There’s Always Writing Fodder
Terry Odell
I live in a rural mountain subdivision in Colorado. Last week, there was a house fire very near to my house. Firefighters (all volunteer here) showed up quickly and began their attack. The structure was too far gone to save, and the dried grasses which had grown quite tall due to a wet spring and summer, caught quickly. The wind, fortunately for us, was blowing everything in the opposite direction, but was pushing the fire into other subdivisions.
Things seemed all right, but the winds intensified the next day, with 50+ mile per hour gusts, and the Sheriff declared our entire subdivision under evacuation orders. The Hubster wasn’t in town, and after a brief discussion, we decided it was smart for me to follow the orders. I’d rather be packed up and leaving mid-day rather than discover the fire had shifted direction later that night, and was now coming our way. There’s only one road in and out of our subdivision, and the thought of dealing with leaving in the middle of the night didn’t appeal. Nor did being trapped. I have a son who lives not that far away, and he has a guestroom, so that’s where I went.
Although very little of our subdivision was affected, the higher ups decided to name the fire after it. Word spread through social media, and I had mixed feelings about being thankful for everyone who wanted to know how I was, and trying to reassure everyone I was fine, while trying to get everything that I needed to pack up so I could leave.
All in all, it was a “small” fire—under 200 acres. Seven hundred homes were at risk, but only that first one, where the fire started, was lost.
I was only gone for 24 hours, but it was a lesson in preparedness, and knowing what the essentials are should you have to leave in a hurry.
I posted a much more detailed accounting of my experiences on my own blog. If you’re interested, it’s here.
My heartfelt thanks to the first responders, and to our Sheriff who coordinated getting firefighters, law enforcement, air support, heavy equipment, and everything else that goes with fighting a fire mobilized quickly—and to use his terms—aggressively.
Of course, everything is writing fodder, and the circumstances surrounding this “event” opened a number of possibilities.
Our subdivision has a Facebook group, and there was—as might be expected—a lot of action. The house that burned to the ground was owned by a woman with a sketchy reputation in the hood. She had mental health issues, had a reputation for running cars off the road, pulling a gun or a knife, and had spent time in jail. The house was in foreclosure the day of the fire, and due to go up for auction in a couple of weeks.
Consensus seems to be that the (former) owner was responsible for the fire. An accident or deliberate? The case is still under investigation. Someone reported seeing her watching from the street as her house burned. Suspicious behavior or genuine concern?
Some residents offered extreme sympathy, pointing out that she was apologizing profusely, with abundant tears. She didn’t mean it, and it was a tragedy, and she should be forgiven.
Others spoke up that she should have been arrested on the spot. (She was detained, but released.)
Still others brought God into the picture, because the tall cross that was in the woman’s yard was spared. Was it divine intervention, or just located far enough away to not be burned?
The house in question was on one of my regular walking routes. What I saw was how close the fire had come to the three nearby houses. The yards surrounding them were charred. Had a gust of wind sent embers flying, those houses could have been destroyed as well. It was only because the firefighters arrived so quickly that they were able to keep those homes from burning, too.
photos taken by a local resident.
Vocabulary word of the week: Mitigation
I wonder whether the residents of those homes would be on the ‘forgiveness’ side of the fence. And what about all the other homes in the other subdivisions that were threatened, whose owners had to evacuate in a hurry?
Even if I have no intention of writing a fire story (I already included several fire incidents in my Mapleton books), the human nature aspect offers plenty of character fodder. Then, there’s drawing on the emotional reactions, which can be incorporated in a variety of other situations.
What writing/character fodder do you see in these events, TKZers?
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Double Intrigue
When your dream assignment turns into more than you bargained for
Shalah Kennedy has dreams of becoming a senior travel advisor—one who actually gets to travel. Her big break comes when the agency’s “Golden Girl” is hospitalized and Shalah is sent on a Danube River cruise in her place. She’s the only advisor in the agency with a knowledge of photography, and she’s determined to get stunning images for the agency’s website.
Aleksy Jakes wants out. He’s been working for an unscrupulous taskmaster in Prague, and he’s had enough. When he spots one of his coworkers in a Prague hotel restaurant, he’s shocked to discover she’s not who he thought she was.
As Shalah and Aleksy cruise along the Danube, the simple excursion soon becomes an adventure neither of them imagined.
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Terry Odell is an award-winning author of Mystery and Romantic Suspense, although she prefers to think of them all as “Mysteries with Relationships.”
For several years, we lived in a newly built home in Porter Ranch with a view of the San Fernando Valley lights below us. We sold the place in 1979 and returned to Palos Verdes. Since the move, Porter Ranch has been evacuated four times, due to:
the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in 1994,
the Sesnon fire in 2008,
the Porter Ranch gas leak in 2015,
and the Saddleridge fire in 2019.
I miss our home, there, but can’t regret moving away.
I lived in the foothills outside of Beverly Hills where fires were all too common, although our canyon was spared. I lived in Florida for 30+ years, and it was hurricane country. I’ll take my Colorado mountain any day. A snow day just means staying inside–something I did to avoid the heat in Florida a lot more often.
Terry, a big sigh of relief that you and your home are all right. Scary.
An impulsive act often leads to unintended consequences that damage lives and/or property, thereby becoming crimes. That’s a dynamite trigger for fiction.
May our troubles happen on the page rather that in real life. 😉
Thanks, Debbie. Whether this was an impulsive or deliberate act remains to be seen.
And yes, I prefer troubles in fiction, not my life.
I’m very relieved to hear that you and yours escaped unscathed, Terry!
I was home, alone, at age 13 when my family house caught fire. (Before anyone asks, it was the 70s, I was perfectly capable, and my mother had taken my brother to a dental appointment. I was getting ready for a school function and would have walked across the street to the school after locking up.)
I have zero sympathy for anyone who deliberately starts a blaze that could so easily affect others.
From what my parents were later told, ours was electrical. Wiring sparked somewhere internally in the duplex walls, and the resulting fire took hold in the attic.
I noticed smoke in our enclosed atrium and ran out the front door to find that our neighbors had been piling possessions on the lawn for some time, without ever knocking on our door … or calling the fire department.
I called the fire department.
And then tried to rescue the family pets.
Our cat died of smoke inhalation because I couldn’t find her. The sound of flames eating the roof as I finally left the house is an enduring memory.
I have never forgiven the neighbors. They may not have started the fire, but they clearly lacked a certain humanity (and common sense!)
I’m finishing a five book fantasy series that includes war scenes and city sieges. Although realism is my preference, I don’t write about people escaping burning buildings. I suppose we all have our limits?
I fall in the “little sympathy” camp as well, Cyn. I’m glad you were old enough and had the common sense to know what to do. Growing up, Mom had a list of everything that needed to be taken from that room taped to the inside of a closet door.
My wife and I were at a restaurant when the front door suddenly whooshed open. The manager investigated and told everyone it must’ve been a whirlwind. But 30 minutes later, when we drove home, we passed a street about five blocks from the restaurant. Dozens of emergency vehicles with red and blue lights flashing lined the road, with EMTs, fire fighters, and cops in people’s yards.
Later we learned a gas explosion had leveled a mansion where a noted cardiologist and his wife had just returned home from a vacation. The wife was killed, and the cardiologist was gravely injured. That tragedy inspired me to write a story centered around a gas explosion. It was published in Crimeucopia.
Thank you for sharing your story, M.C., and how you took that tragic event and used it to springboard a story. Congratulations on it being published.
I’ve written on the subject with being a writer in mind. Planning ahead is always a good thing.
http://mbyerly.blogspot.com/2023/12/emergency-planning-for-writers.html
Good advice. Thanks for sharing the link. You can’t be too prepared.
Glad you made it through safely, Terry!
My next door neighbor’s house caught on fire a few years ago. For hours, I watched the trajectory of those flames, praying the fire wouldn’t spread to my home. We’re an acre away, but that’s nothing when the trees fuel the flames. The owner had fallen asleep (drunk) and left his wood stove door open. Insurance wouldn’t pay to rebuild due to his culpability. Instead, his niece started a Go Fund Me page that read like a tragic story, with her uncle as the hero for saving his dog. In reality, the dog woke him from a drunken stupor and saved them both. The Go Fund Me earned enough to buy him a new mobile home, with money left over to furnish the place. Think he curbed his drinking? God, no.
I hope that there were firefighters on the scene, Sue. Glad your house was spared. And kudos to the dog, even if it didn’t get credit.
Glad you are safe, Terry. What a scary situation to be in.
I’ve never been close to a major fire, and I hope to keep it that way. I do know of a couple of acquaintances whose homes burned down because of candles that weren’t being monitored. Knowing about those things has left me with a healthy respect for candles in the house. When we have dinner guests, the candles are lit when we sit down to eat and extinguished at the end of the meal.
I’ve used the occasional scented candle in a glass jar, but only for short periods while I’m home. Dinner candles are extinguished after dinner–not only for safety, but because I can use them another time!
I guess it was 30 years ago (!?!), that we followed the ladder truck to our very own front door…
My brother-in-law had been “multitasking” – cooking and doing laundry – when he took a phone call in another room.
Eventually either smelling or seeing smoke, he returned to the kitchen to see the stovetop aflame.
Thinking quickly, he threw laundry detergent powder on the fire, which didn’t help, and adding water only made things slippery.
Calling his grandfather who lived next door, they “fought” the fire with a garden hose, but finally called the fire department when the light fixture
melted and fell to the floor.
Fortunately (?) only the kitchen was torched, but everything else was smoke scented, and it took several weeks to rebuild – and on damp days, the smoke smell would drift from the salvaged cabinets.
For Christmas that year, the bro-in-law got four Fry-Baby cookers…
I’ve used this scenario – driving up on the FD at the front door – in a NANO novel and at least two songs…
Glad for your safety, as well… and kinda reassuring that folks far and wide care about you and yours…
Thanks for sharing, George. I still remember an episode of “Emergency” (dating myself–I watched it with my kids) where whoever was cooking dinner had a stove fire, and the captain insisted they call it in to dispatch or wherever fires were reported even though they were fully capable of handing it themselves. Don’t mess with fire. Call the professionals!