Diary of Disaster
Rob McKenzie is an ultralight instructor at the Andy Jackson
Airpark. It based several ultralights as well as the Crestline
Soaring Society -- all of which were destroyed in the wildfires.
Here's Rob's online diary of the past few days:
Thursday Oct 30th: No flying. Sad news in the
mountains regarding the fire. No news yet on pilots's homes other
than that John Samul's was lost. On the water front there is some
good news. After an extensive 4 day run of work with probably 140
man (and woman) hours we have a system of water delivery completed
with 5 gpm flowing as measured at sunset last night. We need a
minimum of 4 gpm so we should be covered for a while. Total cost
was under $1,000, which is far below the estimated $5K in materials
first given. The reason is that although the fire vaporized our
4500' line it also opened up additional flow very close to our
reservoir near the LZ. The option to keep it simple and stay close
to home was the direction followed. The CSS has decided to make an
effort to explore options for a permanent water source. YEAY!
Wednesday Oct 29th: TFR still in effect. No
flying. Access to the LZ is available now. A local PG pilot that
lives in the mountains lost his home and business last night. John
Samul of Rim Forest is safe with his wife and son but everything
they own is gone. To those that may not know him by the name he is
also affectionately called "Big John" and his business is Unique
Woodworking.. Our hearts are out to you John. As soon as they let
us uphill, Di and I are coming up to help with cleanup. Now let's
hope the rest of our mountain pilots fare better.
Tuesday Oct 28th: TFR still in effect. No flying
and also access to the LZ is restricted. Best not to visit the LZ.
Stay tuned each morning for news at it comes.
Monday Oct 27th: For the most part, skies are
clearing somewhat of the smoke. Winds over the back plus the TFR is
in effect. Each one making it non flyable today. Emergency club
meeting Wed evening at Jerseys. The info is through the following
page... www.crestlinesoaring.org/temp/CSS_Emergency_mtg.htm.
You may email your thoughts and vote as explained on the page but
the email must be sent by 6PM that evening. Helene will gather the
emails and bring them to the meeting.
Sunday Oct 26th: Non flyable conditions plus a
TFR making no flying today and my guess is the TFR will be in
effect for at least several days AFTER the fire is out. It may be a
week or more so consider other areas in the mean time. I toured the
LZ this morning amidst 50 knot blowing dust and ashes. It was so
sad to see all the cooked animals along the way. The water project
has been decimated. Basically in a nutshell, the 1 acre grass that
includes the spots have a value of $25,000. At present the damage
is about $10,000 and that is counting the grass as being alive. If
we allow the grass to have no water then after about 5 to 10 days
it will be something like an extra $8,000 to rebuild. I will ask
the CSS board if they might want to have a meeting to decide if we
want to rebuild or go back to dirt. When I walked out onto the
grass for a potential goodbye I couldn't decide if I was hearing
"if you build it they will come" or if I was hearing, "if you love
something let it go". Beside me sitting on the grass was a bunny
rabbit slowly nibbling on the grass. I used to not want the bunnies
to eat our grass. This time it was different, you see, the bunny
had all his fur burnt off and was blind in both eyes. Don't ask me
how I knew. If you were there you might have done what I then did.
I had to slowly walk away and trust that there will be better days
ahead. My thoughts now are with all the folks that have lost much
more than a front lawn. And of those that still are to go through
the fire. It's creeping it's way around the top of Crestline right
now. Please pray for the mountain folk. And a huge round of
applause for everyone fighting the blaze.
Saturday Oct. 25 7PM Update: I just got a call
from Tim Curtis at the LZ. He had to park 2 miles from the LZ and
walk in because of the road blocks. The toilet is melted, 3 hang
gliders that were stored at the LZ are melted. But the shade
structure is still there and the electricity (12V) is still active
and the motion sensors are working. The water supply is gone :(
Unknown where the trouble is. When we get some light we'll start
working on that problem tomorrow.
Saturday Oct. 25 3PM Update: Somber news.
The fire that started at 9:30 AM near Hwy 18 just east of the east
end of Marshall moved downwind to the base of the mt then split
into 2 fires. The west fire crept in a wall of flame that ran from
the top of the Marshall ridge to the base of the mt. It slowly
creeped crosswind and westward. At 2:20 PM it had travelled
crosswind 3 miles and arrived at the water tanks that feed the LZ
(that are just behind the VASI). At that time it was a line of
flame from about the tip of Cloud Peak down through the VASI and
into the center of the University. Everything west is clear and
windy and everything east is dark and smoke filled. Wind is 50
knots or better on average.
My thoughts are of the mile long pipeline that feeds our grass.
Then of our tanks that are probably full of water engulfed in
flames hundreds of feet tall. Will the water protect them? I was
parked with my ever running motorcycle (to allow an escape). I am
at the concrete Andy Jackson sign at the SW corner of our LZ. With
me is Charlie Gage and Tim Curtis. It's hard to talk due to 50 knot
winds. Tim's back hoe and engine-out van are now parked in the
middle of overshoot area. I should have cleared that area better
I'm thinking. I don't think they'll survive even there. Mel's house
is now disappearing behind flames and smoke. A round robin of
several helicopters with water hoses hanging are flying upwind
directly over the LZ at 100' AGL trying to fight the flame wall but
all they can do is spit into a bonfire so to speak. I hear over the
radio of the choppers doing 100 knots and going 10 mph ground
speed. Wow, even windier than I thought.
A coyote, then a deer come running across the overshoot area
toward us. The coyote keeps going and stops to look back after
going 200' past us. The deer stops 50' away on the dirt road.
Stares at us as if to ask for help. I raise my arms and run at him
to get him to run. Away he bolts toward the clear direction. I
wonder about the rest of his deer family. A bird lands on Tim
Curtis and holds on in the wind. Tim delicately holds him and
places the bird in his vehicle later to release him to freedom well
away from the fire.
Then the house west from Mel's is burning. (Dan's place) It's
directly upwind of us where we are standing by the Andy Jackson
concrete sign. I pull the small sign saying "Airpark 300'" out of
the ground and lay it face down on the downwind side of the
concrete sign to save at least something from the approaching
inferno. I hear over the radio of a lady in her back yard
desperately trying to save her home using her garden hose. The
copter pilot tells the rest of the choppers of a wet T-shirt
contest as he douses her and her house. They are at least keeping a
sense of humor while risking their lives in this wind. I remember
the drop demo at Kagel earlier in the year at the anniversary party
and the rain shower it creates. She's loving this rain no doubt.
Many people are making lifetime memories.
I wonder about whether we'll have grass a month from now. Well
folks, we've had 1300 days of grass. It's cost us nearly 20K in
cash plus some 1300 hours of work by a host of volunteers. Was it
worth it? That comes to $15 a day plus 1 hour volunteer work per
day. Given the dozens of users every day the value can't be
underestimated.
Could we rebuild? Is it really gone? To answer the last
question, I will try to access the immediate area before sunset
although darkness will probably arrive before access. As it was I
ran several police barricades to get to the LZ the first time at 2
PM. First we find out the damage. We might have to rebuild the
shade structure too. It would be a miracle if it's not all just a
ground level pile of blackened concrete. Just one of those choppers
unloading a water drop at the right time might have saved it. But
as Tim Curtis sat at our house and thought of a response to my
saying that his employment (cutting the grass) might be gone he
simply said, "well at least we won't have any poison oak in our way
when we lay a new pipeline". I love this kind of optimism. And for
me, I wish I could be so optimistic. I've put in many hundreds of
hours bringing water to the LZ. How it's done is now known. Whether
it should be rebuilt is debatable. If we decide to go for it, we
will have to scramble since the grass itself will die inside of 3
weeks without water. The good news is that dirt is not flammable.
We STILL HAVE AN LZ. And we still have all the pilots that love to
fly!
And if you are into praying, now's the time to pray for all the
residents in the mountains. Tim Nelson and Michelle. Dan Deweese.
Marcus. Steve, Kenny, Meg, Sally, Ken, Ursula, John Curran,
Averill. And all the other thousands of residents. The fire is
creeping upwind toward their tinder box bark beetle backyards. Hang
in there everyone. Save structures and property where possible but
above all don't get personally caught in the fire. We want to see
everyone alive to tell their tales and to fly another day!