Mike’s Fire Story
Interview with Debra Moon on July 25, 2022
On the day of the Almeda Fire, Mike was in his home on Suncrest. He saw a big plume of smoke through the skylight. It was grayish white. He rushed outside to have a better look. Some neighbors were gathering at a nearby corner and looking south. Mike guessed it must be a grass fire because of the color of the smoke. He tried to find an alert on his phone as the 5 or 6 others were too. But, no one could find any alerts.
A black plume of smoke went up suddenly. He thought it must be the car repair shop at the end of town going up in flames. Mike returned home to turn on the radio and the T.V. Still there was no news, and no warnings. He was not sure what to do but started to put together a go-bag in case of evacuation.
During this time, Mike’s wife, Anna, was in Ashland at S.O.U. Anna runs the health center at the university, and she was at work. Anna called him to tell him what she had been told by the Head of SOU’s security office, who had been monitoring 911 communication systems. He told her that Mike needed to evacuate now.
Mike started loading laptops and backpacks with clothing into his small ‘94 Honda hatchback parked in the garage. Mike had raised the powerlift door expecting that electricity might go out. His next door neighbor came over to the garage worried about getting out, because he was without a car. His wife also had told him to evacuate as her employer was also monitoring 911 radio traffic. Mike kindly loaded his neighbor’s big screen Apple media computer along with a few storage bins into his little compact along with the neighbor and his cat captured in a carrier. They left.
According to Mike the corner of Suncrest, 99 and Colver Road was a Zoo!! An officer was directing traffic in multiple directions away from Suncrest and 99 up Colver. Inching along behind other neighbors and several 18 wheelers, he finally got to the baseball fields on Colver. Where the neighbor was going to meet his wife. They still had received no evacuation warnings on their phones or Mike’s radio. Since he had emptied his tiny car of the cat, the neighbor and the computer. He was still parked at the baseball field with bumper-to-bumper traffic traveling West on Colver, listening for evacuation warnings. He decided to return to his house on Suncrest on foot to retrieve more belongings. He got photo albums, a couple of paintings done by a deceased friend, and more of his wife’s work clothing by flashlight. When he had arrived at his home the electricity was out. But before he left for a second time, he saw that the smoke, ash and cinders were getting closer, so he put two hoses on spray at two separate corners on the top of his roof. While up on the roof, he saw an official vehicle coming down Suncrest with a loud-speaker announcing mandatory evacuation. The first warning, finally!
Proceeding on foot, with all the extra stuff under his arms and pulling a duffle bag, he saw many people just standing near 99 and Colver. It looked like they didn’t know what to do as the vehicle congestion had gotten worse. From his rooftop, he had seen the fire burn up a hill near the Suncrest overpass, which probably jumped the freeway briefly driven by 50 mph gusts of hot wind. Only then to jump back to the West side of I-5 and start burning through the Green Way, orchards and tall dry grass. Back at Colver and 99, it looked like ODOT had continued to direct more big trucks off the freeway. They were adding even more congestion to the already clogged escape route out Colver. And, further confusing the First Responder’s evacuation tasks. “This is crazy!” he thought.
He saw weeds in the orchards go up in flames, in addition to cedar fences at the edge of his development. As he hurried up Colver, the fire, which had been fought away from the back of the Fire District 5 firehouse, had gone north toward Phoenix only to jump 99 and start burning back toward Colver in the swirling winds. The 3 foot high stumps of fruit trees north of Colver had suckers growing out of them, and had just been left in the fields surrounded by tall weeds. They were all catching fire. He had seen the fire heading for the gas station at Colver and Talent Ave. by-way-of the far end of the Subway (anchored?) strip-mall. A huge borate bomber was making an approach from the South to dump it’s load on the fire along 99 there. At a quickened pace walking up Colver Road, he saw panic on the faces of people in their cars stuck in only one lane between 18 wheelers.
After the fire, at a Zone Captains meeting, he would find out that some four-wheel-drive vehicles went overground paralleling the orchards to desperately escape the burning fields and sucker trees popping off like flares.
Mike left the baseball field and took Front Street through some neighborhoods to finally arrive at Rapp Road and Talent Ave., heading back south toward the fire’s origin. His thought was to get to his wife in Ashland. But, there were many others attempting to do the same along Talent Ave. At the intersection, he was given the choice by a State Trooper to go back to 99 and north to Colver or up Rapp Road. He went up Rapp Road behind the big OSF warehouses there. Drove through the graveled back lots and came out near the Dog Park. Houses and trailer parks East of Talent Avenue had only started to burn. He went south down Talent Avenue to 99 toward Ashland surrounded by smoke, avoiding police roadblocks along the way. He was able to meet up with his wife at the SOU health center.
They stayed in Ashland with friends who had just finished a master-suite in their upstairs. They let Mike and Anna have this suite. They stayed there 10 days and then found a couple’s second home through another friend, which was empty at the time. They lived there for a couple of months.
When they went back to look at their home on Suncrest at the end of the week of the fire, it was gone. The hoses which had been on the roof had melted. The homes on either side of their house were also gone though one looked OK from the front, but the backside was completely gutted. Two houses on their street between all the burned ones were still there. The trees in the front of their house were half burnt on the side facing the house. In total, in their neighborhood, there were ten homes that didn’t burn. It seemed so random to him and Anna.
They had State Farm Insurance, and settling with them was the next worst experience after losing their home. They talked with other people who had State Farm, and it seemed their experiences were as random as the fire. Some had no problems, some had fewer problems, and others had many problems like them. It seemed it depended entirely on who your adjuster was, and unfortunately, they did not have good ones except for the first one. Their adjusters were changed out four times until they finally had to get their agent of 35 years to get them the money they were entitled to according to their premiums to get to rebuild their lives.
Mike had heard from neighbors that only four companies were quick to respond to their customer’s needs by representing in a South Gateway Medford parking lot. They contacted their customers and cut checks or expedited payments there. They were Farmers, Progressive, USAA and maybe Allstate. Sadly, not State Farm. Mike and Anna finally ended up alright, it just took a 10-12 months for the company to release the more than $80,000 that was due to them in their final adjustment after being refused a claims extension.
But that is not the end of the story. Thirty days after the fire, Mike’s hatchback was stolen. The car was stolen out of the parking lot of the townhouse they were renting. It was found in Klamath Falls, completely ransacked.
Mike and Anna suffered some very big losses of personal belongings in the fire from their individual and couple’s adventures around the world. But also, Mike had a major collection of artifacts and memorabilia from his dad’s service in the Army Air Force as a ferry pilot during World War II. He had flown across America to North Africa, Turkey, Afghanistan to Calcutta and onward to Burma, China, then back again many times. These things can never be replaced. However, they were able to save some precious albums from their wedding, their childhoods, and their travels. When they went back to their home, which had burned down completely, they were crestfallen, but they did find jewelry in the ashes from a spot near where Anna’s jewelry box had been. Among the items were her grandmother’s and great-grandmother’s wedding rings and her Brooklyn born and bred uncle’s large ‘Guido’ ring.
They had a few other things, remnants that escaped total destruction by the fire or were partially melted, but still had meaning for them. These were in a crate at the place they were renting, and unfortunately the landlord tossed them out before they could build a memorial to their fire experience with them.
Mike sums it up, “Fall 2020 was a miserable time. We had so much loss that fall. First the fire then my car’s stolen. Even my ex-partner, the mother of my son, sadly also died two months after the fire. Thankfully, we finally got back into our home by November 2021.”
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