Heated Night.

When a fire is to close to the farm, what do you do?

I laid down around 1:30 am on Friday, June 2nd, 2023. I have been working on some digital projects. Around 2:00 am, my phone starts ringing; I see my husband calling. Those that know my husband are a Zanjaro ( water tender); he runs the water and canal systems throughout the valley for the farmers. He has been on the graveyard shift for 14 years now.

As I answer the phone, half asleep, all I hear is, "Get up; I need you to see where that fire is. It is on Meloland Rd. Hurry!" As I strumbled to turn the light on and shuffled to the kitchen, my eyes widened, still half asleep. All I can see is my kitchen window filled with the color orange. I start telling him it's here.

I run out the back door, full-on barefoot, to the back of the property. I am on the phone still with Chris. Once I saw it was right behind the big tree, and the river bottom was on fire. Fear kicked in; all it would have taken was a gust of wind to switch directions and light the hay field on fire. Chris had just cut it two days before, and it was dry, and the area was, too, since it needed to be irrigated again.

I started to think about what I needed to do, who I call. I called the Fire Department and told them there was a fire, and the only way to the property was to take the other road due to our bridge being out for over four years now (That's a headache for another time).

After a few minutes, the engines started to roll in from Imperial County, Holtville, El Centro, and the Navy base. They surrounded the house and the property.

Photo: by Jennifer Holdridge.

As you can see in the photo, I sat on the tractor at the back of the livestock pens. I sat and waited until 5:30 am. I finally tried to go to sleep, but it didn't work. I got back up, and they were still fighting it.

Chris came home a little after 6:00 am from work. We fed and took care of the animals. We both got in from the rush and busy morning and finally went to sleep.

We woke up around two that afternoon; let me tell you, the adrenaline dump was starting to hit. My stomach ached, headaches and exhaustion. We managed to get through the weekend with a few more hiccups, but all good.

I was sitting back now thinking, what if it was worse? We only had one trailer; the other was away from the property. Who would we have called at 2:00 am to help move 70-plus animals out safely? Where would we have gone if evacuated? So many thoughts ran through my head.

Defiantly will be putting a plan together, in case of an emergency that may arise again.