I spent two consecutive weekends volunteering with my Search & Rescue Unit Cal-ESAR in Paradise and want to share some additional thoughts around this experience. Anyone living in Northern California were affected in one way or another by the fires, either directly, knowing someone directly displaced or harmed, or through poor air quality.
The first weekend we arranged for my son to return home from college a day early so he could join me. We trained together to be in this unit when he was a senior in high school and I cherish our time together in this way. Apparently, this search & recovery effort was the largest call out since 9-11. It involved hundreds of first responders and volunteer search & rescue units from all around California and beyond. I’m sure there were units from other states as well. I saw army, national guard, police & sheriff, firefighters, coroners, chaplains as well as canine and ground SAR (search and rescue) units.
On my first weekend, the home base was in Oroville near the water, and the second week the base had moved to the fairgrounds in Chico since the Oroville base got flooded in the rains following that weekend. It was amazing to be a part of such an effort. The whole base was sequestered and everyone was certified in some way to be there. There were command centers, food units serviced by prisoners, laundry and decontamination shower units, organized spaces for various units to camp (first weekend) and mobile hotel units (second week) housing 42 beds each which look outside like large RVs and inside like a train sleeping car. There were at least 10 of them.
Everything we needed to do our respective jobs was provided, short of the clothes on our backs and our boots. They passed out Tyvex protective suits with booties, respirators, gloves and helmets, rakes and shovels (we brought our own helmets).
Our unit was given a section of homes in Paradise to scour. We basically went property to property the first weekend, and to specific properties with high likelihood of finding human remains the second weekend. This was not a rescue but rather a recovery mission, to help bring closure to families who are still waiting for their missing love ones. It breaks my heart. When I say remains, what we were shown at our briefing were pictures of small bone shards or teeth. With a fire that burned that hot, there was very little of anything left.
What surprised me was that even though the fire ravaged the town, it was still serene and beautiful overall, although the first week it was still very eerie in the smoky haze. The rain the following week cleared the atmosphere considerably, although we still wore protective gear at the work sites.
As I mentioned, the air the first weekend was terrible. Even breathing through the proper respirators all day, my lungs felt irritated. Driving up there that first weekend in the morning before dawn felt apocalyptic. So much haze and smoke. We counted telephone poles along the road to gauge visibility – starting at 12, ending at 5 before the poles stopped. Then there were burnt poles in Paradise, which were already being replaced by PG&E. The air quality index for Berkeley that first weekend was in the low 200s. It was in the 300s when we drove up to Paradise, and over 500 the night before we left, which gave me serious pause as to what I was getting us into!
Although huge swaths of both commercial buildings and private homes burned to ashes, some remained standing and virtually untouched! One home sat untouched next to others burned down to the ground.
A unit volunteer who is also a volunteer firefighter explained that many of the homes that survived were surrounded by defensible space – 100 feet of open area around the home rather than trees and shrubs nearby. And one home that survived was surrounded by a high large-stone wall, not a wooden fence. That said it still seemed random, at least from my untrained eyes. In the picture below, you see part of the Best Western downtown that survived (top-middle).
It is hard to describe what a leveled home looks like, though there have been plenty of pictures on the media from the Santa Rosa fires and others. When a fire gets that hot everything melts, including metal alloys and glass. Both leave pools on the ground. There was very little evidence of any wood framing left, or any furniture for that matter. Only charred remains of stoves, washing machines and dishwashers. Many homes left evidence of a tool or auto shed, with burned out cars and heavy machinery, presses and even weight machines. Pianos were just strings of wires on the ground. And since many of these homes had been two stories, it all collapsed onto itself so all we saw were piles of white ash on the house footprint.
Coming home, I couldn’t help but imagine what my home, the local market, my office or car would look like if reduced to their base carbon units. It’s eerie. How will this experience affect me? I am reminded yet again that nothing is permanent. And that we should savor where we are and what we have every day. Below is a decontamination unit, which we all had to go through after our shifts.
I felt very emotional, the week following the second weekend especially, processing all that I’ve seen and felt. I took the opportunity to utilize the services of some of Innate’s terrific therapists, including Tatjana, our Somatic Experience (trauma) therapist, and Sarah, our amazing massage therapist. I exercised at Orange Theory Fitness (they have air filtration in their exercise space) and went to a yoga class. I also got acupuncture and started taking NAC (N-Acetyl Cystein), a powerful anti-oxidant that works well to calm irritated lungs. It can be found at Pharmaca or other health stores.
Before the recent rains, there were many major fires burning throughout the state of California. And last year we had the same. Gov. Brown called it our new abnormal. Most of these fires were urban-interface fires and not forest fires. But whatever they are, it’s our new reality. Although much of our urban landscape won’t allow for defensible space around our homes, we can do what we can to manage excessive foliage near our houses. And don’t forget about earthquakes! Get an automatic gas shut-off valve for your house and encourage your neighbors to do the same. Have a 50 gallon water barrel in your back yard and a week’s worth of non-perishable food stored. It won’t help in a fire, but it will in an earthquake.
We are all in this together, and sickness and catastrophes are what give us pause and bring communities together.
I urge you to take a moment over the holidays to cherish your family and friends – don’t put it off. And make a disaster plan, including having a third party out of state that the family can use as a point contact if they are separated. Make a planning list to help you organize for a sudden 5, 15, 30 or 60-minute evacuation. Throw an emergency backpack into your car’s trunk. It pays to plan for the worst and to expect the best.