The Midnight Run

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!

Our last full day at Rio Bend RV park was spent packing up most of our belongings and prepping for our departure on Sunday morning.  The day ended with a Farewell Luau that was sponsored by the park for everyone. It was a lot of fun and included a free buffet that was positively delicious. There was a band playing outside too, but there was another wind storm going on so we opted not to stay and after dinner we went home and sat back to relax and reflect.

Around midnight we both woke up, not sure why, and then smelled smoke.  Rio Bend is a no-fires allowed park so where was it coming from?  John got up and looked out the windows and yelled to me that there was smoke outside and a red glow a few rows over.  I jumped out of bed to look and then we both put on shoes and appropriate attire and went outside to have a look.

The air was thick with smoke and the red glow was bigger.  Covering our noses and mouths, we walked down to the end of our road to get a better look. It seemed like about half of the park’s residents were outside and the red glow was now flames and thick, thick, black smoke.  We were in the middle of a windstorm and the wind was blowing from the west directly across the entire park.

The flames seemed to be coming from the edge of the park near a drop off into a dry river bed and was spreading REALLY quickly.  The entire west edge of the park was burning and was spreading around to the south side. The smoke was ridiculous and John and I decided we needed to get the hell out.

John ran back home to get started disconnecting and I quick walked over to the fire trucks to see if we really needed to evacuate, as no one seemed to know for sure.  The fire men were filling their trucks with water and unwinding hoses and such and I asked the closest one to me if we needed to evacuate and he said he didn’t know.  I then turned around to check the progress of the fire and it had spread even further, the winds were whipping and I decided this was stupid and we definitely needed to leave.

As I did a quick turnaround I felt a sharp pain in my left knee, but I was too pumped up on adrenaline and still trying to wrap my mind around the danger we were in that I didn’t pay it too much attention and hobbled back home as quickly as possible.

While John was prepping the outside I ran inside to do the same.  About five minutes after I ran inside trucks with loudspeakers started going through the park telling everyone to evacuate.  About 15 minutes after that we were heading out.

We drove about a mile east of the park and pulled into a rest stop so we could catch our breaths and re-evaluate.  My knee hurt, but I still wasn’t paying a lot of attention to it.  While John was double checking things outside I walked over to assess the fire. It had spread even more and the air was still filled with smoke and the wind blowing in our direction.  We decided we were still too close and went to the Walmart in El Centro and parked in their parking lot over night.  By now it was about 2:00 a.m. and we were still dazed and confused.

In the morning, outside, I glanced up at the top of the camper and saw that we had forgotten to lower the WiFi booster and had hit it on the cross post coming out of the park last night breaking it.  But, we were alive.

We then drove back to the park to see if we could see anything, but the road was blocked off and no one was getting anywhere near it.  There were many cars parked along both sides of the road where people had spent the night in their vehicles. I recognized faces from the park in those vehicles.

Since we couldn’t see anything, and we were planning to leave anyway, we just started our journey to Apache Junction. In Yuma, AZ we stopped for gas and the first station we pulled into didn’t have any of their pumps working, but as we pulled under their canopy we heard a crunch but couldn’t see anything wrong, so we went to the next gas station.  I did a walk around the camper to see if we had crunched anything but I couldn’t find anything. Then I saw up on the top the TV antenna had hit the canopy and bent that pretty bad.

As you can imagine, we are exhausted, still trying to wrap our heads around what had happened the night before, and everything smelled like smoke, so breaking a few antennas were not too high on the worry list. We continued on and arrived in Apache Junction uneventfully after that.

By now my knee is swollen up like a watermelon and I am in terrible pain.  After quick showers and a visit to an urgent care facility it was determined that I probably have a torn ligament, but because I cannot get in to see an orthopedic surgeon or get an MRI we took the bandaid approach for now.  I’m on rest, elevation, ice, and steroids, and a brace for two weeks.  After that I’ll re-assess and see if we can continue on our trip of the East Coast and New England or if we’ll have to cancel those plans and head back to Wisconsin for a possible surgery.  😢

Reading about the fire in the news, it turns out it was a five-alarm fire, with over 30 fire trucks and five different fire stations called in.  It burned almost 200 acres in a dry river bed and apparently started from a hay-stack fire. How the haystack started on fire hasn’t been determined as of yet.  Over 500 park residents had to be evacuated and the Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at the local elementary school.

The things that could have happened, but didn’t, are numerous.  Along the side of the park where the fire was burning was an area of about 20-25 stored RV’s.  Each one a dry box of tinder and propane gas.  Every occupied park model and RV in the park also a dry box of tinder and propane.

Amazingly, there were no injuries.  Everyone made it out alive and no park property or occupied units were damaged.  I don’t know anything about the stored RVs, but we’re hoping for the best.  It’s the scariest thing I’ve ever been near and two days later, we’re still processing it.  Thankfully we woke up when we did and had the presence of mind, and enough time, to take our home with us when we left.

Until next time, send a prayer thanking God for our safety.  😊