BEEN TO THE CENTER OF HELL AND LIVED TO TALK ABOUT

Ok guys got news today that our cleanup crew has been assigned. They moved there equipment in today and will start tomorrow.
 As I said somewhere earlier each crew has certain equipment required...skid steer with grapple bucket...water truck or trailer

Excavator of a certain size

A light tower...a blue room...to start with. The crews only worked a half a day today. Yesterday this crew finished cleaning Davids mother-in-laws house....It actually is run by a step-nephew in charge of 4 or 5 of these Granite Construction crews. We had a discussion last night...he said he would put in a request for our address....said he had never tried that but there here!!
I was actually running the grapple tractor up on the ranch ...so Leslie went and met with them to get them dialed in. I post as things go. The equipment is parked on our access rd still about a half mile from our house.

No..It was ok...any place you see green grass was burned though.

Thanks for the pictures Mel.  Do you plan on rebuilding in the same location?
Now the folks down in So Cal are going through the same trauma, so sad

This has to be heartbreaking for you and your family Mel. I had no idea it would be this involved in the cleanup process. Thank you for sharing the pics and your story. Stay strong

Here in MO it is highly recommended that a fire suppression water source(pond) be placed close to the home with a 'Dry' hydrant connection set so the fire department may draft from it even for neighboring properties. I know this does not help much in a drought region where ponds can dry up but provided they are deep enough and large enough(acre/ft. of water) the source may remain for quite awhile.

I am going to situate one of these by our home this next spring/summer with the hydrant close to the fence on the house side so as to offer double duty as a animal water supply and quick access for fire. Could even set up a supply point for a water curtain or deluge system for a large structure if allowable by county codes.

Mel sad to see all this, glad you and your family are all ok. Thanks for the pictures.

DMiller please don't talk so loud Snowflakes,Fruits,and Nuts that running this coast may hear you. Fire departments can already shut you down from building on your property you have owned for years. The big city folks that know what us country folks should be doing already want us to move to town and all live in a apartment. 

Morning Ray, I do understand the CA mentality as to 'No Burns', 'Air Purity', an for the life of me will never understand the political mentality of taxing someone to death if they are trying to avoid bad situations or adding a supply of water to a land site. All such mentality tends to be one sided, single sighted and very VERY narrow minded looking at a picture of today or yesterday and NOT the reasonably close distant future.

MO Dept of Conservation along with the local Fire Departments do routine controlled burns so as to NOT allow the tinder to develop too far as they once did of the 40's and 50's when shutting down ALL fire seemed the thing to do. Our conservationists will even go as far as to log the regions of national forest not in public hands to remove tinder and old growth tree canopies so that fire once propagated does not expand so readily and rapidly.

Out in the country we are penalized for not having a fire department within five miles, nor having a water source close by the distant Volunteer service can draft easily from by our insurers. Adddig a Pond for natural water supply adds nothing to our tax structure(Yet) but does reduce the effects of fires as to supply when needed and for livestock so can keep them out of the little side streams here.


Then we have to look at these lovely large homes in CA, not so much Mel,s as his was by appearance an older well built and in the line of the fire, but these newer constructs with tons of laminated glued fiber man made materials, vinyl everything(petroleum based) or Styrofoam blocking for epoxy based(reduced algae effect) stucco's, then the asphaltic shingles. Our local fire department stated that newer homes will erupt into violent flame in less than 3 minutes where the old structures of the pre-60's will survive to 10 or twelve minutes allowing escape time. ONE THIRD the time is extremely scary. Then the nature lover's kind of like me that want to be closer to nature yet build inside tree canopies thinking they are saving money on utilities and picturesque settings only set themselves up for issues if there is a fire where the tinder box is too close.

Edited by DMiller - 10 Dec 2017 at 6:27am

Thanks guys, so John...yes.same house..same spot. I'll be moving in a compactor and bringing in some roadbase to bring it back to where we need it..somtime soon. My wife took the original house plans with her when we left that night. The house was 17 years old..so those plans will be retweaked as needed and used again.
 Dave, to follow on that earlier post...yes as you explained the federal agency's are here for all those reasons. We have a very heavy EPA presence monitoring asbestos.
 Ray's right on about the California govt.s attitude...but Dave's even closer with his...one sided..narrow minded....etc. (that would be the description of the liberals that govern the state of California)
 There is a Cal Fire requirement...4290 inspections for rural home owners to have certain width roads and 2500 gallon water storage for fire protection.
We probably won't do much different this time though....are house was very defensible against a normal fire. This was like a hurricane with fire instead of water...if your house was in the way..all the water in the world wasn't going to help you.
The underground bunker? Well my wife thinks we should get a 20' container for storage...so she can start shoppin sales and have everything we need when the house is done..so you can just move in. So I'm thinking maybe when were done with it I should bury it back in the mountain behind the garden with the excavator. Would work for root cellar..fireproof storage..etc.  Would also work when Shameless Dudes..buddy "ROCKETMAN" starts lobbing bombs at us.   

Mel, if you do decide to bury a Conex, remember to completely seal the outside with a tar/plasticized coating, and weld all the corner vents shut then cast concrete around the sides and over the top(Around 3" for the top thick), set bracing inside to hold the roof up to pour the over roof, if need ask why, buddy of mine did this and was a concrete contractor, said he destroyed one Conex by Not supporting the roof while over pouring lightweight concrete. He used 1/2" rerod on the sides 2'OC, 3/4" across the roof, 1'OC and all cross tied. Underside had a 1"clean rock 2'thick drain platform with drain tile to the outside covered with sheet plastic vapor barrier. I bet you know where to get good drainage rock!!

Edited by DMiller - 10 Dec 2017 at 2:09pm

 Hi Mel, I am very pleased that you are making progress.   Tad


Edited by Tad Wicks - 01 Jan 2018 at 6:22pm

Good that you are moving forward.  Getting all the little things done before you can really start construction seems to take forever but then, yeah!
I got a demo permit for a 20 X 48' cow shed built out of 6 x6 posts rough cut 2 bys and steel siding and and roof.  No problem getting the permit but then got an email saying I needed to have it checked for asbestos.  UH, no wires, floor, shingles, plumbing, paint but there might be asbestos!  This inspection is required by the State health Dept., not the county so maybe it won't be looked at to carefully.

Mel,

that's a mighty sweet looking place where your house was/will be again! glad you are making less painful progress than what I thought you would hafta go thru. keep us posted!

Dale, I think he's having trouble moving forward because he has yet to receive a picture of you wearing the hat he sent you.......