[DeTomaso] vacaville fires

[Mike Drew]



> On Aug 21, 2020, at 10:55, Jeff Detrich <jjdetrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>    Just checking to be sure you are safe. Seems like you are surrounded by
> fires again.

>>> Thanks Jeff!  Yes, it’s been an interesting time.

I was slated to fly to Maine then Germany on Wednesday night, enroute to Afghanistan. It was going to be a 24-hour day so I endeavored to shift my body clock to the right by staying up until the wee hours Tuesday night with the intent of sleeping until after noon Wednesday. 

I was aware there was a small fire burning in a remote canyon about a half hour drove north of me, and was utterly unconcerned. Around 1 am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I got a text from Lori’s son (who is an Oakland PD officer) that his wife (who is El Dorado County Sheriff, working in the Sierras near Lake Tahoe) had been alerted that they might be needed as the fire was growing.

Since I was looking for ways to keep entertained anyway, I decided to go for a drive up to the top of a range of hills near my house, heading initially north then west, with the idea that I could look down into the valley and look to the north and perhaps see something. I was shocked as I approached the hill to start to climb and could see the fire glow much closer than I expected!  As I started to climb the hill, in a narrow road with thick brush and vegetation on each side, I encountered a sheriff driving down the hill, stopping and alerting residents for the need to evacuate. So, I turned around!

At the bottom of the hill I turned north on English Hills road and entered that area, which has homes set on (typically) 5-acre properties. I drove in for a mile or so and saw flames.

Ah. 

Time to go home and start packing!

I zoomed home, then phoned several neighbors and alerted them. Both our Panteras were In the garage, but Lori had just left to visit her son and family in Riverside (southern california) so I was on my own. 

Ashes were already falling. This is Lori’s race Mustang at 230 am:





I made the executive decision that my Pantera would be my getaway car. We have psychologically prepared ourselves for eventualities such as earthquake and fire, and have a checklist taped to the garage door listing all the items we need to grab to escape, depending on the circumstances. So it was very straightforward to scoop up all our guns (which are physically small, have high value relative to their size, are not covered by insurance, are difficult to replace, and are also awesome) and fill the rear trunk, then grab important papers, passports, computers, hard drives, a 10-inch Campagnolo wheel (I still haven’t replaced the cracked one on my car although it’s holding air just fine), and a few days worth of clothes, toiletries etc. so I was ready to go fairly quickly. 

I was then standing in the street at 5 am chatting with neighbors. One agreed to follow me so I could drive Lori’s Pantera to our storage unit which is all-metal and built alongside a small airport, so no buildings or vegetation nearby ,and it has sprinklers inside the units. I figured that was pretty safe. 

Then later in the morning I loaded motorcycles in Lori’s truck and drove it to a church a mile away which has an expansive parking lot with relatively little vegetation. My friend then shuttled me back and forth and I was able to get three VW Sciroccos and Lori’s race Mustang there. Everything in this photo is ours except for my friend’s white truck:




Now I was all ready to go. By happy fortune, a few weeks earlier my GT350 had been hauled to a Mustang specialist in Medford OR for final fettling, a Scirocco was at a shop in Sacramento, and one of my motorcycles at another shop near the San Francisco airport, and Lori’s Minivan is parked at the airport. So even if all the remotely parked cars burned up we would still have too many cars. :)

A mandatory evacuation notice came down for the neighborhood between us and the hills, and people cleared out.  Later that notice was extended to us, but I elected to stay along with about half my neighbors. Around 230 in the afternoon the fire finally crested the nearest hills and began advancing on us:




It’s difficult ti make out, but the top of the hills is already burned away, while the bottom has dead grass, and there is a low wall of fire advancing down the hill at a pretty good clip. It would reach the first neighborhood and if houses started going up in flames, at that point I was going to bug out. 

There were no fire fighting forces trying to stop its advance. You can’t see it well, but there is a lone house at the top of the hill to the left of the smoke pyre. Firefighters made a stand there and surrounded it and protected it, and it survived. The smoke pyre is his next door neighbor’s house burning. In fact the entire canyon on the back side of those hills went up in smoke and many dozens of homes were lost. 

Without warning, suddenly the wind shifted and started blowing towards the hills, and the entire fire just went out! By 3 pm there was just smoke. The fire instead moved south towards Fairfield and picked up a lot of steam, and crossed interstate 80. 

I had already told the Air Force I wouldn’t be flying to Afghanistan that evening because I needed to take care of business at home, so they slipped the mission 24 hours for me.  Later a decision was made to waive all rules about pre-mission crew rest and just call crewmembers and evacuate planes and people from Travis AFB, a hilariously childish reaction since there was no way the flames could ever damage the planes, parked in acres of concrete with no combustibles nearby. So the rest of my crew, plus a substitute for me, split to San Antonio that night, then Germany yesterday and today are enroute to Afghanistan.

I finally went to bed around 11 pm Wednesday, having been awake since early Tuesday morning. Thursday I got up and saw the smoke was so thick the hills weren’t visible.  

Yesterday afternoon a guy flew a drone from the neighborhood at the edge of town, out towards English Hills, where I had been on the first night.  Here is a screen grab from where the video starts and ends, with my house in the distance circled:



The video shows the utter destruction to the north, and west:

https://youtu.be/JQSDJwMOefo

I am now about to start fetching my cars and motorcycles home. The danger has passed for me, even as the fire continues to grow and move off to the north and west. They are reporting 105 homes destroyed in ‘my’ fire but I think the true number is substantially higher. The fire hit areas that were comprised mainly of estates, and there was one guy I know of who lost 13 classic Corvettes. There is a car flipper in English hills who had a Pantera for sale last week. His house is right in the edge if the fire line so he was either saved by inches or lost everything by inches. I haven’t heard yet. 

Additional fires have sprouted up south of San Francisco and are becoming the bigger story. Several Pantera owners have successfully moved their cars to safety and evacuated, and I know of no losses there yet. 

A true blessing is the fact that winds were very mild all week. If it had been really windy, as it was when the Paradise fire happened a couple of years ago, it likely would have burned from here to Las Vegas!

Here is a good news article with links to videos, etc:

https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Vacaville-wildfire-threatens-over-homes-Winters-15495663.php

Thanks for asking, Jeff!

Mike




-------------- next part --------------
     On Aug 21, 2020, at 10:55, Jeff Detrich <jjdetrich at gmail.com> wrote:

       Just checking to be sure you are safe. Seems like you are
     surrounded by

     fires again.

     Thanks Jeff!  Yes, it's been an interesting time.

   I was slated to fly to Maine then Germany on Wednesday night, enroute
   to Afghanistan. It was going to be a 24-hour day so I endeavored to
   shift my body clock to the right by staying up until the wee hours
   Tuesday night with the intent of sleeping until after noon Wednesday.
   I was aware there was a small fire burning in a remote canyon about a
   half hour drove north of me, and was utterly unconcerned. Around 1 am
   Tuesday night/Wednesday morning I got a text from Lori's son (who is an
   Oakland PD officer) that his wife (who is El Dorado County Sheriff,
   working in the Sierras near Lake Tahoe) had been alerted that they
   might be needed as the fire was growing.
   Since I was looking for ways to keep entertained anyway, I decided to
   go for a drive up to the top of a range of hills near my house, heading
   initially north then west, with the idea that I could look down into
   the valley and look to the north and perhaps see something. I was
   shocked as I approached the hill to start to climb and could see the
   fire glow much closer than I expected!  As I started to climb the hill,
   in a narrow road with thick brush and vegetation on each side, I
   encountered a sheriff driving down the hill, stopping and alerting
   residents for the need to evacuate. So, I turned around!
   At the bottom of the hill I turned north on English Hills road and
   entered that area, which has homes set on (typically) 5-acre
   properties. I drove in for a mile or so and saw flames.
   Ah.
   Time to go home and start packing!
   I zoomed home, then phoned several neighbors and alerted them. Both our
   Panteras were In the garage, but Lori had just left to visit her son
   and family in Riverside (southern california) so I was on my own.
   Ashes were already falling. This is Lori's race Mustang at 230 am:
   [cid:4F18CC19-2334-43E7-92B6-B9FC19AD1B94]
   I made the executive decision that my Pantera would be my getaway car.
   We have psychologically prepared ourselves for eventualities such as
   earthquake and fire, and have a checklist taped to the garage door
   listing all the items we need to grab to escape, depending on the
   circumstances. So it was very straightforward to scoop up all our guns
   (which are physically small, have high value relative to their size,
   are not covered by insurance, are difficult to replace, and are also
   awesome) and fill the rear trunk, then grab important papers,
   passports, computers, hard drives, a 10-inch Campagnolo wheel (I still
   haven't replaced the cracked one on my car although it's holding air
   just fine), and a few days worth of clothes, toiletries etc. so I was
   ready to go fairly quickly.
   I was then standing in the street at 5 am chatting with neighbors. One
   agreed to follow me so I could drive Lori's Pantera to our storage unit
   which is all-metal and built alongside a small airport, so no buildings
   or vegetation nearby ,and it has sprinklers inside the units. I figured
   that was pretty safe.
   Then later in the morning I loaded motorcycles in Lori's truck and
   drove it to a church a mile away which has an expansive parking lot
   with relatively little vegetation. My friend then shuttled me back and
   forth and I was able to get three VW Sciroccos and Lori's race Mustang
   there. Everything in this photo is ours except for my friend's white
   truck:
   [cid:7EF04395-E5C4-42E7-BB86-B197606B8C9D]
   Now I was all ready to go. By happy fortune, a few weeks earlier my
   GT350 had been hauled to a Mustang specialist in Medford OR for final
   fettling, a Scirocco was at a shop in Sacramento, and one of my
   motorcycles at another shop near the San Francisco airport, and Lori's
   Minivan is parked at the airport. So even if all the remotely parked
   cars burned up we would still have too many cars. :)
   A mandatory evacuation notice came down for the neighborhood between us
   and the hills, and people cleared out.  Later that notice was extended
   to us, but I elected to stay along with about half my neighbors. Around
   230 in the afternoon the fire finally crested the nearest hills and
   began advancing on us:
   [cid:DC23A9AD-13FC-4B68-BB0D-67BFA9BECC31]
   It's difficult ti make out, but the top of the hills is already burned
   away, while the bottom has dead grass, and there is a low wall of fire
   advancing down the hill at a pretty good clip. It would reach the first
   neighborhood and if houses started going up in flames, at that point I
   was going to bug out.
   There were no fire fighting forces trying to stop its advance. You
   can't see it well, but there is a lone house at the top of the hill to
   the left of the smoke pyre. Firefighters made a stand there and
   surrounded it and protected it, and it survived. The smoke pyre is his
   next door neighbor's house burning. In fact the entire canyon on the
   back side of those hills went up in smoke and many dozens of homes were
   lost.

   Without warning, suddenly the wind shifted and started blowing towards
   the hills, and the entire fire just went out! By 3 pm there was just
   smoke. The fire instead moved south towards Fairfield and picked up a
   lot of steam, and crossed interstate 80.

   I had already told the Air Force I wouldn't be flying to Afghanistan
   that evening because I needed to take care of business at home, so they
   slipped the mission 24 hours for me.  Later a decision was made to
   waive all rules about pre-mission crew rest and just call crewmembers
   and evacuate planes and people from Travis AFB, a hilariously childish
   reaction since there was no way the flames could ever damage the
   planes, parked in acres of concrete with no combustibles nearby. So the
   rest of my crew, plus a substitute for me, split to San Antonio that
   night, then Germany yesterday and today are enroute to Afghanistan.

   I finally went to bed around 11 pm Wednesday, having been awake since
   early Tuesday morning. Thursday I got up and saw the smoke was so thick
   the hills weren't visible.

   Yesterday afternoon a guy flew a drone from the neighborhood at the
   edge of town, out towards English Hills, where I had been on the first
   night.  Here is a screen grab from where the video starts and ends,
   with my house in the distance circled:

   [cid:FE31AD4A-AE7A-4D89-8C1E-94631F43EE19-L0-001]

   The video shows the utter destruction to the north, and west:

   [1]https://youtu.be/JQSDJwMOefo

   I am now about to start fetching my cars and motorcycles home. The
   danger has passed for me, even as the fire continues to grow and move
   off to the north and west. They are reporting 105 homes destroyed in
   `my' fire but I think the true number is substantially higher. The fire
   hit areas that were comprised mainly of estates, and there was one guy
   I know of who lost 13 classic Corvettes. There is a car flipper in
   English hills who had a Pantera for sale last week. His house is right
   in the edge if the fire line so he was either saved by inches or lost
   everything by inches. I haven't heard yet.

   Additional fires have sprouted up south of San Francisco and are
   becoming the bigger story. Several Pantera owners have successfully
   moved their cars to safety and evacuated, and I know of no losses there
   yet.

   A true blessing is the fact that winds were very mild all week. If it
   had been really windy, as it was when the Paradise fire happened a
   couple of years ago, it likely would have burned from here to Las
   Vegas!

   Here is a good news article with links to videos, etc:

   [2]https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Vacaville-wildfi
   re-threatens-over-homes-Winters-15495663.php

   Thanks for asking, Jeff!

   Mike

References

   1. https://youtu.be/JQSDJwMOefo
   2. https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Vacaville-wildfire-threatens-over-homes-Winters-15495663.php
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