I live in a rural community off of the 101 freeway called Old Agoura. It is mostly horse country that is bordered on the north by Chesebro canyon, a large hilly park area that is popular with mountain bikers, equestrians and hikers. It is also very dry, and the January and February rains allowed brush to grow in thickly throughout the area.
The family went to sleep on Wednesday night knowing that there was a brush fire about 10 miles to the NE near Chatsworth. We did not make any preparations to evacuate before we went to bed. However, by Thursday morning at 2:50 am, the fire had progressed to the south and was threatening our neighborhood, as well as Oak Park, a residential community to the Northwest. Local authorities placed a mandatory evacuation on my neighborhood and the rest of Agoura Hills at 2:30 am.
Local authorities called our house, then police drove through the neighborhood announcing the evacuation over their loudspeakers, and finally they went door to door. My wife and I gathered up the baby, 2 dogs and some food and clothing up and were out the door in about 15 mins.
We went to my mother-in-law's home in Westlake Village, where we had a great view of the night fires threatening Oak Park. Flames at the top of the hills were licking up and down the ridges and as morning came, everything nearby was covered in ash and the smoke was thick.
The helicopters started flying just after daybreak, and combined with the firefighters on the ground, succeeded in fighting back the Oak Park blazes by the late afternoon.
Back in my neigborhood, firefighters took advantage of the slight northerly wind to set backfires around the Chesebro Canyon area, which helped to buffer the neighborhood in the event that the fire shifted to the south. We went back to the house to gather some more possessions that we didn't get during our hasty retreat in the middle of the night- photos, financial records, and more clothing.
During Thursday night, the fire was concentrated in two major areas- Las Virgenes which was 2 miles to the east of our home, and Bell Canyon, further to the north near Simi Valley. By this morning, the Las Virgenes fire was under control and our evacuation status was listed as "evacuation watch" meaning that we could go home.
Some things I noticed and learned:
- Local government really worked well. The fire spanned two counties- Los Angeles and Ventura. Government from both counties worked together to coordinate the evacuations and had shelters set up for people and animals in the middle of the night. They coordinated county fire departments and the park ranger services as well as firefighters from other communities who volunteered to help out. They managed to keep Ahnold out of the area until this morning, no doubt aided by Ahnold's need to veto the gay marriage bill.
- The firefighting teams are spectacular. These guys were everywhere, and reacting to shifts in the fire in a fluid and coordinated function. Their exceptional professionalism and bravery undoubtedly saved many homes. And the helicopter and aircraft pilots can really drop their water with pinpoint accuracy in rough terrain.
- The vast majority of people followed the evacuation orders, and the evacuation procedure was fairly simple and was very well coordinated. However, news reports showed people in different communities who refused to leave their homes until the were personally told by firefighters that it was time to go. And people in Oak Park were watching the fires come down the hill within 100s of yards of their homes instead of getting out of Dodge.
- I would grade our own response as a "C+". We got everyone out safely and quickly, but we didn't have an evacuation plan in place and I feel that we should have been more prepared given that the fire had been so close. I urge everyone reading this to go back and look at AlphaGeek's excellent series "Are YOU ready for disaster". Personally, I'm going to make a kit with food, water, medication, flashlight, batteries, etc. as well as preparing an evacuation checklist for the home.