Level One at Last

We've been downgraded to Level One, which is Get Ready.  We can't go to sleep on this yet, but there will be mail and trash collection, and I can order drugs from Amazon.  I think I'm going to hold on Amazon until I see if the mail is getting through.  Our post office is often erratic.  I can't remember how they ship, USPS or Amazon drivers.  

Anyway, air quality is still awful, but we can leave the neighborhood without worrying about not getting back in.  AQI is at 209.   

This is an excellent article about what the fire fighters were up against.  The fire fighters were in the left most clump of houses during the time frame of the article.  Red dots are houses that were destroyed.  We are not on the map, we're a little north and east, and about two miles (as the crow flies) from where it happened.  It gives one pause to contemplate the distance.

There have been a couple of essays (what do you call people who write long form on Facebook?) on Facebook about the level of development along Indian Trail.  The Spokane City Council has approved a multi family development that will house 300 families just below my neighborhood.  That's 600 more cars that will be on a two lane road.  Indian Trail was our evacuation route, and for many others.  The first time we tried to leave it was gridlocked, we went home and tried again later.  If that fire had come up the hill towards Indian Trail, we all would have been incinerated.  The over arching theme of what people have been writing about is infrastructure.  It does not appear that any thought is being given to moving the traffic that is being caused by untrammeled growth along Indian Trail.  

Yesterday we saw fire trucks from California going up our street, Menlo Park and Half Moon Bay.  They were up checking for hot spots.  They drove all the way up here for this.  Fire fighters are good.

That's it!  That's all I've got.

Lessons Learned and Greenland

We've spent the last two days awaiting the forecasted high winds and high temperatures.   It's hot, but there's been no wind.  At the moment, it's eerily still.  AQI is bad with the lack of air movement.  The clothing go bag is packed.  I can do toiletries in about 10 to 15 minutes.  So, this time it should be a calmer evacuation, if required.  Current wind flow is out of the south, heading north and away from us.  Leaving the house gives me a little angst in case the go now comes while we're away.  They will not let you back in for love or money.

Here are the lessons learned thus far. 

In general, during fire season:
    Keep the car gas tanks full.
    Top off the medication bottles so there is enough for an extended stay.  We transfer pills 
    from the big bottles to small bottles that live in a drawer, so that is why I'm saying this.

When you get a text from emergency management using the phrase "particularly dangerous situation", start packing immediately.  Don't deny, equivocate, or engage in magical thinking, start packing.  Be ready to start the car and leave.

When you get the "go now" text, go.  

Don't even think about taking two vehicles.  It's bad enough being in one car with a loved one, taking two cars is not good.

Get the car out of the garage before power is cut.  It's so much easier than taking the garage door off the trolley, and raising it manually.

There is almost always a power outage.  The power company does not want live wires on the ground sparking more fire

Empty the ice maker and turn it off.  We didn't do this, and some of our neighbors did not either.  That was truly an aw shit moment.  After 48 hours of no power, enough free water will run out of the ice maker and on to your floor.  Actually, do this as soon as the "go now" text arrives, so you don't forget as your brain is being overwhelmed by stress chemicals.

Decide ahead of time which documents you need to take.  I have staged our birth certificates and social security cards to go if we leave.  Everything else, I think, is electronic.  I've decided there is nothing in this house that is worth dying for.

In news of the world, a US oil drilling company is off the shores of Greenland, planning to come ashore and start drilling for oil.  Greenland and Denmark have not been involved in this decision.  Greenland is being nice about it, I think they should repel all boarders.  I guess this is part of 47's plans to capture the territory.

 

Life in the Zone

Our neighborhood is still in Evacuation Level 3, that's the get out now designation.  Being here means there is no Amazon delivery, trash pickup, and no mail.  Last night one of the neighbors took the contents of his garage freezer out to a dumpster he has access to.  He graciously took our bag of spoiled meat.  So, our current plan for waste management is to put the small stinky stuff in plastic grocery bags, and stuff them in the trash cans in front of businesses.  Technically that's fly tipping.  Civilization is breaking down.

We are so close to being in Level 2.  They get trash pickup, don't know about mail.  We are where the question mark is.  The yellow is Level 2.  That's a block and a half separating us.

This morning we walked up the big hill to see what we would see. We saw just how close we came to disaster.  Two houses built up there had fire up to their perimeters.  They're a different development, but are close to us.  There was a beautiful house to the left of this house burned to the ground.  It was deep into the trees, and was lost.

There are some tiny hot spots, but they're all surrounded by ash.  There is not a lot of fuel left up there.  

This is a fire break.  They dig these by hand.  The sheer physical labor involved with putting out fires is staggering.  When the fire hits the bare dirt, it goes out.  This works less well if it's really windy, and embers are being blown up the hill.

We went grocery shopping today, during the time we were in Spokane Valley, prices went up.  Of course they did.

Day Third and Final of Being Evacuated

We found a new better web site for fire reporting.  This is where we were yesterday at the neighbor's house.  Look lower right on the photo and find "W Excell Ln."  That's our street.  Follow it up to the end of the street, See the pink stuff?  That's the fire.  

It started in Airway Heights, headed north east, jumped the river, and never looked back.  Lucky, we are so lucky.  8,300 acres burned in this fire.  

This neighborhood was spared.  Others were not so lucky.  It's interesting how they were encircled and survived.  Fire is weird.

As of this writing (9:38 am 8/3/26), we are still under level three evacuation.  The power is still out.  Avista has assigned a crew to us, but the extent of the damage to infrastructure is not known.  I'm guessing Level three will persist until power is restored, there are lines down.  We have a refrigerator full of deteriorating food.  What is not known is whether or not the trash guys will be collecting on Wednesday

By the time we left the hotel and drove home to get more clothes, the power was on.  So, we got back in the car and returned to Spokane Valley to pick up our stuff.  All the meat in the freezer is toast, as are the french fries.  I'm keeping the egg bites and the frozen ravioli, they got a little soft, but they're not frozen in the grocery store, so hopefully we'll live.  Jim has returned from the grocery store with a bag of ice.  So life is better.

We're still at level three, but people around us appear to be moving back in, so there are too many of us for the police to yell at. 

Day Two of Being Evacuated

This is how close the fire came to us.  This house is at the end of the street.  Ground flames were very close to reaching the house.  Fortunately it was not crown fire.

This is the garage, look up hill on the right where the ground is dark.  That's where Department of Natural Resources fire guys put it out.  For those of you not familiar with fighting fires, like I was not until recently, there's a fire boss.  He and a spotter fly a race track over the fire looking for outbreaks.  They spotted the fire headed for the house, and they got there in time.  If the wind had shifted just a little, it could have wiped us all out.  The current count is 600 structures lost, grateful we are not to be in that count.

This is behind the same house.  The stuff that looks like ground fog is fire.  There are still hot spots in the woods.  The hoses are still there and are charged with water.  They'll be dousing those again until they go out.

Hoses on the hill side.

Now I will engage in some petty whining.  I hate this!  This is worse than when the RV was in for repairs.  Air quality is really terrible (AQI is 252), so we can't go do anything out doors or walk around.  During the day we're basically in the car with the air conditioning on recirculate to keep the smoke out of the car.  Bored, we are.  The power is still out, it's down to 10,000 8,478 6,682 people without service.  We're seriously thinking about buying a generator to run the refrigerator and one outlet.  That would give us food and internet.  We have head lights and little lamps and we're not afraid to use them.  And there is the food thing, today was MacDonald's egg McMuffins for breakfast, and then a cheeseburger at Wendy's for lunch.   At this point, I would kill for a salad.  I can feel my arteries hardening off.

Tonight and tomorrow night we're in an extended stay hotel, it has a full size refrigerator, silverware, dishes, and etc.  We're still eating microwaveable dinners, but at least there will be vegetables.  The downsides are the internet is glacial, we're hard up against the freeway, and the people next door have about 6 little kids.  However, we're not in a shelter, we have a car, and I should just stop complaining. Our house is undamaged, which is more than many people can say. 

Police and National Guard still have our area cordoned off.  There is one way in to the neighborhood that they do not seem to know about, so we were able to get in to the house today.  There were several people in their houses.  There were several generators going.  No one is supposed to be there.  I guess we'll go back tomorrow and hopefully we can some more clothing.  When I packed (with my hair on fire) I did not think this would go on this long, but I was wrong.

So, as my brother used to say, here we are and here we be. 

Update 6/2:  We have two new fires as of this writing.  Good thing there is no climate change. 

We Are Evacuated

We are evacuated.  We're in an absolutely horrible hotel in Spokane Valley.  I think we got the last vacancy.  I'm hoping to go somewhere else tomorrow, but we have this booked just in case.  There are many screaming children.  

The winds were driving the fire.  It was able to jump the Spokane river.  One of our neighbors has an app that shows the fire taking a turn to the west.  So, unless the wind direction changes, our neighborhood should still be standing.  I have no idea how long before we can go back in.  Before we left, the police were going door to door telling people to get out.  We hid from them because we weren't ready to go.  We ended up leaving the jeep and the bikes so that we could be in the car together.  Traffic getting to the freeway was just horrendous.

The Veterans' Hospital has been evacuated, shelters are full. This is the worst thing I've ever been in.  This is from the kitchen window, when we first realized things were bad.

The smoke as seen from I90 on the way to Spokane Valley.

The police put crime scene tape on the post light.  Not sure why.

This is a crown fire, meaning that fire is jumping between tops of trees.  That sort of fire spreads quickly.  A wildfire is fought differently than a crown fire.  Crown fires require water to be placed on the tree tops, wild fires are fought with setting back burns and digging fire breaks.  Washington has made a disaster declaration.  National Guard is mobilized.  

Here is a happy thing.

So, this is what's happening with us.

Update, Jim just talked to the neighbor who lives up at the end of the street.  Fire was approaching his house, fire fighters arrived in the nick of time, and he suffered no damage.  The rest of the hood is good.