August 17, 2021

Santa Rosa Fire: We Are Safe””House and EFT Universe Office Gone

Santa Rosa Fire: We Are Safe–House and EFT Universe Office Gone

We feel incredibly grateful to be alive.

At 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, October 9, a wildfire consumed northern Santa Rosa, our home, and the EFT Universe office.

My wife, Christine, woke up at 1 a.m, woke me up, and I saw a glow on the horizon. A minute later, I looked out the window again and I could not believe how fast the fire was moving.

I yelled, “Christine, we are leaving right now.” I threw on my clothes, grabbed the car keys and my wife’s hand, and sprinted to the car, which was parked at the office building in the back of the property. As we got to the car, a 40-foot high sheet of flame erupted behind a nearby storage building.

I drove as fast as I dared down our long driveway, past the house, and onto Mark West Springs Road. Smoke filled the air, but the night was lit with a bright yellow glow. The wind howled. We drove out through a firestorm of cinders hitting the car.

A few seconds later and we would not have made it out. I saw one or two cars behind us, but I don’t believe many more people made it out of the inferno.

We drove to the home of my ex-wife, who lives nearby, to warn her. I banged on the front door, and when there was no response, I went into the house via a side door. There was nobody home.

I leaned on my car horn, waking the neighborhood. A couple of people came out of their homes, and we looked at the glow on the horizon together. They woke up their neighbors, and everyone began to prepare, in case they had to evacuate.

We watched the fire on the hillside about half a mile away. It didn’t seem very threatening as it drew a ring of red around a huge mansion. Then there was a glow from one side of the house. Then the other. Then the house simply blew up in a huge spurt of flame. It was over in less than 30 seconds.

It was not a silent night. The wind was rushing by, with gusts of over 50 miles per hour. There were so many explosions it sounded like an artillery barrage. Someone told me these were propane cylinders exploding.

We could help no further there, so we decided to drive to friends in Forestville, about 10 miles away. The roads were gridlocked, because by then the whole area had been told to evacuate. It took about 2 hours to get the 1/2 mile to the expressway.

The emergency services personnel seemed dazed. They could not cope with the scale of the disaster. The fire had moved so fast there was no time to warn people in the Mark West neighborhood or order an evacuation of the area. The official death toll at that point was only one, but I feared it would be much higher when police could return to the houses hit by the fire later.

We watched horrific images on TV with our Forestville friends. Around noon, the news came that Forestville had to be evacuated too, so we made a hotel reservation at one of the few rooms available, 100 minutes away on the Sonoma coast. We bought whatever supplies we could at the local market and spent the next night there.

We’ve spent the last 24 hours starting to assess the damage and making plans to cope with the many emergencies. We’ll post updates here regularly.

We’re incredibly grateful for all the phone calls and messages of encouragement. Please leave one here if you’d like. We’re also starting a rebuilding fund to replace the EFT Universe infrastructure not covered by insurance, and get back up and running as soon as possible. If you feel inspired to make a contribution, here’s the link.

We’ll keep you posted here, and share more details of the story as we’re able. We feel so blessed to be part of this wonderful healing community, at the center of so much love. Thank you for your prayers and intentions now and in the future.

Much love!
Dawson

The following pictures show our house as it was and what is now left.