A Safer Place to be 2: After the Fire

"I hope it snows again. That was beautiful. It's so black after the fire, you can't tell the land from the dead trees."

If you have read the first book, you must read this second book as well. NM Reed will tell you the agonizing reality of the event's trails. It unravels much more than a fire incident.

NM Reed tells the story of evacuation and getting the dogs and horses back to the ranch in book one. However, in book two, Reed will tell you the story of the struggles of getting back on their feet again. On the 8th day after the fire, the residents of Calaveras County were finally allowed to go back to their properties. Reed is working and trying to keep things going. A guy from UPS delivered a bolt of wood and some donations came by. Their generosity gave Reed the encouragement and hope to continue. In mid-October, the same year the fire happened, the politics has started already and the county is threatening to fine anyone who brings out a trailer to live in without doing all the proper paperwork first. Then the guy from the UPS told Reed that FEMA will come in and sift through her stuff and cart it off, but that they will be billing PGE because they are admitting they started the fire. One thing that makes this book hookable is because of its rawness and authenticity. The way NM Reed narrates the story feels like you're with her on that day. It is detailed and she didn't even hesitate to leave a word behind. These are qualities of true stories, ones that you must look for when seeking for good ones.

In December 2015, a guy working from SBA came over and reviewed the damage to her barn. He measured the barn and estimated the damage of just the shop contents to be over 20 grand. They could not replace the barn but they could get her some working capital for the winter, to replace machinery and some wood. After being in drought for a decade in California, it finally rained. Big storms are coming again in January 2016. Meanwhile, PGE talks about "RESTORING" her property knowing it won't ever happen but even if she would get money from them, she will always be plagued by problems now that the balance is ruined.

What the author went through was surreal. She was deprived during the dreadful occurrence. The aftermath of the Butte Fire was as frustrating as the fire incident itself. As much as NM Reed likes to think that everything was just a bad dream and she still has her barn, she has to face the ugliness of truth. She has to stand and go back to start again.

After the Fire: finding life again in the burn scar. The Butte Fire Re-population, follow-up to Home Is Where the Horse Is: Surviving the Jackson Butte Fire Evacuation

The follow up story of the Jackson Butte Fire disaster, "A Safer Place to be". When the fire broke out on September 9th 2015, the author was forced to evacuate her ranch in the woods in the 15 minutes provided by the county sheriff. The evacuation itself was a disaster. But the follow-up story is heart breaking. This week to week journal of what happened between re-population and the final settlement with the power company 3 years later, the story unfolds like a horror novel. Everything seems to go wrong, from illegal tree poaching to gun fights, buried bodies and running for their lives. But the author lives to tell the tale, of bare black earth and flooding rain and mud slides, to the ground turning green again with over-abundant brush and grass growth. Horses escape, and the feral cat finds her way back outside, even without her feet. An amazing often hair-raising, and sometimes heartening tale of survival and perseverance against all odds in the burnt out wilderness of Calaveras county, California after the Butte Fire disaster of 2015, when 74 thousand acres were blackened in a matter of hours and lives were shattered or lost.