Then, just a few days ago, a fire started on a military shooting range in Utah, which grew quickly due to high winds that came up. The fire went up the mountain and down the other side towards the town of Herriman, destroying several homes and causing the evacuation of many people. including the daughter of a cousin. Friends also were within 3 blocks of having to leave. It had to be a scary thing, to see this heading towards your home!
These 2 fires bring back a lot of memories of living through the Big Lake Fire in Alaska some years back. In addition to the memories below, I recall that we had a pretty wide lawn around our house that we kept mowed. Near the house was a grove of trees. During the fire, we had a chain saw ready to go so we could cut down those trees at a moments notice if the fire jumped the firebreak and came our way. The more recent fires reminded me that it would be a good idea to know where our important papers are quickly, and also make a prioritized list of things to try to take if we ever had to evacuate our home.
This is what I remember of the Big Lake Fire:
We were down to the last few days of school in 1996 and everyone was anxious for summer vacation to start. It was maybe the last day or so of final exams for the high school when we first noticed the smoke rising into the sky and leaving a dingy grayish yellow color. The news reports eventually said that someone had set a fire with fireworks out past Big Lake near Millers Reach. Fires come and go, so I didn’t pay to much attention to this one. After all, the fire departments were generally quick to respond and take care of such fires.
This fire didn’t follow the script. By the next day it was apparent that it was good that school was over for the summer. People were streaming into Wasilla High School which had been set up as an evacuation center. People who lived near the fire area were asked to evacuate their homes. Some did, and some were determined to stay behind and try to protect their homes. The Red Cross quickly tried to cope with the situation, but setting up instantly for quantities of people is tough. The evacuees were all at loose ends with nothing much to do but sit around and wonder if they still had a home. The kids were running wild all over the place.
I was working at the Family History Center that afternoon, when someone called there and asked me to open the building for the Red Cross. (at the Stake President’s request) The building was to be used as a drop off point for donations for fire victims and evacuees. I didn’t realize when I opened the doors what the building would soon look like.
People in Alaska are generous and this occasion was no exception. They started dropping things off at the high school before anyone even asked for donations. The school didn’t have room for both the evacuees and the donations, nor the manpower to handle the donations. As soon as they heard the OK to have our building open, they started directing people to bring the things to us at the church.
Initially we started stacking garbage bags and boxes in the middle of the gym. Soon it became apparent that too much stuff was pouring in, so they started taking all the donations to the stage area of the gym. On the gym floor, they put up all of the round tables and labeled them with what was to go on them. Various wards in the stake agreed to man the church 24 hours a day to get things sorted and available to those who needed them. Other wards provided lunches for anyone who was working at the church.
Some people worked on the stage, opening bags and boxes, sorting the items, and folding them ready to be taken to one of the round tables. We had piles for men’s, women’s and children’s pants, shirts, underwear, etc. It wasn’t long before the whole gym was filled with clothes. It was interesting, to see how situations like this sometimes bring out the worst in people and sometimes the best. I often sat at the table at the entrance to the gym to direct traffic.
One rather large lady came in with some huge shopping bags. She told of how she had been in a situation where she had lost her possessions and how hard it had been to find things for herself amongst the donations, so she had stopped at a local clothing store and purchased a number of complete, large-sized outfits to donate.
Another man stopped by my table and wanted to write the Church a check to be used to purchase whatever seemed necessary. I told him the Church could not accept his check, that he would have to write it to the Red Cross. Unfortunately, he had quite a grudge against the Red Cross from his time in the service and didn’t want them to have any of his money. Finally he asked if there was anything he could buy and donate that would be really needed. I suggested that perhaps something like underwear would be good, since most people really don’t want used underwear. Half an hour later he was back with several huge Walmart bags overflowing with various types and sizes of underwear.
While most of the workers there were church members, I noticed one lady there day after day. When we asked her why she was there, we found out she had been evacuated from her home. She said she couldn’t stand just sitting around at the high school wondering if she had a house, so she came over every day to help us with the sorting. She always wore the same outfit, one she had found in our bags on the first day.
As people came in to find clothing for their families, we tried to direct them and help them find appropriate sizes. Many were reluctant to take more than one or two outfits each, worrying that they needed to be sure to leave enough for other families. Little did they realize that this was NOT the problem. There was an ample amount of clothing, and more pouring in all the time.
Not everyone was so generous. As we sorted through bags of things, we found soiled, moldy clothing, ....torn, worn out clothing. Some folks seemed to think donating their garbage would just save them a trip to the dump. One of the ladies from church started setting aside all the jeans that were too torn to use. She took them home, washed them, and cut them into squares that we later used to make quilts with. The quilts were eventually given to fire victims.
We noticed that one couple stopped by every day and ‘shopped’, taking out huge loads of stuff every time they came. We wondered if they weren’t stocking a garage sale somewhere. Though most people tried hard to take things in their stride and not complain, one man was notable for his whining. In a room of people who had lost their homes and all their possessions, he carried on about his awful luck in losing the tent he was camping in and his camera. We didn’t feel too sorry for him.
The missionaries spent a good part of their time for a couple of weeks in helping with the donations. One sister missionary confided, as she sat on the stage for days on end sorting and folding clothing, that before her mission, her most hated chore was folding laundry.
In Anchorage, many of the stores set up donation places where people could bring things. Then they were trucked out to us. Oh what a dreaded call that got to be....to hear that a truck was backing up to the curb ready to be unloaded. They brought the stuff in cars, pickups, box vans and semi trailers. Anchorage schools had a day or two longer to go than we did, so many schools organized drives for canned goods which were also delivered to us. Sadly, a few of the schools used the trucks as a place to dispose of all the end of year garbage. We ended up with an enormous rubbermaid bin full of crayons.
Amidst all the tiring hours of work, a little laughter broke the monotony. One good-sized young elder delighted in trying on and parading around in some of the articles of clothing which were donated. We had so many shoes we ran out of room for them in the gym, so we started using the classrooms. There were lots of boxes, so we turned them on their sides so we could use them for shelves. We stacked them in 3 of the classrooms and filled them with shoes sorted by size and type. We called them the “Imelda Marcos rooms” after the former first lady of the Philippines who was famous for wasting money on shoes.
One classroom was devoted to stuffed animals. We had plenty. In fact I would guess that the classroom was one-half to two-thirds full of stuffed animals. The kids liked to use it for a ball pit. They’d open the door and sort of take a flying leap into the middle of the room. When we finally emptied that room, we found a number of strange things at the bottom of the heap....among them my car keys which had fallen out of Bethany’s pocket and become lost in there.
Sweaters of various sizes and types also ended up filling 3 rooms. Children’s coats and snowsuits filled one coat closet. Adult coats filled up the long coat rack at the back of the building. One classroom was filled with games and puzzles, while a couple of others were filled with toys. There were even a couple of rooms filled with books. The Relief Society room was where we put furniture, dishes, household items and bedding. The Nursery was full of donated canned goods and personal items. The Primary room was set up with tables where people could eat at meal times. The various ward relief societies in the ward took turns preparing food for any workers or evacuees who were in the building at mealtimes.
For some reason, the fire was not catered. I don’t know why. Sometimes on the radio they would announce things that the firefighters needed. One day they announced that they needed 1000 sandwiches. They got 4000.
The first firefighters, of course, were local. Alaska has a number of trained wild fire fighters, many of them part of hot shot crews, the elite in fire fighters. They knew what to expect of fire conditions here. Some of the crews they brought in from other states were not as prepared. They were from warm, dry places. Big Lake area is neither warm nor dry. Strangely they were fighting this fire in the swamps. Black spruce would just burst into flames. The strong wind kept the fire moving. Soon the firefighters were having smoke problems, and the call came for bandannas that they could soak in water and tie around their faces. We grabbed all the bandanas that had been donated, then had some of our helpers start cutting up old sheets that had been donated to make more.
Then the firefighters all got wet feet from wading through the swamps. They announced on the radio that there was a need for clean, dry socks. We sorted out a bunch of donated socks and sent them out. Then people from the community started showing up at the door with bags of brand new socks. We heard that Walmart just about sold out of men’s socks. Next the firefighters discovered that it gets cool at night in Alaska. They were sleeping in tents. They called and asked us if any sweat pants and shirts had been donated. We boxed up many of them and sent them off to the firefighters to be used as pajamas. They also asked for eye drops and painkillers like aspirin, which we also collected when people brought them in and then sent up to the firefighters.
Roger was still working for the school district at that time. They were pretty concerned about a couple of the schools, Big Lake Elementary and Houston Jr/Sr. High School. They sent Roger up there to get the computers out of the schools. Houston High was being used as a staging ground for the fire I believe, but when he was up there, the flames were shooting high in the air not far from the school. Fortunately they were able to save both schools. They were not so lucky with other structures. We believe about 400 buildings were destroyed...homes, sheds, cabins and barns. Many folks in the fire area kept animals. Most of the animals were evacuated to private homes, farms or to the fairgrounds in Palmer.
During the fire, we only had Sacrament meeting for two weeks in a row. We couldn’t have more than that because all the rooms except the Chapel were pretty much full of things. Even on Sunday, the building was open for people to come and get the clothing and supplies that they needed.
There was a great deal of concern about trying to contain the fire, with the high winds at that time. Great effort was made especially to establish fire breaks at the only two major roads near the fire...Knik Road and the Parks Highway. With the direction of the wind, it was feared that if the fire jumped the Parks Highway, it would be able to burn back towards Wasilla. Fortunately it only jumped the road a couple of times and they were able to put both of those areas out pretty quickly.
As time went on, many outlying areas of Knik Road were evacuated. The people there had more time to think about the fire coming and prepare for it. One elderly couple in our ward, Bruce and Darlene, had some health problems. Bruce often had to use oxygen, and with the fire, the smoke in the air was really hard on him. When they left their home, they moved into our travel trailer in our back yard. We hooked them up with water, sewer and electricity and gave them the portable phone to use. They preferred the privacy of the trailer to trying to stay in someone’s home. Their son also lived in a possible evacuation area, so he brought a few of his special possessions over and kept them in the trailer with his parents until the fire danger was over. A couple of families were able to get the use of a box van. They used the van to move all their possessions out of their houses and in to our garage for safe-keeping. Another man from the evacuation area brought several snow machines over to park on our yard where they would be safer.
Along Knik Road, firefighters and community people were working together to build a fire break. They were using chain saws and bulldozers...whatever they could find. They told of animals, bears, moose, foxes,....running out of the woods ahead of the fires.
At last the winds died down and the fire was contained. The Knik Road people who had been evacuated were able to return to the homes. The Big Lake people were able to return to see if they had a house or not.
We still had a church full of many donated items. Not many people had a great need for stuffed animals. Those with no homes left had no room for them anyway. We decided to sort them and box the nicest ones up to give to the state troopers. They keep a few in their cars to give to children in traumatic situations. Most of the clothing that was left was donated to local organizations who deal with that sort of thing. Eventually, all of the things were gone from the church and Sundays went back to normal. We thought.
We were sitting in Sacrament meeting the day after clearing out the last of the things. Several people had been asked to speak concerning their feelings about the opportunity to give service to the community during the fire. Roger was one of those asked to speak. As he was sitting on the stand, someone came into the chapel and handed him a note that he was wanted on the phone. It was his boss from work who had managed to track him down. He was needed at once to go over to one of the local schools to hook up many computers for the FEMA people to use. He didn’t ever make it back in time to speak.
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