Earik Beann - Pointe Patrol: How Nine People (and a Dog) Saved Their Neighborhood From One of the Most Destructive Fires in Californias History

What follows is a true story, although I have taken the liberty of changing peoples names and other small details to protect their privacy. Most of these events have been seared into my memory and were easy to remember. Other parts had to be pieced together after the fact. Having said that, Ive discovered that my memory isnt nearly the iron trap that I once thought it was, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes or omissions I may have made.

Chapter 8

The Longest Night of My Life

As the sun began to set, we all got ourselves psychologically ready for what might unfold. If we could get through this night, the neighborhood would probably survive. On the other hand, things could get very dicey, and it would all happen in the dark.

Laura and I had packed our emergency bags and left them by the door. My car was in the driveway, facing out. If the emergency call went outsomeone driving two laps around the circle with their horn downall that needed to be done was to grab the bags and the dog, throw them in the car, and go.

Laura and I both had keys to the car and the house. Unfortunately, the battery on one car key had died, so it didnt do a good job at locking or unlocking. Because of that, we decided to leave the car open for simplicity. Since there were looters around, neither one of us wanted to leave our valuables in an unlocked car, which is why they were by the door instead. If we had time, wed be able to load up and go. If we didnt have time, we were prepared to leave the bags. It would depend on the situation. The main thing was that we got ourselves and Oscar out if the neighborhood was going up in flames.

I knew that I might spend long periods of time away from the house tonight and that Laura would be alone.

If you hear the signal, and Im not here, dont wait. Just go, I told her. Ill catch up with you down the hill somewhere.

OK.

Do you have the keys?

She reached up, feeling for the ribbon hanging from her neck to make sure.

Yes.

As I mentioned before, Laura and I have different personalities. Im a Virgo and like things to be precise. I like systems and routines. Keys always go in the same place, and I never change where that place is. That way, I can find them in the dark if I have to.

Laura is a Gemini, which is the opposite. She likes to change things up. When she first moved in with me, she drove me crazy by always moving the silverware to a different drawer. I could never find anything.

When I confronted her about it and told her that it was completely infuriating, she responded with, Sorry, but its my nature. Strangely, that made perfect sense to me in the moment, and since then Ive been fine with her rearranging things. I like methods, and her method is to always change, so if I frame it like that, I understand it. I do think she might reconsider her urge to rearrange if she realized how many times I ask her where things are rather than trying to find them myself, but for the most part weve gotten used to our differences.

A habit much worse than moving the silverware was the trouble she had with keys. They were never in the same place twice. When we were dating, many times Id show up to pick her up and would find her keys dangling out of the lock in her front door. You never knew where they might turn up.

In normal situations, none of that matters. Its kind of cute in a way. But in the situation we were in now, not being able to find the keys could be the difference between life and death. If the signal to leave came, it would happen in the dark, and things would be confusing and stressful. If I wasnt there, Laura needed to be able to get her keys immediately, without having to think about where they were.

Earlier in the day, it became clear the key situation might be an issue. We have a wooden bench by our front door, which became a sort of gear staging area. All the flashlights, gloves, masks, and associated equipment went on that bench. That way, when it was time to leave, everything we needed was at hand right in front of us. It worked well for me, and for Laura, too, for the most part, but she kept losing her house key. It would show up in the strangest places, and wed have to conduct a fresh search for it every time we went out.

Realizing that this was a problem, our solution was to find a thick ribbon and make her a necklace. The house key and the car key went on that ribbon, and she wore them like jewelry. That way the keys would always be right there, hanging around her neck. As long as she wore the necklace it was impossible for her not to have access to the keys when she might need them. Her job was to keep that ribbon on all night, and my job was to be a pain in the rear and pester her about it.

I kissed her goodbye and headed out to meet Mike. It was cold, so I wore a down jacket. I had my black baseball cap on, which I had been wearing all day long. I had new batteries in my flashlight, work gloves stuffed into my back pockets, my mask hanging around my neck, and my revolver on my belt. I was as equipped for the night as I knew how to be. But the most important piece of equipment, by far, was my cell phone. That was my lifeline to Pointe Patrol.

I walked out of the circle and up Altruria to Fountainview where Mike was waiting. All the street lights were out. It was dark.

We met at his house. He had been getting ready. His car was parked in front with the back hatch open. He had a shovel thrown in there and had found five or six 3-gallon water jugs. We filled them up and loaded them into the back of his car. There was no way we could get hoses back into the rubble on the other side of Fountainview, so Mikes water jugs were perfect.

We set out on foot, walking the perimeter of the burn zone. We started off on the fence line between Viewpointe and Fountainview, making our way back down the line between the two neighborhoods and then over to the right on the Fountainview side.

I wore my mask for this part, as that sulfur smell was strong. It felt like being an ant walking through a camp fire. We picked our way through what had been peoples houses, stumbling over ash and trying to be careful not to step on anything sharp. I wondered if I would have to throw my shoes away after this was all donethey were covered in soot.

As we came back through the middle of the U area that is Fountainview, we stumbled upon our first hot spot. It looked like a smoldering orange glow under the ash, and we poked at it with a piece of debris to open it up. It seemed almost like a pile of old phone books that hadnt burned.

We marked the spot and drove back up in Mikes car. He got as close as he could without running over glass or other sharp objects, which were scattered everywhere. It took three or four of the water jugs, but we managed to extinguish the hot spot. It hissed as we poured water over it.

It was very clear that we werent going to last long if we had to carry these jugs too far. They werent heavy over the short run, but carrying them over distances where the footing was unstable was a challenge. I was already tired to start with, and my body felt like jelly, so doing a whole lot of physical work was going to be difficult. Mike was a lot fresher, having only come up today.

You dont look so good. Maybe I should be the one carrying the gun, he joked.

I laughed. I knew I was dragging. I had only slept one night since the evacuation, and that had been the awkward night spent in Judiths bed, which had been way too small.

We drove the car up the remaining part of Fountainview and parked it near the end. We then headed out to scout on foot. We were going to keep the car close by and would use it to haul the water as much as possible. I could see how the back end of it squatted down under the weight of the water jugs.

We didnt find any more hot spots on Fountainview, although we made a thorough search. It was all burned out. Once we got to the end, we headed across the street to check out the area between the apartments and Altruria. There was a large area between the sidewalk and the actual apartment complex, which was comprised of a number of large buildings. Tall bushes ran the entire length of the street down past the entrance to Viewpointe, and they had been trimmed to create a sort of natural wall and divider. On the other side of those bushes was a creek, and the ditch was quite deep. There were a lot of areas for embers to hide.