10 years ago today something I had thought would be no big deal, but in fact it changed my life forever.
It had started many days prior with a common prescribed burn in the area near my town. Due to the winds the burn got out of control and began to approach my hometown. It was called the Cerro Grande Fire. I was 22 at the time, living at home and taking a year to truly figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I worked at the local Middle School. Due to the fire and the smoke in town the schools had been closed all week as had the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
I was spending the day with some friends in White Rock which is a small town down the mountain from my hometown of Los Alamos. I was playing with my god daughter while her dad built her a swing set. I decided to drive up the hill to Los Alamos to get her a new pair of shoes. On our way up the Main Hill Road we were listening to the radio and all of a sudden I hear the Emergency Alert System beeping coming across the radio. You know the sound right? well I have always known it to quickly be followed by this is a Test of the Emergency Broadcasting System if this were an actual emergency etc....
Let me tell you when it is an actual emergency it is followed by LOUD, FAST, instructions and the deafening sound of your heart about to beat out of your chest. The town I have lived in for the past 14 years was being evacuated, not just some small parts that back up to the mountain like before but the WHOLE town. Lauren and I rushed to her mom’s office as it was the lunch hour and she was not answering the phone. We caught her, filled her in and I hurried to get the little one out of a town filled with smoke and being evacuated. I recall standing in her parking lot and being sure to close the car door so as not to have Lauren breath in the smoke. I also remember all the ash falling down and how it seemed like a light snow.
Throughout that afternoon I visited with friends in White rock, made sure I knew where my loved ones were and touched base with my mom. I planned to stay the night with my friends and hoped to go back home the next day, after all the previously evacuated areas were allowed back in each day. Our evening was spent watching the TV and realizing that I wouldn’t be going back home anytime soon, the news showed the town burning, reports were coming in all over of locations and neighborhoods that no longer stood. I recognized houses, and cried for my beloved home town.
The fire burned so hot Firefighters had to drop their hoses and run in some locations.
The 10:00 news put out a call for food for the firefighters, Daphne and I headed to the grocery store to get stuff for sandwiches and I marveled at the empty liquor section. Seems a lot of folks needed a drink that night. (when Los Alamos evacuated most of the town went to friends/family in White Rock) a midnight town hall meeting was held and the news stated no further evacuations. About 1:00am we were informed that White Rock was now being evacuated. The town of White Rock had 1 way out with Los Alamos Burning. I woke up my mom and we decided to run get her stuff from the school. We got over there, grabbed her stuff and headed back for the 5 minute trek across White Rock, except we soon got stuck in traffic and the 5 minute trek became 5+ hours in the car in the middle of the street. Families all around us opened their homes to evacuees stuck in the road for water and rest room breaks as they loaded their personal belongings into their cars. Looking back I think the decision to evacuate in the middle of the night came to alleviate this traffic jam, but they didn’t count on everyone have a watch out or someone awake, so the whole 2 towns tried to leave at once! Finally as the sun began to rise and we could again see the smoke billowing toward us we got out of town. We drove to Santa Fe and were blessed to stay with my mom’s friends daughter, her husband and their TEENY TINY newborn baby. So nice of someone fresh out of the hospital room to open their home to strangers. That’s one thing I learned in all of this, that people help when needed no matter the circumstance.
We spent the next 4 days there and did things like went to a high school gym to pick up our mail. Waited for the list of addresses that were a complete loss, and cried when we saw my childhood home on the list. We had moved from there and were renting it out but the memories stayed behind. We boarded a bus one day and rode to town with the Red Cross, National Guard and everyone who had lost a home in town. Every so slowly the busses climbed that hill, we drove a certain route through town and passed every burned home that we could. I remember standing on my street not able to tell WHERE exactly my house had been, I estimated my front door by the distance from the fire hydrant my friend Hilary had hit when I was in high school. I couldn’t see my 11 trees, there was no longer a balance beam of railroad ties for me to play on. The beam I hit on the front porch no longer leaned a tiny bit. The neighborhood was gone.
A lot was lost that week in los Alamos, over 400 families lost their home, but by some small miracle no one lost their life. And even those possessions were lost, I learned that nothing of true importance to me can be taken away. I will always carry those most precious of memories in my heart!
*A huge thank you to my dear friend Nikki for holding my hand 10 years ago and sharing her pictures with me today! You can read her account of the fire here:
http://fivelittlekofoeds.blogspot.com/2010/05/cerro-grande-memories.html
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