A yet unknown source of the fire in Cobb Mountain has spread after 3 days to an area of 62,000+ acres to include Middletown and Napa. With mandatory evacuations of multiple cities and California officials declaring this fire the main priority of all current wildfires – today the CALFIRE website showed the first factor of Containment (10%). Slow progress.
But the reports are as wild as the fire itself due to lack of real reporting and too much Facebooking’ spreading both rumors and reality. So here is what i consider the real happenings.
Two close family friends lost their houses however in Cobb. Others may be able to salvage the remnants of the homes. I hope it is only the two accounts i heard of and no more.
My old property in middletown (Kamura) and the McCrackin RV is gone - but that happened 2 weeks ago from a separate fire and doesn’t really belong in this posting. Regardless here is what's left:
(That trailer was good to me - The Cloud of Unknowing)
Big Wave Dave was very close to the giant fire until he evacuated. Glen J. was closer yet. He slept through the fire the first night with propane tanks exploding through the night in his neighbourhood and still hasn’t’ left! His house (the Starr House i was born in and my father built) is gone. After the first day Glen packed up but didn't leave – he corougeously defied mandatory evacuation orders to stay at the Sanctuary’s land and help protect certain zoo animals like the camels. With constantly encroaching fires from differnent angles, they have kept the animals safe. Or maybe the animals kept the humans safe. . . .
(Here's the Rescue/donation page: http://www.gofundme.com/camelrescue)
Hot days and shifting winds kept it going strong, but now its moved out of Cobb (save for some smaller fires) and the bulk of the blaze is in Middletown and moving towards Napa (if not already there). Still, we folks on the sidelines of Sonoma pray and predict rain. In fact, after two nights of really willing the cats’n’dogs out of the sky, well, some has come down today (when none was on the weather forecast!) and more is on the way.
Now things are improving with the reallocation of firefighters and machinery from other ongoing fires like Butte and Yosemite – the “Valley” fire of Lake County is getting more attention now and i’m happy for it. Because it was a 0% containment for the first 48 hours.
It’s been a distressing few days for us to try to sift through the reports and keep communications with those imbedded in the crisis without electricity or any semblance of normalcy. And beyond my personal angle, there’s those who actually went through it and ended up at Red Cross and Church emergency shelters in Lakeport or Kellsyville, only to await the news of when they can return home . . . and if they have homes to return to.
Sadly, some may not have made it at all. This is not in the news yet but an officer said that there are “cadaver dogs” sniffing through the rubble of house remains. Some probably never left their homes and never will. Rest in Peace.
Otherwise, PG&E is cleaning up the electric and telephone cables from the roads in Cobb and i think soon those we know will be able to re-enter the mountain.
Meanwhile, if you can, check around for donation centres that are doing private collection/delivery circuits to the disaster victims. I hesitate to trust Red Cross.
And always remember that perspective is of prime importance. This is a true crisis for those intimately involved with the Valley fire but in all frankness its a necessary thing in an ecologic sense - just like the rain we need is necessary: fires are required for recalibrating of the various ecosystems and seed germination of certain trees (read: Too many trees and not enough forests). Fires are like composting before fertilizing your garden: much brush, shrubs and small trees will burn and large trees remain (in a healthy forest fire) leaving nutrient rich soil. I just wish this all came in a proper balance instead as the intentional aftermath HAARP induced desertification of California. I want a non-geo-engineered winter season full of rain without the oddball Cloud Seeding interference in the ionosphere with nano-refined heavy metals.
Rain and Fire. Essential and part of the larger perspective of earth’s ebbs and flows. But in their right time and place.
Lastly, a tribute to the first 3 years of my life, spent in a very unique house: The Starr House of Cobb Mountain, Loch Lomond.
(My dad and i near the front porch of Starr House)
Old Man Starr built it during a few years time. I was born in it, a home-birth. I experienced the delight of snow for the first time as a child there. Learnt to walk there. And was a kind volunteer to my sisters bemusing entertainment.
(Pops and Mums - during the cement foundation construction)
(Me and Days, playing with our puppy-pinata-dog)
This weekend, we all thought if any structure could survive the wildfire - the Starr House could because it was the first legal Subterranean (partly underground) structure built in the grand state of California. Yes, my dad built the first ever (on the books) underground house in this state. So with all the concrete reinforcements and walls – it was sad news last night to learn that it is no more. And the kettlebells with it.
I will visit and pay homage next month if possible after the fire has run its course.
Here to rain!
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