It was a year ago that my friends, Bob and Gretchen Carlson, escaped from the fire storm that ravaged northern California. A week after getting out, Bob sat down and wrote of the experience. Each time that I read through what he penned, I marvel that they survived the four hour, death defying trip. Following is Bob’s recollection of what happened.

“About 9:30 pm., the power went out and came back on , which put Gretchen on high alert, checking the wind and smelling the air. Again, the power went off and then on. At 11:00, we received a robo call that recommended that we leave our home. This alarmed Gretchen but I thought evacuating was being overly cautious so I went to bed.

Fortunately, Gretchen stayed up and continued to monitor the smoke and wind direction while listening to Cal. Fire Dispatch and gathering up some things. At 11:45, when Gretchen heard the mention of our street name, “…Michele Way Bus Stop…,” she woke me and told me to get dressed and pack a bag.

While Gretchen was putting things in the car and yelling for me to hurry, I, only half awake, grabbed a couple of changes of clothes and my shaving kit. We could hear transformers and butane tanks exploding far away . The power went out at 1 am. It was clear that it was final.

We made our way out to the car. It was decided that Gretchen would drive and I would be in the back seat holding our very scared dog, Libby. Once out of the garage, Gretchen could see and hear everything. The wind was horrible and the smoke thick. Large limbs were blowing out of one of our fir trees. Gretchen thought that we should close the garage door so I jumped out to close it. Once inside, I pulled the release cord because there was no power. Before I could get out, the wind caught the door and slammed it down. It was pitch black and the door was too heavy to pull up. So I felt my way to the back door of the garage and exited through it. It took me awhile to get to the driveway and when I did Gretchen was yelling, “ Get in the car, RIGHT NOW.” Gretchen became even more irritated when I took the time to throw aside a large limb that had fallen across the hood of the car. After that, I did jump into the back seat with the dog and we took off.

At the end of the driveway we hit extremely heavy, low lying smoke and the road was covered with gray ash, making it impossible to see the edges. We were facing straight into the wind. Glowing cinders were flying through the air, hitting the windshield and bouncing off. When Gretchen complained that she couldn’t see, all I could calmly say was, “Just do the best you can.” This was unusual for me, being the vocal director of all marital projects.

Gretchen did a great job navigating up the street until we got to the top of the hill. Due to poor visibility, she turned into the last driveway on our street, missing a large oak tree to the left. She backed out and made a second try but this time she almost hit the tree. She backed out again and this time she managed to get around the tree.

We noticed one of our neighbors parked with lights on, not making an attempt to move. We wondered, “Why?” As we inched forward, we saw what we couldn’t see before. The house, at the corner of our street and the main road out, and two big fir trees on either side of the road were completely engulfed in flames, rising high into the air. Gretchen asked, “What should I do? I said, “Drive. Don’t stop, drive.”

Now driving with the wind, not against it, we managed to get through the inferno. We seemed to be the only car on the road. Cinders were flying all around us and the wind was howling. We proceeded down the hill and were stopped at the next intersection by a highway patrolman who was directing traffic coming in from the side roads. We got behind a very cautious driver who almost stopped in front of us. We couldn’t see beyond him so we didn’t use the horn. Finally a highway patrol car arrived and its driver yelled at the man to get going so we were able to proceed to our son’s house, arriving at 1:30 am. That is where we are now and will likely remain until we relocate.”

Watch for the post of this couple’s continuing story, from Gretchen’s perspective.