Fire, Fire, Everywhere

The awfully hot and dry summer has finally reached its breaking point. For the past week our area has been plauged by fires. It's a pretty crazy situation and I think most people around here have been un-nerved by it all. Seeing what has happened with the fires down in Bastrop has given me a new respect for wildfires. Previously, whenever the weather service would issue a "fire danger" alert I wouldn't pay much attention to it since we live a few blocks from where the wilderness starts. I'm not sure any of us in Central Texas will be non-chalant about such an alert again--I know I won't be.

We had our own little evacuation scare but thankfully we were able to return home after a few hours. We had no idea how serious or where the fire was when we made a mad dash for our irreplaceables last Monday afternoon. All I knew was that we had billowing smoke coming up our street and ash raining down around us. Jason and the 2 older girls had just gone out for soccer supplies when I became aware of the situation. I saw that smoke and ash and did not need any more information to know that it was probably time to grab our junk and get the heck out! About fifteen minutes later we started getting reverse 911 calls and that really threw me into a lather! Jason and the big girls were stuck in the "fire traffic" and I had no way of knowing how close the fire was.

Jason and the big girls got home and while he helped finish loading the car the girls ran around collecting the pets. We threw the three big chickens in a Rubbermaid container and tossed a towel over the top. That went in the trunk of the van on top of the pet porter that held one of our cats. The dog was on a leash in the front seat. I grabbed our lizard, Gus, and deposited him on Paige's lap. Hailey and Reese sat with towels on their laps with our two little chickens in their arms. We had no carseats in the car because we had cleaned out the car that morning. I strapped Penny into a regular seat and prayed to God that He would protect us as we drove. We couldn't catch our indoor cat, Skinny, and after flipping couches and nearly killing ourselves in the process of trying to catch her decided we had to leave her and hope for the best. The girls were crying hysterically because we were leaving their toys behind. I lost everything I owned to a fire when I was nine years old. I remember that pain. Which is why Jason and I ran back in and spent two minutes grabbing the girls' Webkinz off their beds and anything else we knew was particularly special to them. He piled his car with his large family of guitars and amps and we drove out into the traffic heading away from the fire.

We went to my friend, Alison's house. They live nearby but were not in the danger zone. They kindly welcomed us and our pets and we hung out there for a few hours. What a blessing they were--their family's calm and kind nature brought peace to our family during a nail biting few hours. Alison and her husband ran around getting water for our pets and helping us keep kids and animals under control. The kids were ecstatic to see each other and they all had a blast.

We made it home around 9/9:30 that evening. Thankfully, our neighborhood was ok. Our house smelled awful from the smoke and everyone had red eyes for a day or so. But our house was still here unlike nearly a dozen families on the other side of the road who lost their homes. It was particularly terrible to learn that our local fire was caused by arson. What a horrible thing for someone to do.

There isn't any rain in our immediate forecast. The place is still as dry as a bone and temperatures are climbing back to the 100's this week. This summer needs to end and we need some flooding rains to help with the situation around here. Fires are still burning all around Texas and it's heartbreaking to hear the stories coming out, especially in Bastrop. 1,400 homes lost, at least 2 lives, and who knows how many pets. So sad :(