know about the rest of the "catchers," but I got so many bites and wire scratches that my hands and arms hurt for clays. David's whole family came and they were kept busy just carrying birds up to the garage. Pat, David's Dael, made a food run in the late afternoon. We were all starving and running on "fumes."
Once the birds were caught I asked most folks to go home. My heart was heating so hard, I wondered what would happen if I had a
heart attack? No time for that now 11
I had four pair of birds who were sitting eggs and I waited until the last moment to pull them. My neighbors, Stu and Maria showed up with an empty flatbed trailer for whatever I needed it for. They helped to load cages and then they followed me around as I dealt with the last four pair of breeder birds. At nine-thirty at night I shined a light in their eyes, stole their
eggs and then proceeded to catch them, which often meant pulling them through the inspection door by their heads. I felt so terrible to betray their privacy like that. l kept apologizing. My neighbors, who were holding eggs, one newly hatched baby and carriers, must have thought I was nuts.
Our power went out Monday afternoon, leaving us with no water. We had planned to stay in the house because of its stucco and tile roof construction. Of course, that's when I was planning on having the fire get to us in the clay light with plenty of Bomber support. "Funny how the best laid plans ... " J thought to myself as I loaded 82 Parrots and 14 eggs into my little Subaru. As l drove down our road 1 saw the hillside in front of me burning and two thirds of Frog Pond Mountain either in flames or charred. The fire was very close to my home and the homes of my neighbors. I wondered how we would come out of this and I prayed with all my heart. "Not my will but THY will be done, in a perfect way. We've done all we can do. now I must let go leave it to GOD. Truly. this is out of my hands .' ,
I didn't want to leave john's side but since I had all the baby birds with me. my first priority was to get them to a safe place where there was electricity. It was 11:30 P.M. and I stopped long enough to make a call to Lorna; "I'm on my way." I knew I had some hungry babies and all of the adults in carri-
ers needed to have water and food too. Lorna was waiting for me and we went to work immediately. Several times the phone rang and each time my heart would stop, waiting for word from John. Finally it was him and he was jubilant. The power had come back on and he was back in the house. He said, "I'm going to fight this fire and I'm going to beat it."
I believed him and wanted to help but CDF had other ideas. By the time I came over the Chicago Grade, it looked like the whole world was on fire.