The North Complex Wildfire is Over!

 Here's just a few last photos of the clean-up after the fire was considered controlled.  There is still a skeleton crew around making sure things are safe for us, but the hoses and foil and all the people have been stripped away and tidied up.  What an amazing experience to witness and take part in.  Again, we humbly thank our protectors for our continued ability to reside in this beautiful forest world.

Tuseday, October 6.

What the fire looked like from our deck as we peered over Dick's house to check the fire's status.

Zoom-back view, with the shine of Dick's car to show perspective re: the fire's location.

Cookies for the crews and for us locals.

The morning crew at Tobin watches the fire get close to the Buck's Powerhouse penstock.

Jeffery frolickling friskily at the Tobin Dump, with the fire in the background.

Another view of the fire.  The penstock is just to the left of the smoke plumes' origins.

The helicopters started dumping water on the fire seriously.  This was Attack the Fire Day.

The highway was opened to controlled traffic, so we took a ride to see the Buck's Powerhouse status.

Coming back towards Storrie and home, we get to watch the helicopter dip and dump water.

                                                                Love the helicopters!

Saturday October 10

The fire was "controlled" before the crew got the porto-pots.  We'd opened a cabin for restrooms.

This is the remote-controlled Chipper that helps clean those forests.

                                                                    Our heroes!

Sunday, October 11

The foil is being removed and the hoses are getting wound up and hauled away.

All the work of putting it up, and now, they have to remove it all.  So impressive.

                                                                        Teamwork!

Nick Oman, owner of the Maple Leaf Tavern, with a firefighter and Jeffery.

I add these photos of Trucks so that you can see how many crews assisted in this wildfire protection.  This wasn't even all of them.

                            Mike Morstad waves from his front porch as he talks with a firefighter.

The Maple Leaf Tavern and Little Indian Creek Resort.

                                    You can't read this easily, but this truck is from Oakland CA

Monday, October 12

I add this series of photos of this young man winding up the hoses.  Isn't it so interesting?  He was a master at it, and was patient with us curious locals.

            Grover learns about this young man's life as he lays out the hose flat, pre-rolling-up.

And there you go.  Even today - October 18 - we still have a few guardians here, but the fire event is over!!!  We can travel freely, we can enjoy the spectacular foliage colors and the bluest blue skies, and we can visit our wider world (social distancing included, of course).  To think that Plumas County just had a COUNTY-WIDE wild fire, where people in Greenhorn Creek or Sloat were just as beleagured as we were way down in the canyon, is a terrible reality, but these fire crews KEPT US SAFE.  

WE LOVE OUR FIGHTFIGHTING HEROES AND THE GENEROUS SOULS THAT KEEP THEM HEALTHY, FED, AND READY TO PROTECT US.

Now, back to "regular" life.

More Tobin and the North Complex Wildfire adventure.

 I don't want to bore you with my hose lay and smoke pictures, so if you're not into MORE, then you may think you want to skip, but I've laced the post with photos of really cool people and accomplishments, and views, so I think you'll at least wish to browse quickly. (grin) I continue to feel so grateful and admiring of this whole mobilized army of fire folk, with their logistics and knowledge and skill and endurance and cheerfulness.  So, here's more.

Sept. 30

  Our house view. We're packed in all vehicles, and ready, but not yet perturbed enough to go

                                                        Dick's house view with hoses.

        The map of the fire and some details of the places where they talk about stopping the fire.

October 1st.

                                    Supplies in front of Susans and Bob's little craftwork shop.

The morning meeting of the management heads at Chambers Creek.

                                                Jeffery goes to ask certain questions.

                             

                                                    Smokers showing at the end of the day.

October 2

New sign at the east pump intake.  They have to haul gas cans down there for the engine!

A new Tobin sign, which is duplicated at the other end of town for the eastbound traffic.

 View of Jackass Creek with tech and safety included.

                                                    Art shot of hoses and roadway.

                        Better photo of our beautiful Jackass Creek waterfall and the Feather River.

I put a few Tobin Trail shots onto the Trail's Facebook page, but I'm including a few here, too.

Brenda and I walked the perimeter hose lay for our hiking day, plus more, shown later.

There will be the reward of a MAP of the hose lay later in the post, to show what we're hiking.

                    Still on the Tobin Trail, but crossing the lower end dry creek bed.

I love the way the hose follows a path through the forest, with sprinkler-spur hoses at intervals. 

Kathy's house is surrounded by hand hoses and sprinklers as the main line comes around  the back.

The cup ditch catches any rolling fire.

                    Continuing to move along the back side of Kathy's house and beyond.

                                                Running behind the maintenance workshop.

                Up behind the Millers and on up the hill, protections all along the way.

                            This is up above our house and the Tobin Heights neighborhood.

                        Around the water tanks and onn towards the White Cliffs of Tobin

                             View of the Tobin Dump across the river from us from the White Cliffs

We took a moment to brush off the headstones of our loved ones, and to share a moment with them.

On down towards Mary's and the railroad tracks, which is the east (north) end of Tobin village.

              The Tobin Bridge from the railroad bridge looking toward the fire zone in the distance

Mary's house, and a wee glimpse of the hoses that go down the bank below her property

                                                                  Artful angle of the Tobin Bridge.

                        See the white hose running along the hill below Mary's and Kim's houses?

And then it discretely runs back up the hill towards our property, making a circle of the hoses

We continued down the railroad tracks to Rock Crest, which we found all wrapped, too.

            We headed out of the PG&E camp and walked back to Tobin along the highway.

Helicopters and planes began to bombard the penstock running down to the Bucks Creek Powerhouse from Grizzly Forebay with retardant, in preparation for the fire's arrival, to serve as a fire break.  Can you see the plane in the sky above the retardant drop?

                                    There's a helicopter in the photo doing the drop this time.

                                                                            Hose art

Tonight, for the first time, we actually get a glimpse of fire over Dick's house. (3 tiny dots)

What fire looks like in the dark when it first breasts the rise.  We could see flaring with our eyes.

This one catches a touch of the actual orange color that one sees when watching fires.

Oct. 3rd

                    The fire has burned down the mountainside a ways, we see this morning.

                        Later, the wind blows just smoke; luckily to the west, way from us.

                                                                Seen from my yard

Walking down to do the Flag Raising (already posted previously) this is the view of the fire.

                                                                    Hose protection

Night view of the Tobin Lodge.  The white light at the left side is our Frosty the Snowman, who glows every night of the year until midnight.

                            What it looks like to watch the guardians in our village at night.

Every vent on every cabin, and other fire-risk zones like the fire wood shed, got wrapped in foil.

Update on the map of the Grizzly Bay to Buck's Creek Powerhouse intended fire line, with the fire's approach changed some from the previous day.

 October 4th

Here's your reward!!!  The official map of the firehose lay around Tobin, with appropriate legend.  Isn't that super cool?  

                                            Daytime shot of the foiled Post Office wood shed.

                Foiled telephone pole, and someone changed the hoses in my art shot arrangement.

As you walk around Tobin, you may get sprayed by the numerous sprinklers lurking in unexpected places.  I'd just dodged one sprinkler, when I got touched by spray from the one on Nick's roof.

I heard voices and noises behind my house, and looked out to see the crew clearing more debris and small trees from my back hillside.  These are the Canadian crew, who wear red shirts and work hard.

Some of our regular day crew fellows talk with Jeffery on their way down the hill with big coils of hose.  I'm picking apples for my next pie.

This is the Canadian Hotshot Wildfire team, who really made another safe zone for us, since it looks like we may actually have fire come to us. We thank these wonderful women and men for their brave efforts on our behalf.  We hope the fire gets stopped at the penstock fire-break being constructed, but if it doesn't, we feel certain that all this work will keep us safe.  Thank you, everyone.