FIRE!!!

In a word, THE most frightening thing that has happened to us on Rendezvous. Far beyond the other two catastrophes of the summer - Abby, falling on the dock and breaking her wrist in three places along with dislocating it her second day here; and my accident on the table saw cutting a couple of fingers - fire is chilling and devastating.

The story begins last Wednesday. I went out to catch a couple of fish for the eagles so some of our guests could see them take them off the water. In the process, I caught a beautiful 18 lb Chinook Salmon. We decided the best thing to do with it was to smoke it. I prepared the brine and let the fillets soak over night for about 14 hours. Thursday, I started the smoking process in our "Big Chief" smoker that was located in the smokehouse. The last pan of wood chips went in about 6:30 pm and the fillets came out of the smokehouse around 8 pm. We let them cool and then Abby vacuum packed them.

All seemed fine. About 11 pm I went outside on the upper patio and everything was fine ... or so it seemed. I went back inside, shut the lights off, and went to bed.

At 7 am. Nikki wanted to go outside so she got me out of bed. I got dressed and went downstairs to let her out and then headed to the kitchen to make coffee. That's when I saw it.The smokehouse was gone and the area around it was charred. I was out the side door and up the hill immediately calling for Abby to get the neighbors on the phone.

Fortunately, I found the edge of the fire at the crest of the lower ridge. I headed back down to grab a shovel and the hose. I started working on establishing a perimeter to keep the fire from spreading. Luckily the fire was deep in the duff, not burning brush or in the canopy of the trees.

Things happened quickly from there. Max and Henry arrived. Shortly after that Judith came with a shovel and buckets. Then Carl came with Steve Wright and his construction crew. In no time, Clarke, David, Jorge and John arrived followed by two Coast Guard crews. We had at least 5 fire pumps dousing the fire and people working everywhere hunting for heat in the duff and establishing a perimeter. Next arrivals were the crew from the Forestry Fire Center.

In a matter of a few hours, the fire was out ... thanks to the cooperative efforts of all.  We are so grateful

to our friends and neighbors for their quick response, quick thinking, fire fighting equipment, and hard work. Thanks also to the crews from the Coast Guard and the Fire Center. Job well done.

This is what the site looks like today. Not so bad considering what the result might have been.