By Lori Eppstein
Paradise Ranch Estates residents Lu and Paul Phelps were applying the finishing touch on their new house at 300 Drake's View Drive Tuesday when they first smelled smoke.
"We took a picture of the last shingle going up and had the champagne ready," Lu said Tuesday night outside a disaster shelter at West Marin School.
The Phelpses heard a fire siren and quickly went through a disaster plan they had practiced with their neighborhood association. They turned on their CB radio and learned there was a fire.
Less than a mile away on lower Robert Drive, John and Fern Leahy were also listening to their CB radio. "It sounded a mess. We heard 'mandatory evacuation,'" Fern said. And they left. The Phelpses and Leahys gathered along with other Inverness Ridge evacuees at the West Marin School Red Cross shelter. The Phelpses got out with a few belongings. Others got out with less.
The Leahys saved their two dogs and cat but left behind painkillers, anti-depressants, and arthritis medication. In fact, they left all their belongings but the clothes on their backs.
For 10 minutes Tuesday evening, Mrs. Phelps talked calmly about her evacuation as her husband Paul nervously paced back and forth. Although Mrs. Phelps said she wasn't worried about the house, her eyes suddenly began to glaze; she stammered and slipped into shock before her husband led her away.
Peter Svirsky, a resident of Portola Avenue in neighboring Inverness Park, noted, "The neighborhood [disaster] organizers paid off. If we didn't have these annual meetings, people wouldn't be communicating. We knew who people were and what their needs were."
Svirsky, who rode with deputies notifying residents to evacuate, said that many homeowners were hesitant to leave, wanting more time to gather their belongings.
Disaster shelters were opened at West Marin School and Saint Columba's Church where evacuees registered and received vouchers for meals and services from local merchants and "comfort kits" with soap, razors, and toothbrushes. Most evacuees left the shelters shortly after checking in, dropping off pets, and leaving notes on the message board.
"The community is so amazing. People just come and see what needs to be done. All you need to say is, 'We need some food,' and people set up tables and the food is out," Berry said.
Phil Fradkin and his wife Dianne, who lost their own Inverness Ridge home seven years ago to a fire that started in a heater, consoled shelter evacuees who had lost their homes. Berry said she had more volunteers than they could use Tuesday night. By late Wednesday morning the fire had been declared a Red Cross disaster, coordinator Tom Young of Marshall reported.
From across Tomales Bay, trees and houses could be heard exploding as they were engulfed in flames, creating a hideous beauty that had all the fascination of a glance into Hell itself.
Since the fire began Tuesday afternoon, most townspeople in Point Reyes Station have been gathering in the streets, on front stoops, and on top of the Giacomini Dam to watch the smoke and flames spread along the ridgetop and into ravines and canyons below it.
One of the onlookers who stopped beside the bay, Bert Crews of Tomales, described the sight as a "grand guignol," or theater of horror. To the south, communities as far away as Santa Cruz and San Jose reported smelling the smoke.
While the fire was receiving national TV coverage, the broadcasts were lost around Tomales Bay. Horizon Cable owner Kevin Daniel reported his satellite dishes and antennae located at Sandy Jacob's home on Upper Sunnyside Drive melted down in the inferno.
As it happened, this week's fire broke out the day Simpson was acquitted in his double-murder case. The coincidence led several townspeople to wryly quip that the fire might have resulted from wealthy white residents of Paradise Ranch Estates rioting over the verdict.
At press time, many organizations were offering free services to evacuees:
