Firefighter Steve Morlock and his Marin County crew jumped up
from a well-deserved break in the shade Sunday afternoon to save
Shawn and Laurie Hart’s home, hours after CalFire reported that the
Hummingbird Fire had been surrounded.
Firefighter Steve Morlock and his Marin County crew jumped up from a well-deserved break in the shade Sunday afternoon to save Shawn and Laurie Hart’s home, hours after CalFire reported that the Hummingbird Fire had been surrounded.
To prevent the structure tucked between two small hills from going up in flames, about 15 firefighters cut off the golden fuel from the flames lingering near the house located about 200 yards north of Day Road. The controlled burn consumed several old oak trees, causing 50-foot tall flames to shoot up at one point just 20 feet or so from the house, where a black Jeep Wrangler sat in the driveway. The man-made fire succeeded after about 15 minutes as the once-threatening flames and plumes of black smoke retreated into smoldering embers.
Amid the acrid haze and darkness early Sunday morning, similar fires raced downhill toward neighboring homes as sirens whaled and neighbors called out to one another to ask for and offer help. A handful of residents on both sides of Day Road stayed behind as ash rained down despite mandatory evacuation orders, and those who returned later that morning and throughout the afternoon did so clutching valuable documents that they had fled with the night before. Many also hauled horse trailers, but everyone was thankful to see that the hard work of firefighters and residents had paid off: Their homes and animals were safe, and no structures had been damaged as of Sunday afternoon.
“There was no way I was going to leave these horses here last night,” said Terry Kohley, the ranch manager at Carol Anderson’s property at 2845 Day Road, where 14 horses live. Kohley added that she had a hard time getting back to the stable late Saturday evening, but she was able to skip by law enforcement vehicles in the darkness amid the whirl of squealing trucks darting every which way.
“I just kept going, and it was a good thing, because we were able to keep the horses calm,” Kohley said. “We have six stallions about the same age as teenagers here, and when they have someone that they trust around them, they’ll stay calm; and that’s what they did last night.”
While constantly batting specs of ash away from their faces, other residents up and down the north side of Day Road recounted the confusion of trucks and trailers struggling back and forth from their properties early Sunday morning, trying to relocate their horses as the flames moved toward their properties.
Rural residents scrambled to find enough horse trailers, and cars and trucks hauling animals struggled to squeeze past each other along Day and Watsonville roads. The acrid smell of smoke, limited visibility and a general sense of confusion worsened the traffic situation.
“When I was driving down Day Road, I just got this queasy feeling in my gut. It was overwhelming, not only the smoke, but seeing the horse trailers moving through so slowly – you just knew in your heart that some of these homes were going to be gone,” said Susan Mister, who lives off Burchell Road and was trying to find her way back home about 11 p.m. Saturday night.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m on my way to check and see if my friends up on Watsonville Road are all right,” said Khalid Reynolds about the same time, as he stood on the side of Day Road watching the fire line, arms crossed in the headlights of his diesel Ford truck. He had just returned from dropping his two horses off in San Martin after picking them up from a stable down the road that holds about 45 horses, he said.
Folks like Reynolds delighted Anderson, the stallion owner, who said a few good Samaritans with a trailer pulled up to her place during the commotion and offered their horse-hauling services. They took away two of her horses, she said, while she and Kohley saturated an area around the remaining 12 and then waited with the animals, eyeing the fire that stopped short of Anderson’s property thanks to the border of upturned dirt extending along the base of the hill.
“These really nice horse people from Texas just showed up and said they wanted to help in any way,” Anderson said.
Emmitt and Karen Bolt were able to get their four horses off their property with the trailer they owned, and they even squeezed in one of their neighbor’s horse last night. Karen Bolt and her two sons spent the night with a neighbor up the road, but Emmitt Bolt stayed behind at the couple’s quaint ranch house with a hose.
“It was definitely unnerving, and I didn’t sleep much,” Bolt said as he gazed at the charred, smoldering moonscape in the distance across the street. “I’ve never seen anything this close to home before.”
Nearly every house up and down Day Road had torn yellow police tape hanging from their mailboxes Sunday afternoon, a testament to the sheriff’s department’s evacuation efforts. Fred Reber, a 15 year-resident who lives at 2835 Day Road, had tape hanging from his mailbox, but he stayed last night, too, because he was confident the fire would fade at the burn line that some residents had plowed earlier in the Spring and that firefighters had augmented and continued with heavy equipment.
Behind Reber’s house stood a stucco home amid a sea of ash. Reber said he saw the wild grass all around the home burn late Saturday night and early Sunday morning as firefighters cordoned off the structure itself with burn lines and water. The owner did not appear to be home Sunday, but a tractor plowed through the scarred yard around the saved house, churning up the odor of raw earth and scorched grass.
A dog cage and loosened boots sat on the abandoned home’s porch late Saturday night and Sunday morning, boxes of files and family pictures sat on dining room tables in the homes whose residents had not yet returned. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the firefighters, though, they will return to good news.
“I am so impressed with these firefighters. It is unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable what they accomplished,” said Mister, who lives off Burchell Road. After the Summit Fire, Mister made brownies for the hardworking crews and vowed to show her support again soon.
“They’ll get something, that’s for sure,” Mister said.
