Samuel: Okay. How was your experience with the Alameda Fire?
Dad: The Alameda Fire, I didn't live directly in Talent, but I lived outside talent on Anderson Creek Road. We watched the fire from afar and saw that it was getting worse and worse. We saw a plane coming in and dropping fire retardant. We were afraid that the fire was going to get even more out of control and spread to the surrounding rural areas. So, we decided to load up all of our stuff. We gathered up everything we wanted to keep and tried to figure out what was important and what wasn't.
We loaded up all of our animals. We had three dogs and a puppy at the time. We loaded everything into the truck and got ready to leave. We realized that there's only two ways out. One was to go down through Talent and we couldn't do that because all the roads were closed because the firefighters had everything shut down, trying to fight the fire.
So, we tried to go the back roads up and over Anderson and in that direction. So, that's what we did. We drove for probably about 45 minutes or an hour through the back roads. My oldest son knew the way to get to the Ashland ski resort that way. So, we were headed in that direction. About three quarters of the way there we met a guy in a truck and he was kinda lost. He was trying to get to Ashland on the back way. He said he had a friend that was in the hospital and he was trying to get there, but he couldn't because all the roads were closed because of the fire. So, he followed us. We continued on and made it to the Ashland ski resort and then down, past the freeway. Then they had the freeway closed.
We couldn't get into Ashland that way. So, we went around a detour and took the old Siskiyou Road. We came into Ashland the back way and stayed at a friend's house. Next day after everything was over, we were lucky the fire didn't come our way. But as everybody knows, it came down through Talent and destroyed hundreds of homes and people lost everything they had. And my boy's grandmother, she lost her home in the fire and all her belongings.
That was a very sad day when we went back to help my kids grandmother sift through what was left of her home, which was virtually nothing. As I said, we were very lucky we got out without losing anything and everybody was safe, but it will be a day that will always be remembered.
Samuel: How did you hear about the fire?
Dad: Tv, radio, social media. We could actually see it from a hill near our house and that's the main way we heard about the fire. We could see the smoke and see the flames.
Samuel: Is there anything else?
Dad: No, that was about it. As I say, we were very lucky that we didn't lose anything. Any more questions?
Samuel: What time did you hear about the fire?
Dad: I was actually at Walmart buying groceries. It was probably about noon and I saw the smoke. All the smoke rising up from town, and I went down the freeway, headed back to talent. I didn't realize that's where the smoke was coming from and they were closing the freeway down but, luckily, I managed to get to the Phoenix exit and it was still open.
I got off at the Phoenix exit and went around the back way towards Anderson Creek and made it home. That's how I got home. Then we saw the smoke was getting bigger and bigger and we could see flames. We went up on top of a hill up behind our house and we could see the flames and the fire burning Talent. That's when we saw how big it was getting and decided that it was probably time that we evacuated.
Samuel: Do you know anyone outside of our family who lost anything?
Dad: Not really. Just family members.
Samuel: Did you know anyone that had to deal with the fire? Like any friends of yours who were firefighters or something?
Dad: We do know one guy that was one of the firefighters and he had to help fight the fire. They said it was just totally out of control. The wind was blowing so hard that they just couldn't contain it. The best they could do was just to try to run ahead of the fire and tell everybody to evacuate. Get everybody out of the way of the fire because there was virtually nothing they could do.
Samuel: Did you lose anything in the fire?
Dad: I didn't. Uh, well I take that back. At the boy's grandmother’s, I had a metal box that had some old family pictures in it, the old family Bible, and that type of stuff. Oh, and I had a bicycle over there, it got burned.
Samuel: Well, I think those are all of my questions. Thank you for letting me interview you.
Dad: You are welcome.
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