00:00:01.340 - 00:00:17.870

Ok, perfect. Ok, Mike. So, um, Mike, you work for the Windsor Police Department? Ok. Um, so Mike, I'm just going to go ahead and read off of here and, um, at any point, if you feel like something is too much, feel free to stop or if

00:00:17.879 - 00:00:38.349

you feel like it's heavy, it's ok if you have to stop. Ok. Um, so before, during and after the wildfires, um, we can think of your, of your life as a book. Um, what was the chapter of your life before, during and after the wildfires if,

00:00:38.360 - 00:01:00.869

if they weren't, if you were to describe them, like in a chapter like before, you mean, like, like, um, I know, I think things were going pretty smooth and I think it, at the point when the fires hit, you just realize how vulnerable you are. You

00:01:00.880 - 00:01:19.360

know, in law enforcement, we like to be in control of things and be able to help and not be helpless. We felt a little helpless because the fire was so huge. It was moving so fast and we, we were behind the so to speak because, um,

00:01:19.529 - 00:01:33.260

by the time we got to the point where we were trying to evacuate people. It wasn't too late but it was, it should have happened a lot sooner. Yeah, I think, I think we're, we just, a lot of us didn't have the experience dealing with something

00:01:33.269 - 00:01:52.599

like of that magnitude. Of course, afterwards. I, in terms of like being prepared, I think there was a lot of stress involved afterwards and it was more being helpless a little bit, you know, realizing how vulnerable we are as a community and how we needed to

00:01:52.610 - 00:02:12.190

get better with planning and evacuation plans, which we, which we did. And I think just, uh you know, afterwards the tubs fire is just, I think we're so much better prepared, but there's, you know, a lot of stress for first responders and the community when you,

00:02:12.199 - 00:02:34.380

when you look at uh some stressful event like that in terms of a disaster that it's not always, um you can't always prevent it. So, yeah, I think, I think so to answer your question before, I didn't really think too much about a disaster like that.

00:02:34.389 - 00:02:51.479

I mean, we, we think about disasters but not like realizing how big this was and how it could have been so much more devastating than it was. Um, even though we lost a lot of homes and, you know, 20 I think, I think it's 26 lives.

00:02:51.490 - 00:03:07.149

I think if I'm accurate, um, a lot of, you know, over 5000 structures and it could have, it could have been worse. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're so, we're fortunate. But, uh, we're prepared. We're a lot more prepared. So, I think afterwards, even though it was a

00:03:07.160 - 00:03:22.770

terrible, tragic event, I think we going forward, we were so much more prepared and I think as first responders police fire and everything, I think we're so much, so much better. Yeah. Um, with the other fires that we had to deal with in our county. Ok.

00:03:22.779 - 00:03:42.199

Ok. Great, good. Uh, that's, that's good because I feel like my family and I are better prepared as well. So, um, have you ever experienced a traumatic natural disaster event before this one? Yeah. Um, if so when, where and what happened and did that lead you

00:03:42.210 - 00:04:01.940

to prepare for a natural disaster in any way? Well, since I've been in law enforcement for a long time, which is over 33 years. Um, when the, when the Oakland fire happened, the Oakland Hills fire happened in, I think it was 1991. Ok. Um, I, I

00:04:01.949 - 00:04:18.809

got reassigned to go out there and help with. Um, well, basically we're just stationed up at places where people couldn't get in and loot. Um, that, that was the, my, our main purpose of, of, uh, at least for, for my, the people I was with the

00:04:18.820 - 00:04:35.769

officers and also to, um, you know, ID, people who are coming in to see if they lived in the eight neighborhoods we were in, um, I've dealt with, uh, several, several floods out in the river area. I used to work out in Denville and dealt with

00:04:35.779 - 00:04:56.470

several floods and those, that's a, a very resilient people out there because they, they've experienced, especially people lived there a long, they've experienced that so many different times. It's, it's really weird because when you have a, the river floods, it's predictable because it rises and you

00:04:56.480 - 00:05:12.920

can kind of predict when it's gonna rise because of the water flow and then it, when it floods like streets and it, it, it consumes some buildings and then it recedes and then it's to clean up. And I've seen, I've seen just the community. It's just

00:05:12.929 - 00:05:30.420

like, it's terrible, tragic event. Uh We don't wanna, you know, the most important thing is lives and the community just gets back after an event like that and they get back and they, they've, they've been through it enough times. So I've seen that and we've had

00:05:30.429 - 00:05:48.579

to evacuate people and rescue people and stuff like that. So I think a fire seems so much worse to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. Um Who has been the most helpful to you during this time during the Tufts fire when the

00:05:48.589 - 00:06:08.059

Tufts fire happened? Who do you think was the most helpful to you? And how were they helpful? Um Honestly, I think the fire firefighters and the fire departments that we dealt with and the reason why they're so well versed in the incident command system that they

00:06:08.070 - 00:06:23.309

just, uh, they just, uh they, they, they get it in that aspect because that's what they do. You know, they have an event and they have an instant command. They have a command post and then they, they ask for resources and, and, and stuff like that.

00:06:23.320 - 00:06:40.070

But us working hand in hand with them is really, I mean, we have a great working relationship with the fire departments in Sonoma County. And um, we can't, we can't do, we can't do rescue and they can't do putting out fires without us because especially on

00:06:40.079 - 00:06:57.160

a big event like that, a big, you know, fire event or disaster. I should probably call it is we, we, we're in charge of the evacuations. We, we, we want the firefighters to fight the fire and, uh, tell us where the fire is going to probably

00:06:57.170 - 00:07:16.260

hit so we can start evacuating people and where we need to post up officers. So we don't, people don't come into those areas and, and are at risk of getting hurt or, or, or killed. And I, I think the firefighters, I honestly, when you, when you

00:07:16.269 - 00:07:31.769

asked me that question, I just think the firefighters are they, I mean, they're, I, I've seen like the Kin Kate fire we had in Los Windsor. Um It, it took, it took all of us, but the firefighters were awesome. They just did a phenomenal job. We

00:07:31.779 - 00:07:50.700

had so many extra resources from other counties and all over the state and even other states come to help us out. That was really cool. Yeah, it was. Um, did you suffer any losses, uh, during the wildfires? Um, and if you did, how did you learn,

00:07:51.089 - 00:08:10.769

how did you learn about the loss or losses? Were you able to watch the news speak to loved ones? Well, I didn't suffer a loss in, I, I had a lot of friends lost homes a lot and, and I, I would probably say people with coworkers

00:08:10.779 - 00:08:32.570

and friends, I probably had 50 people that I knew lost their homes. And I have, I have a rental house in Coffee Park that when I after the end of the day on October 9th, because the fire started on October 8th after I got called in

00:08:32.619 - 00:08:50.979

and helped with evacuations. And I think I worked 17 hours straight from 22 30 in the morning. I think it was in the early evening. I got off duty and, um, I, I went over to check on, on my way back to Windsor. I went and

00:08:50.989 - 00:09:07.830

checked on my rental house and I thought it was burned down because most of coffee, the majority of Coffee park burned down to my surprise. It was still standing, but everything else burned to the south, south east of where my rental is. And, you know, I

00:09:07.840 - 00:09:23.219

checked on my tenants and made sure they were ok. And, um, I had a lot of smoke damage. There was, maybe it was probably two homes from burning down. Yeah, it was not, probably, it was two homes burned down because everything else burned down. So I

00:09:23.229 - 00:09:42.340

didn't personally suffer loss. I did some damage but I had a lot of friends that suffered so, you know, offered my home to a few of them but they, they didn't take me up on it. Yeah. Yeah, that was really nice of me. Um, uh, could

00:09:42.349 - 00:09:58.739

you describe the thoughts, feelings and emotions that you experience during the wildfires? Tell me about the stress you experienced during the wildfires. I guess you kind of, I think I can talk about that. So, so I was, I was sleeping when, when, when I went to

00:09:58.750 - 00:10:14.460

bed, I grew up in L A and, you know, I, so I, I lived through a few major earthquakes there. Um, when I went to bed that night, it was really dry and windy. I felt like it was earthquake weather. It was kind of weird. I

00:10:14.469 - 00:10:27.669

remember that I, I had let my dog out to go to the bathroom and brought up the dog back in the house and I'm like, wow, it is dry and windy. And I, I went to bed and I got, I got a phone call about two

00:10:27.679 - 00:10:42.570

in the morning from another sergeant, uh, from a sergeant that told me the whole, this is what he said, the whole county is on fire. We need everyone to come in and start helping with evacuations. And initial, my initial thought was he was exaggerating. It was

00:10:42.580 - 00:10:55.479

probably a big fire, but not that night. So I came over by the, uh, when I, when I got a clear view of the, um, I guess it would have been like, I was near the airport and I had a, I was backside the airport and

00:10:55.489 - 00:11:11.719

I looked, and I could just see everything was burning and all. It just seemed like from one side to the next on fire. And I got it. I, I came to Windsor, I got dressed, I got a uh another, another officer showed up here and we,

00:11:11.729 - 00:11:30.679

we jumped in the car and headed to the, headed to, that was where we first started evacuating people and we, it was stressful because um there was gridlock traffic, there was things on fire around us. II, I wouldn't say we were in um you know, harm.

00:11:30.690 - 00:11:46.679

We were, we weren't in harm's way, you know, not like we were rushing into a burning building. But then we, we helped in with a lot of um elderly people that were living in these assisted living facilities at our home home, the home health care system.

00:11:47.210 - 00:12:06.109

We, we helped uh evacuated multiple people that weren't, that could not walk, that were in a wheelchair. We had, we were commandeering neighbors hey, bring this person up. We, we open the gym over here or to gym. And I, I called, I called, uh, our office

00:12:06.119 - 00:12:21.010

manager and I said, open that gym, we're gonna, we're gonna start sending people up to because it seems like it's a little safer position, place to be. And we, we got, we got overrun part of area where we were working, which was right off the road

00:12:21.020 - 00:12:35.890

by Sam Miguel. Um, elementary school. We, we evacuated a bunch of people. We could see the fire on the other side of the hill coming over. Um, and, um, it didn't, it didn't engulf that neighborhood. Uh, later on, we, we weren't sure if it was going

00:12:35.900 - 00:12:50.909

to, but it did not, it burned a lot of brush so forth and it, anyways that was, uh, that was stressful and then just, we were just going all over the place wherever they needed us, we would respond. We went to Benham Valley. We were down,

00:12:50.960 - 00:13:05.260

there was another fire over on Lakeville Highway and we had to go down there and the weird, the funniest, the funniest thing was I remember is having to, uh, we were about to run out of gas. We needed to be in Petaluma. And so there was

00:13:05.270 - 00:13:18.986

a long line at the gas station. So we, we, we cut in front of everyone, everyone was fine. We were like, hey, we're sorry, but we're, we're, we're evacuating people and no, you know, you feel bad cutting people because everyone was waiting in line for a

00:13:18.995 - 00:13:34.611

long time. Right. Got gas and I had to use my personal credit card to put gas card. Have a credit card. Yeah. Ok. So I'm glad that you touched base on the, um, like the residential homes or like nursing homes. Uh, because that's what we're kind

00:13:34.622 - 00:13:51.642

of like focusing on as well. So, like, like vulnerable populations. We, we, we evacuated, we had uh we probably had 10 deputies in that one neighborhood because there were so many elderly people, they're like, these homes are like six beds per, you know, that's, I think

00:13:51.651 - 00:14:06.729

that's the uh when they have those um in home health care, I don't know what they call it. I can't remember but the home, the, the, the assisted living facilities at home, you know, at home, I think they can only have a license for six beds

00:14:07.330 - 00:14:24.119

and a lot of these people, you know, they have round the clock people working there. But when you have, where are they gonna put six people with, with wheelchairs or walkers or stuff? We were, we were, we were grabbing neighbors here, we need your help. We're

00:14:24.130 - 00:14:38.799

people, people were amazing. The, the, the one thing that I do remember is when I first got down to LA, I saw, you know, homes on fire. But the one thing I do remember is just a gridlock traffic. It was like, terrible I'm like, I hope

00:14:38.809 - 00:14:56.479

this gets hope. This doesn't, you know, cause like, like the Oakland Hills fire, they, they had, they got trapped and burned a whole bunch of people and an officer lost his life there. I just, it kind of brought back memories of knowing about that. When I

00:14:56.489 - 00:15:13.960

showed up in Oakland. It was, it that had already happened, but I was aware of it kind of triggered those emotions again Thinking, I hope this doesn't start jump. Well, we, we had already jumped them highway and the freeway and was burning coffee park. But, um,

00:15:14.630 - 00:15:28.630

yeah, you worry about all the people that are sitting in their cars wanting to get out of town. Yeah. Try to go to safety. Right. Right. Um, and then I wanted to ask also, um, what about, um, I don't know if I'm asking or asking this

00:15:28.640 - 00:15:44.020

question? Right. I didn't, we don't have it here. But, uh, what about, like inmates, uh, were they in any danger at all there? No, they did the, the jail, the jail. Um, I, I had nothing to do with that but, but I can comment that if

00:15:44.030 - 00:16:02.729

I remember correctly, they had buses come up from, they evacuated North County detention facilities and they had buses come up. I think it was Alameda County, I think, but don't quote me on that and they had buses and they bus the inmates to, I think back

00:16:02.739 - 00:16:17.159

to Alameda County in a safer area if I remember, but they could have been a different county, but I thought it was Alameda County, but that was already prearranged. And then there was, I know there was planning to in case the, the main office was in

00:16:17.169 - 00:16:34.820

jeopardy with main adult detention facility. They had a contingency plan for that but all that was on the fly. I I, they do have plans for that. But you know, this, I think the difference between the four fires, the tubs fire hit in the middle of

00:16:34.830 - 00:16:53.210

the night. It was, it was moved so fast. It, it, it, no one could have predicted. Well, I don't think most people did not predict it was gonna jump in our county as quick as it did, you know, stay in Calistoga and it was here in

00:16:53.219 - 00:17:16.848

no time. Yeah. Yeah. Ok. Thank you. Thank you. Um, could you describe any specific challenges in your life that you still deal with now that came about due to the wildfires? I, I think, I think when I first, when I first, that first night, you just

00:17:16.859 - 00:17:31.348

felt a little helpless when in and I, I do remember, I do remember when, when we were at the end of our shift. Uh, we, we had no n no, no number of hours we were supposed to work. It was just help out. I think none

00:17:31.359 - 00:17:42.609

of us wanted to go home. We just all wanted to stay and help because, and and we had people come in that had lost their homes and they already knew they lost their homes. And I, I talked to a few of them. They were like, well,

00:17:42.619 - 00:17:56.579

what, what am I gonna do? I felt helpless being, what am I gonna do? My house is burned down. I lost everything. I don't need to come and help my community. And I saw that. So I think that sense of, you know, we, we got in

00:17:56.589 - 00:18:12.420

this business in law enforcement to help people and be better and, you know, help our community and be, you know, serve our community in a, in a, in, in a uh service oriented part way. And I think that, um during that time, you just felt a

00:18:12.430 - 00:18:27.560

little helpless because the, I mean, the fire was so bad and we things were just letting, being let burn because you had to strategically figure out what you could try to see and what you couldn't, at least the from the fire fire standpoint, our job was

00:18:27.709 - 00:18:44.229

more to evacuate and secure locations. So we didn't allow people to go back into the burned areas. But, um I don't think I answered your question. Oh, no. Yeah, it's OK. Um It was uh could you describe any specific challenges in your life that you still

00:18:44.239 - 00:19:03.060

deal with now that came about due to the wildfires? I'm not sure if the Yeah, I think the biggest challenge is just being, you know, I think with, with that it was traumatic for, for our community, it was tragic for people that, that live here that,

00:19:03.069 - 00:19:23.060

that, you know, everyone in Sonoma County, that's some tra tragedy and some, some, some ptsd so to speak. But I think, I think for me personally, um, I mean, II, I think it just better prepared yourself for the, you know, once you have some experience dealing

00:19:23.069 - 00:19:36.709

with something like that, you, you have to be better next time. It's like it's like one of my friends always says be better in the moment. So what, what he means by that is, is when you know, someone can needs you, you can be better in

00:19:36.719 - 00:19:51.310

that moment no matter how rough and hard it is, you be better in a moment. I think it helped me be better in the moment the next moment. Yeah. Ok. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Um I wanted to ask um when you guys did evacuations, did you

00:19:51.319 - 00:20:07.839

deal with any like challenges? Like people that did not want to leave? We had some people that don't wanna leave and we can't, we could, you know, we can't force them out of their home. We, we, we advise them, we tell them it's a mandatory evacuation.

00:20:07.849 - 00:20:23.900

Honestly, we're not gonna drag people out unless the house was on fire. You know, some people wouldn't, didn't want to go. Many people didn't wanna go. I would say many but you know, I think a lot of people realize how, how, um, bad this fire was

00:20:24.260 - 00:20:41.280

and how quickly it moved that, you know, I think a lot of people left but there was people that didn't leave and they weren't going to leave and the only way we could basically drag them out is if their house was on fire pretty much, you

00:20:41.290 - 00:21:00.400

know, I mean, we, we, we trying to save their life at that point. So, um we would advise people and I, I think, yeah, that was, that was a, that was a, you know, a challenge getting because we, the other thing is of less cars in

00:21:00.410 - 00:21:10.430

the way and less people in the way where we don't, we don't have to have an emergency where we have to, you know, house catches a fire and we have to go in there and risk our life too. I, I think it just makes it easier

00:21:10.439 - 00:21:34.329

for the firefighters and the first responders to, to, to do what they need to do with evacuating more people fighting any fires and stuff. Yeah. Um, can you tell me about any strength that you have discovered through this experience? Um, strengths? Let's see. I think just

00:21:34.719 - 00:21:49.780

being better prepared. I think that's a major strength. I think our whole community is not just, not just law enforcement, but we have, um, we have programs where, where, you know, we have the, we have the evacuation zones and maps. People can look at where they

00:21:49.790 - 00:22:07.790

need to go and then we're much better and, and me too, I'm better at this too. But putting information out that, you know, so alerts or, and do it early and don't wait till it's an emergency, do it when it's starting to be a problem. Like

00:22:07.800 - 00:22:26.469

if they, for example, if the fire is, let's say, use the fire is up on East Shilo road and it's coming, you know, in a northwest direction toward Windsor, we, we need to evacuate, you know, early. So we don't have the gridlock traffic. We don't have,

00:22:26.479 - 00:22:41.729

we need to know where we need to, they need to go if they don't have cars or they're, you know, if they don't have a car or some transportation having that in place, which we do, we have, we have access to the school buses um and

00:22:41.739 - 00:22:55.939

just having places for them to go and know where they're gonna go. But with the fire, people were telling people evacuating them where to go. You know, we're telling them just get out of here, just get, just go to the coast, go to Petaluma, go, you

00:22:55.949 - 00:23:11.020

know, we, we just, we're just sending people just get out of this area, you know, some of it, we didn't have time to go. Hey, you, you know, we, we're moving from one place to the next. Um I wanted to ask a question to um uh

00:23:11.689 - 00:23:32.550

was there any like challenges with uh like for example, like vulnerable populations, like low income families or, or Spanish speaking families. Like, uh, were there any, like, challenges, like, as far as, like when the evacuation process, like, like a language barrier where they didn't understand and

00:23:32.560 - 00:23:48.199

how, like I did not specifically run into that and, and here's, here's one really good thing that you need to know. A lot of neighbors were helping neighbors, a lot of neighbors, helping neighbors. And um we have, we have several Spanish speaking deputies that work here,

00:23:48.280 - 00:24:08.349

you know. Um So that's very helpful. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Um Yeah, so yeah, we did. I don't remember me specifically running into any of those issues. But, you know, that's another thing that we're better prepared about things because what's, you know, English is probably the

00:24:08.359 - 00:24:25.900

predominantly spoken language. And then the second is Spanish and we have a lot of people who are bilingual, which is thank God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um You know, where you put something else, it's usually uh you know, English and Spanish. Yeah. So we're, we're, we're, we're

00:24:25.910 - 00:24:45.500

much better about doing that too. OK. Get it out to, to, you know, other, other parts of our population county. OK. Perfect. Yeah. But I didn't really, I didn't run into that. OK. Memory bank. I don't remember. Yeah. OK. That's OK. Yeah. Yeah. I, I remember

00:24:45.510 - 00:25:06.150

I saw the like uh there was a lot of resources in Spanish. I thought that was really cool. Yeah. Um, so, um, how are you managing or coping from this experience? Um, after the tubs fire, I think afterwards we had three others. So I, I just

00:25:06.160 - 00:25:21.540

think when I, when I look back, when I look back on it for me, I think it's just the last fire I was involved with was the, um, was it, it was the glass fire? I think it was, and I, I was actually not even at

00:25:21.550 - 00:25:40.939

Windsor at the time. It was back in 2019, I think. Yeah, 2019, I believe. And, and we were, we were uh evacuating people. I was one of the first people up on road helping with, with the fire department. In fact, well, they were, they were, you

00:25:40.949 - 00:25:55.270

know, trying to, uh, it really, at that point they weren't putting out the fire. They were trying to figure out where they could attack. And I remember getting up there and it was just, uh, it was so much more organized, I think coping, coping with it

00:25:55.280 - 00:26:13.530

to me is just being better prepared. And the there is trauma when you have like incidents in our community and even first responders, you know, that's trauma for us too. But you need to, you need to take that and, and learn from your successes. Well, not

00:26:13.540 - 00:26:32.209

so much, your successes, your failures and that's where you learn from, not your successes, but just know what worked well and know what didn't and make adjustments. I think for me just knowing being better, better communication, early evacuation, early notification. Um, these, I think, I, I

00:26:32.219 - 00:26:50.479

think when you, that question just comes back to, you know, all the things we've done since the tubs fire to be better prepared as a community to evacuate people. I think that is a way for me to deal with the trauma of the wildfire of 2017.

00:26:51.150 - 00:27:05.869

I think that's the best way for me to answer that. Yeah. No. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Thank you. Um If you have to relieve the disaster, which I hope not, but uh would you do anything differently? So I guess you kind of said better, like

00:27:05.880 - 00:27:23.099

better prepared. But if I had, if I had to re if, if there's one thing, I wish, I wish I would, I got called in earlier because that's one thing. But, you know, I didn't, I didn't know the fire until I got a phone call. I

00:27:23.109 - 00:27:37.810

just wish I would have got called earlier. I just wanted to, you know, be help, help more. Yeah. Um I think a lot of us, I, I'm not kidding you. If you could have seen the, the briefing, we went to a debriefing at the end of

00:27:37.819 - 00:27:51.180

the day on, on October 9th in our briefing room and none of us wanted to go home. We just want to come keep helping whatever we can do to help out but a lot of us were, people were going, yeah, you, you've worked 16, 17, 18

00:27:51.189 - 00:28:06.170

hours, you need to go home, get some rest. We'll, we'll, we'll use you when you come back. And if I remember correct, I think we went to, uh, 12 hour shifts right afterwards. Ok. Ok. You know that way we have better, better coverage and, and, um,

00:28:07.719 - 00:28:23.479

yeah. Yeah. So, if my memory serves me right. I think that's what we did. Ok. Yeah, I um, I currently work 10 hours at my job and it's pretty exhausting. So I can only imagine 16, 17 hours. That's a long time, but that's great. That's really

00:28:24.569 - 00:28:42.290

when you need it, you know, be better at the moment. Yeah. Yeah, I think that all of us needed to do that. Yeah, I just, I, I will say in my whole time of ever being, this probably might not be a question of yours, but I

00:28:42.300 - 00:28:59.824

will say this, I never felt more proud to be in law enforcement than ours to 17 fires with the community coming up to us and they're bringing us, you know, big goods and cards and kids were writing posters and you, you'd walk somewhere and they would

00:28:59.834 - 00:29:19.160

say thank you. And that, that was really made me feel good and I know my coworkers have made them feel good. You feel appreciated. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that's really great. Yeah, that, that's really great. Thank you so much. Um Sorry, I'm very emotional, but thank

00:29:19.170 - 00:29:36.069

you so much. You're welcome. Um Is there something else you think? I should know? Sorry. I know I'm so much love you did. Um um, is there something else you think I should know to better understand the challenges that you face during the wildfires? I don't

00:29:36.079 - 00:29:50.665

know. Or is there anything else you think you want to add or? Um, I should know. I think I've covered most everything from my perspective and what my involvement was. And like I said to you, you know, with the email exchanges, there's, there's many more people

00:29:50.765 - 00:30:05.574

that had, I never felt I risked my life at all. But, um, I think we all, all of us in law enforcement and, and fire to our, all the first responders are willing, you know, that's what we stepped in this job to do is to help

00:30:05.584 - 00:30:23.489

our community and make it better and safer. And I think everyone would, you know, I, I would hope to think everyone would step up and risk their life to save others. But, um, I think I, I, I don't, I don't. Oh, yeah, just, um, is there

00:30:23.500 - 00:30:37.420

something else you think I should know to better understand the challenges that you face during the fires or anything else that you want to add? I just felt, I just felt like, like the people, like the community felt a little helpless, very helpless. I think we

00:30:37.430 - 00:30:52.530

did a little bit too because it was such a huge fire and it wasn't like they were trying to put it out at first it was just saving lives and evacuating people and everyone, all of us are worried about our homes too. Of course. And, but

00:30:52.540 - 00:31:09.130

there's nothing we could do. We couldn't, we had to be, you know, at work, helping save lives and, or tried to save lives, that's for sure. So, I, I think we had, you know, everyone's thinking about like their, their, their important. Do you know what, what

00:31:09.140 - 00:31:26.500

the most important thing to me probably you is pictures of your families and because you can't replace them and there may be some documents that, you know, certificates and stuff. Yeah. So, yeah, I think there was, there was a little bit that, that was something I

00:31:26.510 - 00:31:44.189

remember thinking. I hope my house doesn't burn because those are things I replace everything else. I care about the rest. Right. Right. You know, just my kids' pictures. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Family helos that, you know, they're passed down. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But, um, I

00:31:44.199 - 00:31:54.910

don't have anything else. I could probably ramble a little bit longer but you don't wanna hear me. No. Yeah, this is all great. Thank you so much. Uh, I'm gonna stop recording now, so, um, ok, let's see. I'm gonna