2. As I see the remains of the Harris Fire on Mount San Miguel while my father and I are driving up the mountain, I start to remember and have flashbacks about how afraid I was during the last days of October 2007.
3. It was October 23, 2007 when my younger brother and I were at home watching the news together. School had been canceled for a week now because of the wildfires but it wasn’t until we received a phone call from my mother telling us to pack our belongings that we really understood why we weren’t in school.
4.
5. Several communities in the Eastlake area of Chula Vista were told to evacuate from their homes, including my neighborhood community. I remember the expression on my brother’s face, an expression that made my heart ache because of how clueless and frightened he looked. Both my father and mother arrived home from work early to pack their belongings as well.
6. While I was packing, all I could do was think and wonder why this could be happening to not only me, my family, and neighborhood, but to all of those throughout the state of California. What had we done to deserve this horrendous fright?
7.
8. I remember being outside of the house with my parents and brother, putting boxes filled with our belongings into our cars, and our neighbors doing the same. As we were doing so, we stopped to watch the flaming fires continue to rapidly go down the mountain, getting closer and closer to us.
9.
10. My father, mother, and I (with my brother) each took one car and drove towards the inner part of the city, to my aunt’s house, further away from the fires. When the three of us arrived and walked into my aunt’s house, everyone in there was in the living room, stuck on the television watching the news, and waiting anxiously for more words and details on the Harris Fire.
11.
12. I remember getting phone calls and text messages from family members and friends, asking me how I was doing because they knew of my evacuation from my house. My answer each time was “I’m scared.” That night, I could not sleep but think about how I could possibly be losing my home.
13.
14. The next day, a little after noon, we got the okay to go back to our home. As I was driving from my aunt’s house with my brother in the passenger seat, I was filled with relief and happiness knowing that I was going home even though the outside air was polluted from the smoke of the fires. When I got home, I smiled the biggest smile I could and hugged my bed.
15.
16. Then I turned on the TV to learn that thanks to the Otay Lake, the flames from the Harris Fire did not reach my home.
