THE UNION 5/8/25
By Tom Durkin, Columnist
You can see the fire through the trees. Smoke is searing your lungs. The air is filled the frantic
voices of people yelling. Panicked deer, rabbits and other wildlife are running through yards.
Wailing sirens are approaching. A helicopter with a water bucket chops through the smoke. The
hi-lo, get-out-now! warning from a sheriff’s patrol car is piercing through the racket. A huge
DC-10 VLAT (very large air tanker) flies overhead at tree-top level.
You grab your go-bag and hurry the terrified kids into the car. A CHP officer orders you to move,
move, move! as you fall in behind other cars snaking up both lanes of the two-lane road past
firefighters valiantly working to keep the raging fire from jumping the road.
You make it out of the danger zone with the other cars, and you’re beginning to take stock. Thank
God, everybody’s safe. You got your go-bag, but you forgot your laptop and the precious family
Bible. You’re just beginning to realize you may never see your home again when – OMG! you left Mrs.
Collins, your 80- year-old disabled neighbor who doesn’t drive.
There’s no going back.
How could you possibly forget the sweet old lady who baked cookies for your kids every Saturday
morning? How could you live with yourself if she dies?
REALITY CHECK
How could you have prevented such life-and-death mistake? A list. You need to
itemize everything you want to save. Put the go bag on the list.
I go through this frustrating rant every year. Fire agencies, law enforcement and offices of
emergency services are brainlessly obsessed with go bags when they should be emphasizing a go list.
It’s extremely difficult to think clearly during the chaos of a wildfire evacuation. I know. I went
through the kind of evacuation I just described. The woods across the road were an 80-foot wall of
fire. I made sure my neighbor, who was paralyzed with fear, got out, but I left my guitar.
Fortunately, thanks to the heroic efforts of first responders, our homes were saved, but lesson
learned. Ever since, I have had a list posted on the wall of all the things I need to load into my
car – including, of course, my go bag.
Think it through. Assume you may never see your home again. What must you absolutely take with you?
What’s irreplaceable and portable? Do it now. Make a go list while you are thinking straight, lest
you leave something – or somebody
– behind during the pandemonium of an actual emergency.
AN INCONVENIENT QUESTION
Last week, the city councils of Grass Valley, Nevada City and Truckee convened
with the Nevada County Board of Supervisors in Truckee to hear a presentation on transportation.
I asked them if they had any plans of how to evacuate homeless people. My job for Sierra Roots
under contract to the Nevada City OES is to coordinate the
evacuation of the city’s homeless folks, but I thought the question was relevant to all concerned.
They didn’t have an answer, but now, at least, I hope, they’re all thinking about it.
The next day, I asked the Nevada County Community Foundation’s panel on disaster readiness and
resilience the same question. And got the same answer.
One participant, however, offered this insight: There are only two kinds of people who die in a
wildfire – stupid heroes and people with mobility issues.
The heroes, usually men in their 30s and 40s, are found dead “with a garden hose in his hand” from
trying to save his house.
FIRE ESCAPE
While some have cars, many homeless folks and disabled people are at the
highest risk in one of the highest danger zones in the nation.
Neighbors must look out for their elderly and disabled neighbors who do not have transportation.
The best advice I can find for homeless folks is that local homeless-serving agencies like Sierra
Roots, Hospitality House, FREED and others must collaborate with government agencies like fire, law
enforcement, OES, health & human services and others to develop an executable evacuation plan.
We’re working on it. I’m meeting with Nevada County OES next week.
Meanwhile, I’m telling our homeless people to sign up for Code Red, keep your cell phones charged
and don’t wait for an evacuation order. If you get an evac warning, you must find a way to get out
while you can … because, as of right now, when the fire comes, nobody’s coming for you.
Tom Durkin is the creative director of the Sierra Roots/No Place to Go Project and project lead for
a Neighbor-to-Neighbor grant to evacuate our homeless people during a wildfire. Durkin may be
contacted at tomdurkin@sierra-roots.org or 530-559-3199.
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