If you’ve been paying attention to the national news, the you probably are aware of the massive wildfires raging through Central Texas right now.
There have been several small fires over the past month or so, because we haven’t seen any rain since at least May, and the area is extremely dry. However, last Sunday, a fire started in Bastrop that has yet to be put out. So far, the fire has destroyed over 1,500 homes and 34,000 acres. It has killed two people and leaves 17 people unaccounted for. It is currently only 50% contained.
And it’s only one of the nearly 200 wildfires in Texas right now.
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I couldn’t have been more than four or five years old, but I still have vivid memories of the night it happened. My parents were at church when that night, and for some reason I was over at a friend’s house right next to the church with my sister, Jennifer watching us. My friend and I were playing upstairs and suddenly heard crying coming from the living room. We came downstairs to find out what was going on, and found my sister and mother in the living room, sobbing.
We rushed home to find our yard filled with fire trucks and police officers. Our house had been struck by lightning during a storm, and was burning to the ground.
Our neighbors had called 911 when they saw the smoke rising from our house (a blessing that they even noticed it, since my family lives in a heavily wooded area and our neighbors house isn’t even visible from our front yard) and someone had managed to get our two dogs out of the house before it was too late, though my sister’s cat did not make it out in time.
I was too young to really realize what was going on, but I remember watching the house burn from the edge of my trampoline. A firefighter gave me a black teddy bear, and it officially became the only toy I owned. I also remember driving out to my grandparents’ house, late that night once the fire was put out and the house was completely gone. When we were halfway there, I suddenly realized that my precious blanket, the one I slept with every night and toted around with me almost everywhere I went, had been in the house. My mom began to quietly cry when I sadly lamented over the fact that I couldn’t sleep without it.
In the months after that night, I remember visiting our land and ย going through the ashes of our old home. They’ve since been moved to another place on my parent’s property, but they are still there. When I was a little older, I used to go out to the place on their land where the ashes are and look though them, sometimes finding a fork that had remained intact, or the charred remains of a toy, or a piece of clothing.
My family built a new home on that land, and over the years we gathered new possessions, and soon my collection of toys grew much past my one little black teddy bear. But, I’ll never forget that night and the effects of it will remain with me for the rest of my life. For several years after the fire, I was inconsolable any time there was a thunderstorm. I was terrified of thunder, lightening, and even rain made me uncomfortable. To this day, I won’t go anywhere near a flame, and refuse to light candles in my home. Birthday cakes make me nervous, and while most kids I know grew up loving to set off sparklers on the Fourth of July, I quickly back away if there is one in my vicinity.
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The fires going on throughout my state right now are absolutely devastating. I feel so sad for the thousands of families who have lost their homes, and I can’t stop thinking about the children who now have no toys to play with, and no blanket to sleep with.
The situation in our area right now is very grave, and there are new fires popping up every day. Last Monday, in fact, there was a fire less than two miles from our house that destroyed 11 homes, damaged 8 others, and caused hundreds of families to have to evacuate. The night of the fire, I spent the majority of my evening glued to my computer, constantly refreshing my browser for updates on the fire. Corey and I were afraid we might have to evacuate our home, and so about an hour after the fire began, we packed a bag.
I can’t even being to describe how surreal it is to go through your home and choose the things that are most important to you.
We have left the bag packed, and plan to keep it packed and ready to go until our area gets some rain and is not quite so dangerous.
We were so blessed to be able to have time to do this before anything happened to our home, and I am so sad for the thousands of families who didn’t have that opportunity. So, I’m going to share with you the things that we chose out of our home as irreplaceable, in the hopes that it might encourage you to prepare a list (or even pack a bag) of the things that are the most important to you as well.
Hands down, the thing that I (and the rest of my family, I’m sure) am the most sad about losing in our house fire is photos. I have less than 25 photos of me from before I was about 5 years old, and those photos were all given to us by family members. I am determined not to let that happen to Corey and I – we gathered up all of the photos we have on c.d.s (including our wedding photos), and put them in the bag first.
The white box you see is our external hard drive, which has more photos and various ย other files on it, and there is also our video camera, an extra lens for our digital camera (which was also in the bag), and various cords.
One of the first things I grabbed was a few pieces of jewelry that are vitally important to me. The pearls were a gift that Corey picked up in India, the Tiffany box contains a necklace Corey gave me on the day of our wedding, and there are a few other important necklaces in the Swarovskiย box.
Every year for Corey’s birthday, I make him a scrapbook. We have five scrapbooks from over the years (plus one more from this year that is created but hasn’t been ordered yet), and I am not about to lose them in a fire. There are also a couple of other albums of photos that we do not have on computers.
We call this the Corey Box. It’s a box that contains mementos of our relationship, and it used to live under my bed at my parents’ house when I was in high school. There are notes that we used to pass back and forth during class, cards from birthdays, and ticket subs from various concerts and movies. There are also a couple of old photos of myself as a child, and several old photos of my parents and grandparents.
This little nametag was my grandfather’s nametag from the church he went to. The car that I drive is my grandparents’ old car that my parents bought when mine was totalled in high school, and Corey found this under one of the seats one day. My grandfather passed away two years ago, and I’ve held onto this nametag ever since we found it in my car.
My mentor teacher from student teaching gave me this book on my last day there, and it means a lot to me. Student teaching was one of the best experiences of my life, and this book makes me incredibly happy. My mentor teacher gathered a list of all of the funny quotes and things that happened over the semester and printed them out to put in the book for me. Looking through it brings back some wonderful memories, and I would be devastated if I lost it.
The large green binder is my Martha Stewart Weddings binder that I used throughout the duration of our wedding planning, and the two journals are old diaries of mine – one that I used throughout college and one that I made for Corey in my senior year of high school to give him when I moved away from home.
We also had one other bag, that has since been unpacked, that had some clothing and our phone and laptop chargers, as well as a few trinkets from around the house that we couldn’t bear to part with. We also had set aside our file folder that contains our passports, birth certificates ,and other important papers.
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A few days after this all happened, when I was unpacking the clothing bag, I realized there were two very important things we had forgotten – my black teddy bear from my first fire, who is still sitting up in the top of our master bedroom closet, and a blanket that my grandmother hand-crocheted for me several years ago. I’ve added my teddy bear into the bag and moved the blanket to a place where it can be easily retrieved in case we have to evacuate our home.
We are so lucky that we didn’t actually have to use this bag that we packed, but I’m so glad that we have it done. We’ll be leaving it packed until we feel better about the situation in our area, and even after that I plan to find a way to keep these items close together and easily retrievable.
I know that fires and other natural disasters are the sorts of things that don’t happen very often, and feel like they could happen to anyone but you. But I’m begging you to please set aside some time this week to think about the things in your home that are important to you. What would you grab if you had five minutes? Ten? An hour? Make a list and put it somewhere so you can grab it in case of an emergency and not forget anything. Talk to whoever you live with and have a plan of what you will do if you need to leave the house quickly. Don’t wait until it is too late.
If you live in the Austin area and would like to help out, local Randalls are accepting donations to go towards the Red Cross fire relief. You can also visit the Texas Wildfire Relief Fund website to make a donation online. For a list of several other ways to help, please click here.ย
Jill says
How frightening to have your home burn down. I can’t imagine dealing with that. It’s nice to see how prepared you are just in case (and I am hoping you guys don’t have to use it).
Jess says
Your post touched me in a way you wouldn’t believe. I had this post half written when you posted this: http://www.fearlesslyfree.com/2011/09/nomadic-life.html
We lost a lot of things in our move, and I was devastated. It’s not a fire or anything, but it definitely made me think about what Chris and I really NEED in life. I also added a bit at the end about the things that are really meaningful to us and I made sure to show you some props!
Those old pictures of your parents and grandparents are gorgeous. When my family fled Cuba during the rise of communism, they weren’t allowed to take any pictures with them when they left, so seeing old pictures like those always breaks my heart a little. I’m so glad that you included them on your list of things to take with you in case of an emergency.
Natalie says
This is a great post, friend. I am so sorry to hear about your childhood home. Of course I’ve been keeping tabs on the fires too, and I was just thinking that I hoped you guys were safe but I didn’t know which area of Austin you lived in. I will continue to pray for safety for you guys and your families!
Sandi says
Amanda, this was such a well written post. Just beautiful and touching. I too began to consider what was important to me in case a fire drew near to us. As you know we live far out in the trees and fire these days is a real threat. You chose well.
Melissa says
Such a sad story. Natural disasters aren’t as typical in the north east, so this definitely hasn’t been on my radar, until the earthquake hit the east coast and the recent torando in MA. This story just reinforced hte fact that we need to be more prepared for the unexpected. I hope it rains near you soon.
Bonnie Joy says
Thankyou for sharing this! I showed your post to my husband, and he can identify strongly with the feelings you felt after your house burned down, because his family lost their house too in a Californian bushfire when he was 16. I cant even imagine what that must be llike. Im praying for rain in Texas.
Lauren says
That is such a scary and sad story about your childhood home. I hope that there is some rain down there to help out with the fires. Your post also reminded me to do another data dump onto our external hard drive.
Mandy says
Great post! Such a sad story about losing your house. I think the vitals that you packed up sound perfect, but still so scary to have to think about it.
Jessica says
It’s heartbreaking to hear your story and hear of all the families that are going through similar situations right now. I think every family should have a plan for evacuation and a place where they can easily grab those items that are most important to them.
Colleen says
I live in Canada and had no idea this was even going on!!
Hope everything is okay!
Morgan says
I will definitely be keeping my fingers crossed for you guys that the fires clear up soon, and stay far, far away from your house.
Also, I had to think about this recently when we had a tornado warning one county away from us. But I have all of our important pictures uploaded online, so other than my childhood teddy bear and our pets, most everything we have could be replaced. But I did put together a mental list of what we would grab if we had to go hide under the basement stairs if we ever have a tornado here, it’s definitely a sobering internal conversation to have with yourself.
Sarah B. says
Your story made me cry! I can’t imagine how very real this all must be for you and how your heart must break even more than the rest of us for all of these people in our city. You’ve definitely inspired me to get together a bag of things until this drought passes…. so thank you!
Kira says
Thanks for sharing your story, Amanda. Stay safe in Texas.
Megan says
Oh wow, I can’t believe your childhood home burned down! I’m glad it’s helped you be prepared for today though, your reminder to make a list of important ‘things to take’ is very helpful. I’ve thought about it generally (like when hurricane Irene hit and we were worried about flooding or trees falling on our house), but I should actually go through the house and locate things. I’ll try to send all our recent torrential downpours your way!
kelsey says
Oh my gosh, Amanda. Your story made me tear up! How terrible! I had no idea about the fire at your house when you were a child. I cannot even imagine how terrified you must have been when the fires started popping up around here. I keep hoping for rain.
Lyndsey says
Wow, such a devastating story! I just can’t even imagine. So many things have been happening this year it just seems like one thing after another. The tsunami, the tornadoes, the earthquakes, the massive flooding on the east coast, and hurricanes and now fires. I live in central Ohio and I feel like we’re one the lucky few who have been unaffected by all of this (we got the earthquake but not badly enough to damage anything). Even so, I have been spending a (probably unhealthy) amount of time thinking about what we would do in a disaster and whether or not we’d be okay. I’ve started to buy a little bit extra at the grocery store every week, and I bought a firebox for our important papers. I plan to get some extra bottled water and batteries just to have. This has been a really scary year, and it seems to me like its been worse than others… although I keep wondering if I just feel that way because I now have so much more to lose. Either way, I think your message is a good one– there is no harm in being prepared.
Caitlin says
Thank you so much for posting this! My husband and I live in Virginia, so when hurricane Irene came, we decided to go to my parents’ house to wait for the storm to pass. We just got married and this was also the first time I’ve ever left home for a hurricane, so I wasn’t sure what to take. We moved a few things (like my wedding dress) to protect them from possible water damage and grabbed our important papers and wedding photo CD, but we left many things that I thought of while reading your post.
Thankfully our home was unharmed, but we weren’t completely prepared and we would have lost some irreplaceable sentimental things. I made a list as soon as I finished reading this, so we will be more prepared next time.
Lori says
What a great post. Thank you for sharing something so personal… I bawled through the whole thing. I’m so sorry you lost so much – but so happy for you for where you are now. I can’t even imagine the pain of going through something like that. It’s hard to watch the news every night. I, too, hope the fires are all contained soon – they are EVERYWHERE. We have yet to be evacuated but are ready if we need to.
Take care.
Victoria says
This was a beautiful, heart wrenching story and I pray that you never have to go through that again. Its humbling to hear others stories as I havent been through this myself.
Will be doing a rain dance for you and Texas. <3
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