Fire!!

So Wednesday our base caught on fire. It was an interesting day. I guess the fire started when a electrical transformer blew up and ignited the brush. The kids saw it start from the playground. Of course we didn't know all this yet. I went to the school at 11:30 to pick up Heather and saw the smoke, but didn't really know what was going on, and the school didn't say anything when I was there picking up Heather. When I got home the power was out. A neighbor came over in a panic, it was kind of crazy. Our electricity came on for a minute and we checked voice mail, and they were evacuating Hannah's school, but every ones electricity was out even the school and they were trying to share cell phones to get messages to parents, and we didn't even know until 20 minutes after they had locked down the school. Poor Hannah, her little message said that no one was allowed to leave the school until a parent came for them, and that we had to sign her out with the fire department, and she was worried where we were because no one was answering the phone and to please just come and get her and they were evacuating school. Jason was home for lunch and went right out the door to get her, my poor girl. Needless to say that had her wound tight all day and night. And of course as soon as we got her message the electricity went off again. Jason went back to work and the kids and I just went about usual business, homework while it was still daylight, and trying to get things done that we couldn't do when it got dark. In the meantime with the electricity out there really was no information, my mom checked the Internet for me and tried to find out what info she could about the fire. It progressively got worse but we hadn't received an order to evacuate. Then my friend called who worked on base, and said she just drove by it all and it was bad and that it was practically in my backyard and to just load the kids in the van and leave. Then Jason called and say stay put there has been no evacuation order yet, but electricity was out all over base, and he'd be home soon. So it was kind of crazy, Hannah was VERY nervous. I had the kids pack some clothes into their backpacks and we put them in the van just in case we had to leave, and that helped settle their nerves. While I was packing Heather and Heidi's bag, Hannah and Holly decided to pack their own. When I looked at their bulging backpacks, I decided to take a peek... Holly's had all toys and no clothes... and Hannah had clothes, and her Heely's and books and toys, so I ended up repacking them all. It's interesting to see what is important to them :-)... Anyway Jason came home and said the word was to stay put. A friend from our ward off base called and said the news was announcing the base was being evacuated... that was the first we'd heard about it. Turns out there was no evacuation order. So by dinner they had reopened 1 gate and we went out to eat, and to cruise Walmart. We were kind of bummed to go back to a dark house, but luckily they turned the electricity back on until 11p.m. then shut it off again. Hannah was nervous to go to sleep. We watched the firefight most of the afternoon, it was interesting. They had helicopters and planes dropping fire retardant, and it was all so close. We could see the flames from our backyard. Let me tell you if the wind had shifted we would have been in trouble. One portion of the fire was about 500 feet from our house. Turns out it burned about 400 acres, and was under control by Thursday. Our air is smoky and ashy and smells like a campfire.

Jason took some pictures right when it started on hi lunch hour. These pictures are when it first started, it definitely got bigger.

All but the last one are from my backyard.

the helicopters and planes were a lot closer then they look too in the picture.

this was taken from the corner... our house is on the other side of the roofs you see.. closer to the smoke. We didn't get any pictures once the fire really got going, and everything was closer then the camera makes it look.

That was our adventurous day.
I thought we got off lucky during the small earthquake a couple weeks ago, no one in my house even felt it (we didn't even know it happened until after the fact), so I guess we needed some excitement.