The Creek Fire Broke out at 3:43 a.m. on December 5, 2017. It hit Goldspirit Farm by 4:15a.m. We had no time to evacuate the horses; they were put in the turnouts and were safe. Here are photos and videos of that frightful day....
Here are the videos I took that early morning. The bad visibiilty in the video is how it was: smoky, ash-filled, and difficult to see! Creek fire
Here is what I posted on Facebook after the Creek Fire:
wow! I finally had time to sit and look at all the comments from my posts. I feel even luckier now, and very loved. It is over whelming the amount of outreach and offers to help from everyone. The support from everyone has been amazing and I am truly thankful for every phone call, message, email, comment on FB, and hands on site that have helped with cleanup and everything else.
I want to share with you the incredible moment of time I hope to not have to live through again, if you are interested. It actually started on monday night when the winds were blowing like crazy. We have never experienced sustained winds like this. The Thomas fire had just erupted and we were watching it on TV. Paul said we should get out the cat carriers, " just in case". FYI- including foster, we have 9 cats in our home ( 10 dogs outside and 19 horses). I packed go bags and we went to bed.
At 3:09 am the phone rang just once. No one on the other end and no caller id. We sat in bed for a bit wondering whom it might of been when paul said, " i smell smoke." I went outside to look, and lo and behold there was a huge glow in the mountains to our east. We knew we had very little time. I reached my student Andra who lives at the bottom of the hill and asked her to take my car with the cats ( how fun was that to load 9 cats in 4 carriers?) and a few dogs. I have no idea how much time passed, but I don't think much.
With the cats safe, I headed to the barn to do something with the horses while paul prepped our house for the worst. It was so smoky that visibility was low and breathing difficult. I went to the vet box to get a face mask. not seeing one, i grabbed the spider wrap, made of cotton, and used that for a face mask. I turned on all the lights and took the first out and put in the turnout. For a brief moment, I wondered if what was going to happen to 19 horses in 2 turnouts; but i knew what would happen if the barn caught on fire! so starting from the middle to the ends, I pulled out the horses. My neighbor Eddie and his fiance came and helped me get the barn horses out. Once they were out, I went to the pipe corrals. The hills next to me were all on fire. The hills surrounding the jump arena were blazing. I never once thought I could die; I only thought "I have to save my horses" After moving 3 of 9 horses from the pipe corral I saw the hay in one stall was on fire. It was igniting the shavings! I quickly slowed that fire by putting a feed bucket over it and convinced the horse to get out of the stall. When I returned again, more stalls were catching fire. I now took the horses 2 at a time to get them out. I did get all the horses out in time.
I went back up to the pipe corrals and notices that embers were in the hay. So i used the hose to put out the fire on the hay and watered down the burning plants on the side of the hill across from the hay. I went down to check on the horses and when I went to go up to the pipe corrals again, the smoke got so thick that I could not breathe. At some point there were 2 helicopter water drops on my hill that probably saved our place. There were fire trucks on Kagel Canyon in front of my property. I asked them to save my home. They brought one truck to the house and second to the barn. At some other point, April showed up and helped me keep watch. Susan Pruitt and Dennis showed up with a trailer, there was no way we would or could evacuate. 1: our horses were safe in the turnouts and 2: by the time she showed up our place had already burned. It was that fast.
To this day, Paul and I both believe the call at 3:09 am was from god. Had we not woken up, we would have lost the horses in the pipe corral, and maybe everything else. I am thankful and feel very blessed. Thank you everyone for your friendship and caring hearts! take care and may we all have a safe and joyous holiday!
| Creek Fire
12-5-2017 |
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