Fires

[glenn_993]

Thanks all for your concerns. Sandy and I were able to return to Ramona this morning. Everything is fine. Kim and Steve, sorry to hear about your loss. If you have questions about what happens from here, please contact me, as I went through this in 2003.

[John Straub]

This came in from Bob ans Ellen Gutjhr in Marland, Bob is the National Regionfocus Editor.

________________________________________________


It is heartbreaking to see the photos and video
footage.

We're thinking of you guys and all the great people in
SDR.

Best wishes for your safety

Bob and Ellen

[Kim Crosser]

RSF Refugee News, Issue #1

We are fine (Marian & I, the cat & dog, and the Porsche). We have already arranged for semi-permanent housing until we can rebuild, and our insurance company (AAA) has been great to work with.

Nine homes in our immediate area burned. I was saddened to see one of our neighbors lost their very nice custom home and their 997 burned in their garage.

Across from us, a neighbor got his recently rebuilt 930 out safely and left a 944S, which survived the fires (but the house didn't). The 944 had paint blisters along the side, and the front right amber turn signal melted, but otherwise seems intact.

We are very thankful that we have great insurance and pretty good financial resources. The people who really need help are those with limited financial resources who have lost everything they had.

It is devastating to think about all the memorabilia that we have lost, so we try not to dwell on it. Instead, we are focusing on actively and quickly reestablishing ourselves, getting new housing and planning our rebuild. Nothing will ever bring back the things we lost, but they are just that - things. 95% can be replaced, and the other 5% - well, we have our memories and some photos.

Sure - there are tough moments when you look at your home of 27 years and realize that there isn't anything left, but we will get through this - at least we are healthy and have great support.

One important note for anyone helping with fire damage - if you are anywhere around the actual ashes of a destroyed building, those paper masks are all but useless. If you are helping to sift through debris, or raking up debris, you MUST get REAL respirator masks. We have talked with people from the Cedar fires and they are now experiencing long-term and serious respiratory illnesses from breathing in the toxic and abrasive particles in the ashes and dust.

Don't mess with that stuff - if you want to help your friend/neighbor dig through their ruins, that is great, but wear full-length sleeves and pants, a real respirator, filtered goggles, and head covering. Consider this as about the same as doing asbestos removal in an old factory - you are going to be working in extremely toxic and abrasive particles that are VERY fine.

One of the real problems with this stuff compared to a regular house fire is that the firemen basically abandon the burning structure once it has collapsed and is not a danger to adjacent structures (so they can go try to save another structure). That lets the fire burn itself out over several hours, producing a lot of heat for a very long time. In a typical house fire, there is a lot of water on the fire, the fire is ended much sooner, temperatures are a lot cooler, the debris particles are larger, and the amount of released toxic particles is much smaller. With these mass burnings, where there is nothing left standing, the ash is extremely fine and very toxic. Be VERY careful when helping to sift or clean up.

[Mike]

Last Monday we saw a Heavy DC 10 fire fighting aircraft on the east side of the Harris fire.
Here it is in action.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1a7_1193165376