PPP081: Thomas Fire Evacuation and Fire Baby

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In the early hours of Tuesday morning last week, a neighbor knocked on my door, waking my family from a sound sleep. When I opened the door, he told me that we may have to pack up and evacuate for a fire. Stepping out into my driveway, I could see a hillside awash in flames. Then, while evacuated, my wife went into labor.

To say that this was the most exciting, scary, happy, and exhausting week of my life wouldn’t fully capture everything that happened. We had to race from our home at 4:30am on December 5th, and made our way to Carpinteria, about a half hour drive away, to stay with my in-laws. That evening, my wife, who was 39 weeks pregnant, went into labor.

I wrote the whole story here on my personal blog, and share it in this week’s episode. Here is a short video to get a taste of what was happening on my block as we were getting ready to evacuate. Ultimately, six homes were completely destroyed within a block of my house.

https://twitter.com/EricProfits/status/937999694416007168

The story of a “fire baby” is quite sensational, and I ended up with live interviews on HLN and CNN, and taped recordings for CBC and KISS-FM. I’m happy to share that as of now I’m back home and safe. We had visitors, family evacuated from their home in Carpinteria, the last two nights. But as of now it seems things are calming down here.

Additional reading

• The Craziest 72 Hours of My Life: Fires and Babies