I live in NorCal and on the fifteenth I was witness to a flash fire that destroyed my community. In many ways my gaming habit saved my wife's life and a retiree across from a property we own. Because I was home rather that miles away working. I had taken the day off to play Destiny. So sitting on my couch I witnessed a huge plume of smoke appear behind a ridge line. Now this was close to the elementary school or from my perspective appeared to be coming from it. I would learn it actually started on the back end. Now California is a tinderbox. It's been under a drought for awhile now and we have been at record high temps from 103 to the high 90s for months now,with little to no rain and low humidity. Trust me I've been hugging my air conditioner as much as possible. Now when this plume of smoke appeared I knew it was bad. Not bad like oh look. More oh -blam!-!!!!!!!!! Bad. The wind was high that day and this was bad. I'm originally from New Orleans. I've been through Hurricanes and I'm a certified diver and I've seen what panic does. So I just shut the noise off in my head and said here's what's important MOVE! So I got my wife moving to collect our paper work grab bag. I managed to move both our cars into position so we could bolt while the plume of smoke was now a wall of hell. I could see the start of the fire beginning to get into the top of trees and we had a wall of flame about forty feet high coming directly at us. My wife is techie so of course she's grabbing her computer and hard drives while I grabbed my child's favorite stuffed animal and my PS4 and Hook ups for it. Stuffed them both into the bag and with clothing and some wedding pictures. I threw that on my couch next to other bags and headed out the door to hose the house down, roof, and the grass as well as whatever I could get on my neighbors house as well since they were out of town. Of course now things were really getting dangerous. The fire was on the edge of church and it was beginning to jump into the homes a few streets away from us. A young man from the house behind me was on his roof and he spotted a brush fire starting up on my other Neighbor's lawn. My hose wasn't going to make it. And I didn't have a bucket. By now it was bedlam. Smoke as dark as night and the fire wasn't waiting. Now my heart was saying -blam!- this I'm outta here from the way it was beating my chest. But I said panic kills so shut it. I walked into my house told my wife to get her ass outside with the bags and get the second car. I grabbed two fire extinguishers that I kept incase of a emergency and walked out the the door with them like gunslinger right to my neighbors house and put those bastards out. I can tell you though I knew this was just pissing in the wind. That fire wasn't stopping for anything and it could smell the Lumber Mill not but a few streets away. And it wanted it. By now it was time to go. I knew my house was a lost cause. That everything inside was gone. My computer, books, beds, that five years of making a home was over in that little house. And to be honest its all crap that I let go of or replace where my wife isn't. This isn't new to me. I've had my life burned to the ground numerous times. In fact I've done it so many times it's like a breathe of fresh air. My wife though hasn't ever had to deal with catastrophic upheavals. She was still in the house pulling hard drives. If you're IT you'll totally get her. So here I am holding spent extinguishers. A wall of fire forty feet high is bearing down on me and my wife is still in the house that basically is a bomb and I have a child luckily miles away safe. I said -blam!- as loud as possible and marched in to drag her out by the hair if I had to. When she stuck her head out the door and scurried to her car staring in disbelief of what was coming. We had only but a few minutes to escape the streets in our vehicles before somebody wrecked themselves or the fire closed the only exit out. Luckily everyone kept their heads. The police funneled us out past the Mill and by then the saw dust piles were getting lit up. A water truck was scrambling to get water on the pile as fast as possible. Behind us I could see the fire eating the town. We managed to hit the adjacent highway that runs to the main freeway and drove to my fathers. Only to find that my father had freaked and drove into the fire to find us. He's an ex Marine, so into the fray tally the -blam!- ho! During some bad hurricanes and couple Earthquakes I've seen him do this plenty of times. Usually with me chasing after him. I wasn't really surprised. Luckily the cops turned him around while my wife reached him. If the wind shifted we weren't exactly in a safe place. The cabin would be next as well as my Dad's place. I still had to get my child. Which was harrowing because part of the fire was heading the opposite direction for the main freeway, while it was dismantling the mill and the towns east of us. It was very surreal to see these massive flames shooting into the sky as it marched south into the hills and was exploding trees while at it. By now though the fire department, Cal Trans, the police were en mass getting a handle on the situation. Giant planes were in the sky dodging helicopters with dump buckets. The dance was on. I could see it all as I hit the main freeway and was heading to my aunts to get them. When I got there my wife grabbed our child and broke the news that our house was gone. The first question was did you save my stuffed animal. Yes I did. He's right here..... Oh -blam!-. I forgot to grab the bag. It was sitting on the couch. The couch that was most likely embers by now along side my wedding pics, PS4, iPad, and four days of underwear I was going to need. It was sobering time. We stayed the night with my aunt. She lives far away from the carnage. She doesn't have tv. So basically I knew I wasn't going to find out anything till the morning. It was a very long night with a lot of decisions made. By 5am I received a call from my dad. And he was hearing rumors that my house had made it. How that was even possible wasn't even registering. I saw the wall fire. That beast wasn't sparing anything. But apparently it did. On driving down to my community I was turned away by the police. Parking at the local supermarket, I hiked in. I was on a mission to save my kid's stuffed animal. That hit them too hard. I had to save it no matter what and bring it home. So I marched into town and up to the road blocks that lead to the main fire zone and the firemen gave a lift in once I showed them that I was resident. I also had to get medicine for my wife so if my house was standing I had a valid reason to be up there. It was like driving into a Escher painting. Wreckage everywhere, twisted black and smoldering. Foundations and electric wires were down everywhere. Smoot, ash, and asbestos wafting in the wind. There in all this hell was my house covered in pink fire retardant dropped from those planes. My neighbors homes all lost around me. Everything destroyed. I walked into my home and it was like where have you been? I felt survivors guilt right there. I didn't expect it to be there. On my couch was that bag. So I gathered what I could for my wife and child into three back packs and grabbed the stuff animal. I could feel my PS4 and my hard drive that holds all my art work. My Wacom tablet. Wedding photos, identification and documents. The things that I knew I'd need the serious times and times I needed to escape and feel normal with. I put my kids stuffed animal on my lap as I crawled into the fire truck and they carried me back down to the road block to my waiting wife. So right now I'm telling you this tale from My aunts since my wife can't handle the smoke. It will be awhile before I go home. With everything destroyed I'm not sure how long we'll stay. My cabin's not really an option for the long term. We have family down in the bay area to Orange County. Even without them I'm used to these road bumps in life, so I'm keeping my kid from falling apart by being dad and goofy as possible to keep them laughing. Homework, dinner, life is going on and you're not getting out of school. So kids here's lesson. Always keep a grab bag ready to go and don't forget the -blam!-er.