Well Dick glad your back with us all. Cars & property can be replaced, Life can not. Dave In England. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dick Benjamin" <dickb@xxxxxxxxx> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 4:44 PM Subject: IML: We're baaaack! (Very long read, sorry) > There is no way I can even remember all the kind things folks have said via > e-mail and phone during our trial by fire of the last two weeks, but I have > to be sure you all know that we appreciate your kind thoughts and prayers. > > Obviously they were effective, because the fire came straight for us, > burning the front half (15 acres) of our property with a fire so hot that it > melted all the soft metals and glass, and warped the steel in the cars. > There are puddles of molten metal on the ground under each car. SO, I > lost a few parts cars, and three small buildings where I had parts stored, > but as the fire approached the main buildings, it veered off to the east and > burned some unoccupied land plus a citrus grove, leaving my shop and barn > building untouched, along with the cars in that area. Our home was not > bothered at all. > > We were advised to evacuate on Sunday May 2, and that became mandatory on > Monday. In fact, the fire jumped our road as we were driving out, thus > canceling plans to take more cars out (which we had done in the previous 2 > fires.) We took our RV and one extra truck to a friends ranch about 3 > miles east of here, and thought we'd be safe. > > About a hour later, here comes the fire again, on both sides of Hwy. 79. We > were getting in our vehicles to escape further east when another arsonist > set a fire further out on Hwy. 79 (at the Cottonwood school), so we were > trapped with the road impassable in both directions. > > There was a strike team of 5 engines and a battalion chief (from San Luis > Obispo!) at our friend's ranch for structure protection at that time. The > police came by and told us to move out NOW, but the fire chief said no - the > road is blocked, we'll have to stay here! We took the fireman's advice - > the police car split out of there and we were told to go into the building > (a cinder block house) and stay low until the fire passed. We had a brief > interlude of near terror, but the fire again swerved away, into the field > and on down the road. Power poles were bursting into flame like roman > candles - the fire was leaping in strides of 100 feet or more. Later, it > came for us again from the southwest, having burnt through the citrus > orchard, east from my property about 3 miles away. On both approaches, it > came within about 200 feet of our refuge, but did no real damage. > > The strike team spent the night at the ranch with us (their fire > headquarters at Vail Lake Resort had been burned out). The 4 families > that had stayed there provided the contents of our freezers to an enormous > cookout Monday night - we fed all the fire crews and ourselves with a chef > prepared charcoal fired feast (one of our group is a superb chef). The next > morning, he prepared breakfast burritos for all takers - the fire crews > still talked about it when I saw them a week later!. Of course we knew > there would be no power for at least a week, so there was no point in saving > anything perishable. > > We did not sleep at all Monday night - and of course my wife and I were very > concerned that our place was totally wiped out. On Tuesday morning, I > mentioned our fears to the battalion chief, who was still with us, and he > invited me to ride with him on his morning patrol (we were not otherwise > able to use the roads). So I got to see the whole situation as it existed > at that time, including the fact that the fire had made a 90 degree turn at > the back of my shop building, and totally avoided all our important > buildings and possessions. Of course this wasn't just happenstance, there > had been engines stationed at all our buildings and our home, and while they > weren't able to save some of them, they did save the important stuff. One > engineer told me he looked in the window of my shop and saw the 47 Packard > limousine in there, and told his guys to protect that building as if it were > a residence! > > I was able to see that all the important stuff was OK, and that there was a > steady parade of fire trucks and dozers still working on my place, and > taking water from my "hydrant". The last flames were extinguished > Wednesday evening, although we still had smoking stumps etc. until Saturday. > We were allowed to return to our property Friday, and power was restored > Saturday morning. Our phone lines were repaired just yesterday afternoon, > thus this message. > > I will be posting a few pictures in a day or so, I'll list the URLs here > when I get them up. > > So thanks again to you all, we've survived another one! > > Dick and Nancy Benjamin. > Newly named "Black Rocks Ranch"! > > >