The following is Fr. Michael Duffy's reflection on the excitement in our neighborhood this week...
10/25/10 Last night during Mass we heard fire engines, but that is not unusual. But they got louder and louder and there were more and more of them. After Mass we went outside and saw the end of Hagert St alive with fire engines, police cars, emergency vehicles and a huge orange glow with lots of smoke.... The former Cavco Co factory building, abandoned now, was ablaze, completely engulfed in flames and reaching 60 or 70 feet above the roof.
All the houses were evacuated and all roads blocked off. The firemen told the people to evacuate but to leave their animals in their homes. "They'll be all right" they said. (I wonder what the SPCA would think of that?) I had to back three cars out of Hagert St so Katie Sullivan could get her car out which by now was surrounded by trucks and hoses. They hooked up to every hydrant within 3 blocks. All of Kensington was out watching the blaze. Huge billows of black smoke filled with glowing embers would shoot out from the building twisting like tornadoes at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour. Then all our houses and the Inn darkened as the power went out on all the streets. We stood watching for hours transfixed by the power and destructive force of such a huge inferno. Luckily the wind was blowing north. If it had shifter to the west, those embers would have fallen on the abandoned factory at the end our block next to Barbara and Karen's house. If that happened, our whole block would have gone up and we would have lost all our houses on the north side, including the Inn itself. It made us a little apprehensive.
Soon the news helicopters arrived, hovering overhead.
All the houses were evacuated and all roads blocked off. The firemen told the people to evacuate but to leave their animals in their homes. "They'll be all right" they said. (I wonder what the SPCA would think of that?) I had to back three cars out of Hagert St so Katie Sullivan could get her car out which by now was surrounded by trucks and hoses. They hooked up to every hydrant within 3 blocks. All of Kensington was out watching the blaze. Huge billows of black smoke filled with glowing embers would shoot out from the building twisting like tornadoes at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour. Then all our houses and the Inn darkened as the power went out on all the streets. We stood watching for hours transfixed by the power and destructive force of such a huge inferno. Luckily the wind was blowing north. If it had shifter to the west, those embers would have fallen on the abandoned factory at the end our block next to Barbara and Karen's house. If that happened, our whole block would have gone up and we would have lost all our houses on the north side, including the Inn itself. It made us a little apprehensive. Finally at about 10:30 we walked back to the house to find a channel 6 ABC reporter standing in front of our door. He shoved a mic in my face and asked questions. It was on the 11 o'clock news. But of course I didn't see it because we had no power. Today all our volunteers and many of our guests told me they saw it.
With no power, what do you do in the house at night? You can't read, you can't clean your room. You can't do your laundry. It was odd. I spent an hour with a flashlight crooked between my neck and shoulder and did desk work. Then I decided to take advantage of the situation and I went to bed at 11:30. Very early for me. I had to set my battery powered travel alarm to make sure I got up.
We prepared breakfast at the Inn in the dark with candles all over. Once the sun rose it was easier. But how to prepare the dinner with no electricity? What of all the food in the freezer? We opened no refrigerator door nor did we enter the freezer lest we hasten the spoilage. We planned on giving all the meat away to the guests during the evening meal. Then at about noon the lights came on, power was restored, and so was our sanity.
But all day long the streets were hazy with smoke and the smell of the still burning building. Sometimes it would blow in a different direction and sometimes right up the street at us and into the Inn giving us curls of smoke clouds wafting through the dining room and kitchen. It is now 10:30 the next evening and the fire is still burning. Everything is hazy and the air is heavy with the fire smell. As I look down the street, the firemen are busy with "surround and drown" the term they use for placing fire trucks on all sides of the smoldering building and soaking it with the streams of water with their hoses to prevent "rekindle."
As if Hagert St. isn't exciting enough, the fire added to mix. We are grateful that no one was injured and no homes were lost (even though this morning a insurance adjustor shoved his business card in my hand asking me if I had any smoke damage!). Please be careful with fire. Change the batteries in your detectors and be safe!
As an addendum to this, it has now been a full 60 hours since the inferno first began and the streets are still closed down, fire trucks are still a constant presence, and smoke is still wafting out of the charred building. Demolition is supposedly set to start today.
