California Fires

[bertvorgon]

Watching the news this morning...Holy Cow!

I hope all our American/Californians will be ok and safe through this disaster.

Strangely, I watched a documentary last night on the Lahaina fire and how fast it went with the winds.
Then I get up this morning and see this.

[Chadsinto510s]

I got got by the Park Fire 5 months ago. Lost EVERYTHING. House, shop with 30 years worth of Datsun parts collecting in it, probably the cat (she's still missing) 7 Datsuns and my mothers single owner 70 Dodge Challenger. Only Datsun I have left, my 71 510 wagon.

[510rob]

Oh man, that is heartbreaking. I'm really sorry to hear that.

[RONSLYCHUK]

Wow Chad. That is terrible news. Hope that you and you family are ok.

[Chadsinto510s]

Thanks guys! It was quite the gut punch when I finally did find out my stuff had burned. I had been evacuated for 2 weeks or more before I found out anything concrete. It is still kind of surreal.

It is what it is though. It's just stuff and I didn't die. Trying to finish up with the insurance junk and then I'm thinking I'm going to leave California. I had planned to in about 15 years anyway.

I hope everyone else stays safe. My heart goes out to anyone in the LA area where those fires are HOLY CRAP bad.

[ostaylor]

Brutal to lose everything like that. I can't imagine and now it has happened to thousands more.

Good luck with rebuilding Chad.

[Chadsinto510s]

First off I hope NOBODY ever has to go through this.

A few things I've learned from this that I'd like to share for anyone who might live in a "high fire area" like I did:

Keep up on your defensible space. It may save your house. This fire was moving so fast with so much wind I could have clear cut my entire 5 acres and it wouldn't have mattered based on the locations of my structures and the neighboring property. Oddly, not many trees on my property burned and hardly any shrubbery. House and shop are ash though. So weird.

Sign up for local fire alert texts if that option is available to you. I did. It saved my life possibly.

As a side thought, maybe talk in depth with your homeowners insurance carrier about what is and is not covered and what your max limits are if you don't already know. Maybe make some adjustments if you can/want to. Make sure the correct people are listed on the policy. I forgot my ex-wife was on it still and now get to deal with incoming checks with her name on them as well as mine. I also found out after the fact of the fire, that my insurance co doesn't cover more than $2000 of uninstalled car parts or project cars. There went 30 years worth of collecting up in smoke. Literally.

Make a video inventory. Do it now. Don't wait. I hadn't done mine because they kept crying fire for years.... and no fire came. Until it did. It will make having to do your personal items claim easier. I'm having to do mine from memory and it's rough to do. It's going to be rough anyway but a visual reminder will make it faster and easier.

Make a go bag. Clothes: I pair pants, 1 pair shorts, socks, a couple shirts, you get the idea. A few days worth of meds if you need meds. Personal grooming items. Copies of important docs: House deed, registration for firearms if you have them but copies can usually be obtained from the selling dealer, car registrations, birth certificate copies. You get the idea. I had MOST of this but not all of this. I had it set up in a smaller sized (18"x13"x6") airplane carry on suitcase. It just sat next to the bedroom door waiting for if I needed it. Turned out I did, 4 years after having set it up. I could have fit more but hadn't thought it through well enough. Learn from my mistake and expand upon it.

If you have pets, keep them close. If you can. I didn't do a good job and lost my cat. I feel like crap because maybe I didn't do a good enough job.

When it's time to go, GO. Don't screw around. I squeezed through a 5 minute window or I might have been trapped. Your life is not worth that one more thing you wanted to grab. It's just stuff after all.

Once you're safely away, find a place to stay. I got lucky and went and stayed with some good friends who have a spare bedroom. CALL FAMILY IMMEDIATELY after you find a place to stay and let them know you're ok. If they hear about the fire on the news they will be worried. Help them be at ease. The voice of loved ones will help you too.

Lean on friends for help if you can. You may not want to. It's a shock to the system when total loss of this kind happens. I didn't want to lean on anyone. People will want to help you. Let them help to the best of your ability to do so. I don't like being helped. I'm a grown man and I should be able to take care of myself. Wrong. I have friends helping me right now. It took me a month or more to finally allow anyone to help me in any way shape or form. I don't know where I would be without these friends' help now.

If there are any community outreach programs for fire victims go use them. All of them. They are there to help make it easier. Nothing will make it better except time but there will be resources to make it easier. For instance: PG&E was at the resource center. Got my PG&E shut down right then and there. There was someone from the county that could help with birth certificates for Cali born residents. Someone was also there from the county assessors office and marked my structures as destroyed (which was true) for property tax purposes. Use all of it that applies to you that you can.

I hadn't planned on posting this but suddenly felt compelled, so I'm sure I forgot something. I'll maybe add to this if I remember something else useful.

I hope this helps. I hope this post never ever HAS to help anyone. I wish this on no one. It's too sucky for that.

Stay safe. Stay smart. Stay alert and informed. Most of all, STAY ALIVE.

[bertvorgon]

Morning Chad,

Thank you so much for these words, could NOT have been better said!!!! I hope all that read this take note of your sage,
life altering experience.

As climate and disaster, in many forms, can lurk anywhere at any time, heed needs to be paid to what you have said for sure.

B.C. had had it's share of fires, floods and severe wind damage. Where I live I have seen constant, ever increasing wind storms now, that hit my place head on, causing power outages. With the constant removal of old trees to the East of me, due to population increases, that natural barriers have been removed, the tree's that have been left are weak and prone to both falling and branches coming down over lines.

I have made sure I am prepared for long power outages!!!

I wish your words could be posted elsewhere, so others could REALLY HEAR from someone who has lived this nightmare.

In watching CNN and our own CBC news, very little has been said like this, to really express like you have. We have family who JUST survived one of our BIG fires in the Interior of BC ( Kelowna), where the fire burned to their fence, but wiped out those just below them. We keep building in "interface" areas and keep doing the same thing over and over again with no fire mitigation.

Where I used to race at the Hillclimb, they have built right to the park/forest edge...with dry Pondersoa Pine needles 6" deep
covering the whole area right up to the houses. I have hiked through that whole forest and it is a powder keg waiting for the right cigarette to torch the whole thing. It came close to full on fire in July of 2023.

I wish you the best, glad you were able to post this and so sorry for your loss!

Keith Law

[Chadsinto510s]

Thanks Keith. Like I said, I hadn't planned on telling the community here but suddenly felt compelled. I'm hoping literally no one EVER needs any help from this post but it's there just in case.

I have already amended the post with some more things I thought of or remembered.

[iceman510]

Wow Chad, so sorry to hear this. Glad you are ok, and you seem to have a good attitude about everything. I have lived a lot of my life in tornado country, but fire is a scarier threat.

Best wishes on rebuilding your life.

[datzenmike]

I'd like to donate some of my rain.

[bertvorgon]

Funny you should say that! My wife and I were sitting yesterday morning, watching the news, and it was just pissing rain out!

Humidity was 95%. I said Jeez, how bizarre we have so much rain and they have not had a drop.

At least at the moment our snow pack is building, so hopefully that will help with the coming season.

I have a friend in Dease lake, they just got 3" of snow.

My brother in Port McNeill is already starting to think about his sprinkler/pump system for this summer, so he would be ready
should we have another super dry spell on the North Island.

[datzenmike]

I choose to live here and am aware of the environment as are those in California, or they should. Hot, dry, wind and fires are the norm there and always have been. Hard to live in any environment and not add to the problem.

[Chadsinto510s]

Wow Chad, so sorry to hear this. Glad you are ok, and you seem to have a good attitude about everything. I have lived a lot of my life in tornado country, but fire is a scarier threat.

Best wishes on rebuilding your life.

Thanks man! It's for sure a gut punch but there's also no point in crying over spilled milk so... I was planning on leaving CA in about 15 years anyway. Nothing holding me here now. I'd like to be closer to the rest of my family I think.