The Ousley Clan Blog: What did you say, loud speaker?

Go into shelter? Is THAT what you said? Do you see this pole here, well it is right behind our fence in our backyard. We here this thing EVERY Friday when they play music at noon and it is VERY LOUD. It also goes off when there is an exercise going on and it tells us what to do, but we don't have to listen when it is just an exercise. The first time I heard it go off it said "Danger! Danger! Imminent Danger, take shelter immediately!" Well this freaked me out just a little cause I wasn't sure where I was suppose to go. I called my husband to find out what was going on and he informed me that it was just an exercise. Whew. Close call on that one! Well, today we had to listen to the loudspeaker, this was NOT an exercise.
It started off normal, we had busy day and evening planned around here. The kids and I woke up and headed out this afternoon to finish up some school shopping. Since we were already out, I stopped by the Church to get some work done. While were there my cellphone rang, it was my neighbor letting me know that there was a HUGE fire on base and that we were told to stay inside and shut all windows and doors, and to shut off our AC. I wasn't worried at first, but then started thinking about my dogs locked in our house. She informed me that it wasn't too far from our house, so I decided to head back to the base.

You could see the smoke before we even got near the base, that's how bad it was. Unfortunately the winds are kicked into high gear and is not helping the fire at all. So far the fire has consumed about 24 houses, which luckily were empty and about to be demolished. I guess this is speeding up that process. When we got home we were getting out of our van to go into our house and a cop was driving by and talking on his loudspeaker telling us all to get inside, so we all ran into the house. No time to be giving the cops any trouble! I turned on the news right away and discovered that it turned into a 8 alarm fire. That's pretty bad right? I would think so since it has consumed so many houses.

They are still working on the fire as we speak and now some of base housing has lost power too. They came across the loudspeaker and informed everyone that it is NOT scheduled to come back on tonight and are not sure when it is due to come back on. They have now opened up a shelter here on base for those people. We have been very fortunate so far and still have power. I do know that the fire is near some gas lines and that could be why they shut down the power to some houses.

I don't plan on evacuating unless they make me at this point. It is pretty tough to find a place that will take four kids and two dogs. Our Pastor called to check on us and offered his house as a place to go to if we need to get out. I am so grateful for our Church family at times like this. I am just praying that they contain the fire and get everything squared away soon. I know they have called in Firefighters from all over Solano county to help out. If it makes it through the vacant houses, it could very well hit our house next. We are right by the fire and if it spreads anymore, it could get very bad. I have noticed tons of fire trucks and cops cruising up and down our street to make sure it doesn't hop over here. With the winds so strong, it very well could happen.

Please pray for the safety of those men and women over there putting their lives on the line to keep our houses safe. From the mouth of Tyler- "those guys are brave." They sure are and I am thankful for that.

I will keep everyone posted tomorrow about how things turned out here. I am sure it will all be fine after they get the fire under control. Here are some pictures (with my new camera of course) to show you what things looked like around here. The pictures don't really get how bad it is around here. There are huge chunks of black ash flying all over my house. You can't even go outside without gagging. It is so bad you can smell it all in the house too.

This was taken in my driveway looking down my street.