On the morning of November 8, 2018 I was sitting at my desk doing something on the computer. At 8:30 a.m. I heard a very large explosion. I got up and walked out on to our front deck.
The sky to the east was very black and roiling with smoke. I knew right away it was time to leave. I was still in my bathrobe. My wife, Nancy was still in bed.
In July of 2018 the western part of Redding was devastated by the Carr Fire. I saw that the conditions in Paradise/Magalia were very similar to the conditions in Redding. For us it not a case of “if” a fire happens but “when” it happens. Several groups were out and about instructing the community about how to prepare in case a fire happened. The first week in August we put a week’s worth of clothing in our truck. I gathered a bunch of photographs and placed them in the truck. I have a satchel style mini safe for important documents, insurance papers, titles, passports, etc. I was fortunate because someone that lost everything in the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa put out a list of the documents she had lost. I kept the mini safe near the front door of the house.
A rule to live by is to not let the gas tank drop below half full. We got dressed, gathered together the medicines that we needed along with the computer and with a feeling of foreboding headed out the door. I first drove towards Paradise or down the hill on Skyway. The road was packed. I had covered almost three miles when the traffic absolutely stopped. We hadn’t been stopped too long when a guy going in the opposite direction paused to yell at anyone who had an open window that the road through Paradise was closed.
No choice now, we had to turn around and go another way. Even the north bound traffic was backed up. We soon saw the reason why. People were lined up out in the street trying to get gas for their cars. I commented to my wife that the gas tanks at the gas station could be full but if the power goes out, they won’t be able get the gas out.
Most of the people going out were going to be going out past Butte Meadows and eventually connect to Highway 32 to Chico. On a good day, this is a two-hour run. This was not a good day.
I opted instead to take Nimshew/Centerville/Honey Run roads out. I had never been on these roads. This would be a more direct route to Chico. Little did I know that the route I choose was not a maintained road. I commented to my wife that Butte County needed to make this into a road where two tractor trailer trucks could pass going in opposite directions. We eventually caught up with a line of vehicles, one of which was a motor home. It too was a slow crawl. Someone’s car broke down on this road, it just got pushed over the side into the canyon. But we never saw a single ember or smelt any smoke. We drove past the Honey Run covered bridge, a favorite place of ours to go and relax. Little did we know that within a few hours the bridge would be overrun and destroyed.
We got to the bottom where Honey Run road intersects with Skyway. By the time we got there all four lanes were filled with people in cars escaping the fire. It was only by the kindness of strangers that we were allowed to merge with the cars coming down Skyway.
After a bit of creeping and crawling along, we pulled into a shopping center. The parking lot was jammed with refugees from the fire. We parked and went into a coffee shop and sat down for breakfast. It was 11 o’clock. Just two and a half hours had passed.
We called our son to let him know we were OK. We then set out to find a place to stay. It took us over an hour to get through Chico because the traffic was so backed up. Unfortunately I do not have a smart phone and I knew that lots of other people did and they would be booking all of the motel rooms. I decided that we would have better luck heading towards Sacramento. Our son called us to check our status. We informed him of our dilemma. Within five minutes he got us a reservation at a motel in Williams.
At the motel I ran into three people that I knew. One of them looked she had been to hell and back. She had miniature horses south of Paradise and she was unable to get them out.
A good friend we knew that lived in Sacramento sheltered us for a month. A friend that lives across the street from us went back home within a week of escaping. She sent me a photo of our place to show us that it was OK. Thanksgiving weekend, my son and I trekked up to the place to check its condition. The short way home was not open yet. Consequently it was a four-hour drive from Sacramento. Other than a bit of a smoky smell, all was good. The electricity was on and my son was thankful we had WIFI. I turned down the thermostat, removed the food from the refrigerator, put it into the freezer in the shop and we left. Another four-hour trek back to Sacramento.
The Monday after Thanksgiving my wife and I drove up to Chico to get our mail. We waited in line for two hours. The good part was that we saw someone we knew so that we could catch up.
PS: I packed the tote in early August with a week’s worth of clothing. By time the fire happened it was November. All the clothes I packed were summer weight. So much for being prepared. It got pretty cold in Sacramento so I picked up some warm clothes.
