The horrific fires of Australia are all over the news. Several bloggers in Australia I read for SkywatchFriday live in Australia and have been posting (not close up!) amazing photos.
I have never been to Australia although I have dreamed of visiting since I was a child.
Nor do I live in California, but the daughter of someone I work with did. And I mean "did" in the sense of a fire going through her community in 2017. Her rental house survived but many of the students in the college she was attending found themselves homeless. She ended up moving back to New York State. She has a young son. Maybe she would have stuck it out on her own. After all, she had lived in California for 10 years - in Oakland, in San Francisco, in the Russian River Valley, but there was her son, and the air quality.
And, though blogging, I cyber-know others affected by fires.
I thought that floods (having been through three of them at different points in my life - a flash flood in Arkansas and two where I live in the Southern Tier of New York) were the scariest thing around, but I was wrong.
And all of these news programs have brought up a childhood memory.
It could have been a disaster, and I could have been right in the middle of it.
On April 20, 1963 I accompanied the Brownie (or it could have been Girl Scout by then) troop I belonged to a Girl Scout camp out on Staten Island. Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of my native New York City. Staten Island, at the time, had large areas of undeveloped land, full of brush. There were fire hydrants, but inadequate pressure.
It was Easter Saturday. There had been a drought. Everything was tinder-dry.
Three brush fires on the island rapidly turned into what New York City firemen call five alarm fires - and we were trying to get back home in the midst of it. I don't know what road or highway our bus was on but we got a view of one of the fires.
Traffic was at a standstill, and heavy smoke hung everywhere. In the distance, we could see fields and houses on fire. At one point, my memory tells me that I saw a train car explode. The world was on fire.
The adults on the bus kept us calm. At one point, we were on the floor of the bus. My memory is hazy on a lot of this, about as hazy as the sky was.
Unlike the tragic Staten Island Octopus Attacking the Staten Island Ferry of November 22, 1963, this was for real. But, amazingly, although 36 people (according to news reports) were treated in hospitals, no one died. 500 people were left homeless and more than 100 houses were destroyed - all in the largest city in the United States
The firemen couldn't fight the fires as there was next to no water pressure. News reports said some of them cried as they watched houses burn.
I wasn't scared, though - until we finally were able to get back to the drop off point and my mother ran forward, grabbed me, and almost suffocated me with hugs and kisses.
THEN I was scared.
I hope so that I never get closer to a fire than I did that day.
Older residents still remember what they call Black Saturday.
But now, the world is experiencing one Black Saturday (and Sunday, and Monday....) after another. I wonder how many people even remember Staten Island's Black Saturday.
Day four of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost
Saturday, January 4, 2020
10 comments:
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I have never been through a fire. We have been through and survived an EF 5 tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama that destroyed our home and Tuscaloosa...I never ever want to go through that again, NEVER. Let's see, my husband survived the 1972 floods that hit this area of NY when he was a kid, was pulled out of a second story window not far from where we are living now.
ReplyDeleteMother nature is no joke...I certainty feel for those who suffer mother natures wrath.
I lived in Kansas and Texas, and came close to tornadoes, but never was in one - I did know people who survived them. The 1972 floods were terrible, after tropical storm Agnes - I know Corning was greatly damaged - I remember relief efforts being organized in New York City, where I still lived, and contributions being solicited for helping those affected. I was in college then.
DeleteI love the term, "cyber-know" - I get it!
ReplyDeleteThe closest I came to a fire was in college when one started out 2 doors down in my Residence Hall. The entire building was evacuated. That was a scary experience.
Yes, fire is scary, and unless you've seen it personally, a person can't imagine how rapidly it spreads. It was good the entire building was evacuated.
DeleteI never knew about the Staten Island fire. Sounds horrific.
ReplyDeleteI cry every day reading about Australia.
I highly recommend a Young Adult book called Now by Morris Gleitzman (although it helps if you read the first two books in the series) - an older Holocaust survivor has to face an Australian wildfire with his granddaughter. And that took place before what has now happened with global warming.
DeleteWe had a forest fire near our home once. In comparison to what is going on around the world, it was nothing, but for an area that doesn't have things like that happen, it was scary. I delivered drinks and cups for those out there fighting the fire. I hope that is as close as I ever get.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure those firefighters appreciated your support. Let's hope they can get the fires in Australia under control soon.
DeleteI can't imagine getting caught in a fire. I've been through numerous large hurricanes and flooding, but fire is the scariest of all. My heart goes out to all these affected in the major fires around the country.
ReplyDeleteThat's scary. If you were in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade, you were a Brownie. 4th, 5th, or 6th you'd have been a Junior. The levels have stayed pretty consistent through the years (although they added Daisies later, for kindergarten, and Cadettes fluctuate as the years of middle school vary).
ReplyDelete