The Bowl (Photo – Mala Arthur)
Tuesday January 7, was proceeding fairly normally for us, our adult son cooking a Japanese-style dinner despite the power being cut. The very high wind gusts had us all on edge, with fire danger always on our minds. We had gathered many of our important belongings and supplies, and I started loading them into our van “just in case”.
By Mala Arthur
My fire notification app had been buzzing all afternoon and evening, but the next report that arrived was different – closer, more threatening. Eaton Canyon was on fire again. At first it seemed like a small thing, easily contained, but then reports were coming via non-professional channels that there was a large red glow in the hills. Our higher-on-the-hill neighbors sent a photo of the glow.
As the Emergency Response leader, I made arrangements for our neighborhood horses to be evacuated and for our rarely-used semi-secret back route to be opened. In the meantime the glow got bigger and brighter.
I notified my neighborhood and the larger area, and tried to finish packing the cars. It was time to go! I pulled out the hoses close to the driveway so they were available to firefighters if needed. We closed up the windows, left a battery-powered lantern lit on the dining room table, and as I was leaving, I saw a little blue bowl on the stand next to the front door. A friend had loaned it to me awhile ago, full of yummy hummus at the time. “I should take that! He will want it back!”, I thought, so I grabbed it and the small ziplock of homemade cookies I’d saved for another friend I had planned to see the next day. I closed and locked the door and we evacuated just as the flames came over the ridge on the other side of our canyon.
Later, my friend laughed that I had saved his bowl. “It’s of no importance at all” he said. To me, it seemed important to return it if possible. It’s so funny how we make our choices under stress.
Mala Arthur lives in a very high fire danger canyon that is gorgeous, and manages the neighborhood association and a mostly-inactive Fire Safe Council. She has lived in the area for 37 years.
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