The fire. Best seats in the valley.

When we moved to Wenatchee earlier this year and into the neighborhood/house we did, there were to 2 things I was worried about: fires & rattlesnakes. Now lets just hope we go the rest of the summer without seeing any rattlers in our yard...

Here's how last night went down: We were home and getting ready for Cal's swim lesson when we heard a loud truck head up Badger Mt. road behind us. Ian looked out and it was a brush fire rig. Then a couple minutes later there were a couple more fire trucks speeding up the road with lights/sirens on. After looking hard we could see a little bit of smoke coming up from one of the hills behind us. Since the fire appeared to be fairly close (w/in a couple of miles) we loaded up for swim lessons but first went up the hill to see the fire. It wasn't far and there were about a dozen fire rigs in the field fighting it. We figured since the fire seemed pretty small and in control so it would be out by the time we got home.

So an hour later we're heading home and as we get close to our house we notice 3 helicopters flying right behind it, dropping water on the fire and the wind was really starting to pick up so we assumed the fire was starting to pick up. That was an understatement. At this time we could see several groups of flames from our house but they were still a ways away. After a little bit of time passing and both of us watching the fire pretty closely, we started hearing and seeing TONS of fire truck/brush rigs/etc., some racing up the hill and several parking right behind our house. Then all of a sudden Ian yelled, "oh $hit, it's coming over the hill." And at that moment, things got really crazy and started moving really fast. The fire came racing down the hill and was getting closer and closer to our neighborhood by the minute. I ran upstairs grabbed bags and started getting some stuff together to load into the cars in case we were evacuated.

I like to think of myself as fairly calm and collected in emergency situations. I had a tower crane crash into my office building while I was in it and had a steam pipe explode a couple blocks away from me in NYC with pure pandemonium breaking out on the streets with thousands of people running and screaming - both of which times I stayed relatively calm. Well this was not the case last night. I was a chicken with its head cut off. I think when the safety of your children comes into question and the reality that you just might lose everything you own, calm and collective go out the window. Thankfully Ian and my folks kept their cool and got some great pics and video while I was a mad lady racing through the house throwing the most random stuff in bags and loading the cars completely full.

Ian guessed at one point that the flames were about 50 yards away from our backyard. Yikes. So we and our neighbors just waited with our cars loaded for word that we would need to evacuate until about 10ish p.m. when the fire appeared to be in control thanks to a barrier of way too many to count fire rigs and fire fighters between our house and the fire.

It was an insane night. One that I hope we NEVER experience again. I have a whole new appreciation for firefighters. On a positive note, Cal was in heaven with all the fire trucks and helicopters essentially in our back yard.

Here are some pics of the progress of the night, all taken from our deck.

the fire when we got home from swim lessons

this is Ian's "oh $hit, it's coming over the hill." and it's off.
view out our living room and from the kitchen window. these pics don't do justice to how vast the fire was, it went way up the hill - this is just the part of right behind our house. the end of our night. the aftermath.