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An Account of the Tassajara 2008 Basin Complex Fire By David Zimmerman, with assistance from
THE DAY THE FIRE ARRIVED Thursday, July 10: Day 18 since the first evacuation of June 23 The events on the day of the fire’s long awaited arrival are difficult to fully sequence chronologically, particularly the afternoon hours. We—the so-called Tassajara Five (Steve Stücky, David Zimmerman, Mako Voelkel, Graham Ross and Colin Gipson)—engaged the fire on numerous fronts as it entered the valley, working alone, in pairs or as a group for varying lengths of time as each new manifestation of the inferno dictated. While it quickly became obvious to us that five monks with nominal fire fighting skills weren’t enough to fully protect Tassajara, our monastic training had taught us to simply offer our best, whole-hearted effort, unattached to the results yet still aware of our preference to save our spiritual homestead. The fire, like any dedicated teacher, challenged us to constantly be attentive. For weeks the sangha—repeatedly informed that the fire was approximately “three days away” —had been preparing for an event that might or might not occur. Some of us even expressed impatience with the fire’s initially slow progression, wanting it to come sooner so we could all just “get on with things.” But during the hours that the blaze was finally upon us, the tracking of time gave way to the pure immediacy of the moment. What was most compelling during these hours, and which in reflection remains the most satisfying, is the constant vigilance and effort that the fire required. It was a sesshin through and through, a demanding schedule of pure presence in which one utterly let go of a known outcome. There were undeniable moments of fear and anxiety, especially when we understood the reality that the fire was descending into Tassajara fast and from all sides, rather than creep down one slope at a time as had initially been suggested by several professional fire fighters. But there was little time to entertain fear, so fear quickly gave way to our effort to fully meet our belated guest and the tasks at hand. What follows is a chronology, as best as we can recreate it, of our engagement with the fire. This map of central Tassajara is intended to help people not familiar with the grounds. To the west of this map are the outlying areas where the Bathhouse, the Yurt, and the Flats can be found. To the East, student housing. To the south, across the Tassajara Creek, is the Overlook Ridge and Trail.
6:00 am 7:00 am 9:00 am 12:00 noon Steve, who had been the patrol in the early morning, wakes up from a nap and decides to drive up the road again to assess the fire’s location. When he gets to the Church Creek trail he sees the fire coming down through the pine trees on the trail near the road, and it appears to be moving fairly fast. Recognizing he can safely go no further, he radios back that the fire is at the Church Creek trailhead and that he’s turning around to return to ZMC. It is clear now that the fire will reach Tassajara shortly by way of the road. 12:40 pm At this point we decide to start the pumps and our jury-rigged rooftop sprinkler system (affectionately called “Dharma Rain” ) to begin wetting down the buildings and raising the relative humidity in the valley. Mako starts the pool pump while Graham and Colin attend to the mid- and east-Mark IIIs. (The mid-Mark pumps creek water directly into the stand pipe system while the east-Mark pump refills the pool.) Steve goes to the east end to turn on the sprinklers and hose down buildings there. David focuses on the sprinklers in the central area and at the bath house. With the pumps and Mark IIIs running, Colin next heads to the shop and Graham to the flats cabin to start the sprinklers in these areas. “Dharma Rain” is now fully engaged.
12:50 pm While Steve and Graham are out at the flats, Colin heads up to the shop to keep an eye on the propane and gasoline areas. If these combustible resources were to be compromised, given their location at the narrow mouth of the valley and the only road out of the monastery, the situation could turn dire quickly. Once there he also sees that the fire is running down the overlook ridge on the south side of Tassajara creek, and radios to everyone another warning. In response Mako opens hose behind the Stone Office and wets down the deck, trees and lawn. David opens line on the Stone and Pine guest rooms as Dharma Rain doesn’t appear to be working properly on these cabins. 1:00-7:00 pm David returns to the office and calls George Haines, CAL FIRE Unit Chief, to let him know that the fire is coming down on all sides. As he had done the day before, David once again asks George if he has been able to arrange for any last minute help from CAL FIRE. (CAL FIRE is known to take a more hands-on approach to structure protection during wilderness fire fighting than their federal colleagues, the U.S. Forest Service, whose representatives had told Zen Center staff earlier in the week that they wouldn’t be providing any onsite fire fighting personnel at Tassajara because they deemed the valley, with its single road egress, too dangerous to commit ground resources to saving buildings.) Seeing Graham and Mako go up to the hill cabins to keep the fire at bay and to hose the buildings down, David radios to them George’s consent and instructions for back burning. He then hoses the area around the steps and the lower part of the hillside to provide safe egress for Graham and Mako and to keep the fire from coming further down should it pass the cabins. Graham lights a “flare on a stick” that he had rigged earlier in the morning and tries to back burn just east of Hill Cabin 3 when the fire is approximately ten to fifteen feet away. In some places the back burn meets the rest of the fire while in others the area is too wet to ignite. In either case, the fire there has calmed down and is no longer endangering the cabins, so Graham exits along the fire line cut on west side of the hill and heads towards the bathhouse.
When Graham arrives at the bathhouse the sight of the entire western area on fire and the memory of the flames coming over the hogback convinces him that there is nothing left beyond. He calls in over the radio: “The bathhouse is on fire.” Unsure where to begin, he turns on a standpipe and chooses first to hose down a burning fence and tree adjacent to the women’s side of the bathhouse, where fire’s immediately threatening the structure, and then continues engaging the fire throughout the area to the west of the bathhouse. It is only when he remembers that the grounds near the tent yurt are also on fire, threatening the fabric and wood structure that he calls for help. Meanwhile, the fire continues to surround the tent yurt. Having calmed the flames around the bathhouse, Mako turns her attention to the next threatened structure. Steve now arrives and joins Mako in trying to get water to the backside of yurt, but can only send water raining over the top to the other side because there isn’t enough hose length to come at it directly from behind. Seeing that step of the yurt deck is in flame, Steve pries it away with a shovel, and then Mako hoses down the burning wood. Mako and Steve continue for quite some time with hoses and shovels to keep fire from the tent yurt as well as the bathhouse bathroom at the base of the Suzuki Roshi memorial trail. Steve shifts his attention occasionally to also attend to the women’s side of the bathhouse, using a bucket and water from the outdoor plunge to quell the persistent fires there.
On his way to refuel the pool pump Graham sees that fire has entered the lower garden from the Flag Rock mountainside, burning fence posts and the upper terrace as far in as the large walnut tree. Graham arrests the fire’s progress with water hoses, saving the main flower beds from damage. (What the fire doesn’t destroy, deer will devour in the following weeks.) Only later, after he has refueled the pool pump, does Graham see that the pool bathroom and part of the ramp leading up to it is also aflame. He starts a hose on this structure as well, but the bathroom is beyond saving. His concern now was to keep the fire from spreading to the Yurt cabins just five feet away. David scouts the lower east side, focusing on dousing fire and debris rolling down the Flag Rock mountainside towards the redwood guests cabins west of the garden and the student housing beyond the pool. He also hoses down several large logs aflame on the far side of the creek. After she decides that the tent yurt area is mostly under control, Mako continues westward and discovers fires all over the flats area: the woodshed, the compost shed, and numerous brush piles. The hoses out here—abandoned during yesterday’s fire training activity due to the sudden evacuation—are tangled and heavy with water, making it difficult to move and access them. Mako alternates between the various fires, putting hose on the largest flames. Colin in the meantime sees that the right wing of the front gate fence is on fire, ignited by embers rolling down the hillside. He grabs a few fire extinguishers and puts it out, and afterwards returns to the shop. But a short time later he observes that gate fire has flared up again, so he radios that “the temple gate is on fire.” Steve, who is still nearby by, uses his shovel to disengage the burning section of the fence as there is no hose close at hand. David arrives with another fire extinguisher and succeeds in smothering the stubborn fire. Eventually Steve is able to connect more hose lengths to finally reach close enough to fully douse the fence. While he is doing this he sees flames among the pine needles carpeting the shingles of the gate roof. With water he is able to quickly arrest the spread of the fire on the roof, leaving only a few shingles slightly scorched. Around this time a moment of humorous miscommunication occurs when Colin radios David with a request for some Gatorade, and then Mako, a moment later, radios that the Gatorade is on fire. Confused, Colin restates that he’s asking for Gatorade to drink, and Mako clarifies that a pile of Gatorade bottles abandoned the day before at the flats during the training activity is on fire. David swings by the walk-in refrigerator and delivers Gatorade shortly thereafter to everyone.
Shortly after, Mako realizes that the flats woodshed fire has reignited and grown even larger, taking hold of all three wood stacks and the wood splitter itself. Concerned about a possible explosion, she radios Graham to inquire if there is gasoline in the tank of the wood splitter as she needs to get closer due to lack of hose pressure. The smoke is dense and prohibitive at times, forcing her to retreat occasionally to catch her breath and recover from the nausea. David returns to help put water on the conflagration, but is equally frustrated with the low water pressure. Mako radios a request that the Mark III be brought back to the area. Quickly Graham and Colin arrive at the flats to set up the third Mark III creek-side, which finally (after sorting out the mess of crisscrossing hoses) provides more water pressure and hose line for the fires. Mako, David and Colin spend at least a half hour getting the fire under control. Mako and David then head east on continued scouting while Colin stays behind to finish dousing the area. The crash of rocks and embers is frequently heard as they tumble against the back wall ruins of the old bathhouse from the overlook hillside, possibly threatening the hot springs pump room. David discovers a fire smoldering in rubble of an abandoned plunge and hoses it down. Afterwards he calls Jamesburg to update the crew there on our status. During his call (approximately 4:40 pm) he is given an urgent message by the Jamesburg staff (who received the message from Jordon Thorn, Tanto at City Center) to call Chuck Dixon, a forest service information officer, about an offer for air support. David calls Chuck’s number but only gets a voicemail, on which he leaves a detailed message suggesting areas where a water drop would be helpful. However, Chuck never returns the call and no air support ever arrives. Burning leaves and embers continue to slip down the hill behind the gatehouse, but Dharma Rain and some hose work by David and Colin keep it from igniting the gatehouse. At one point fire coming down the hill from the solar array threatens the conduits and other plastic items at the southern end of the lower parking lot. While Steve is able to douse this fire before it burns the conduits completely, the lines sustain enough damaged to disrupted power from the arrays for weeks afterwards.
Sometime in the late afternoon, as the activity of the fire in the valley seems to have quieted down somewhat, David returns calls from Robert Thomas and Dana Velden at City Center who have been trying to reach someone at Tassajara for the last several hours to hear how everyone is. They put David on speaker phone for the others in the room and he informs them of the damages and conditions of the fire up to this point. At approximately 6:15 pm Mako exchanges her drenched gear for dry clothes and sets off to take photos of the burned out areas to the west. She waves at a helicopter passing low over Tassajara at the flats and apparently surveying the damage and taking photos. Mako wonders if Jack Froggatt is in the helicopter. 7:00 pm 7:30 pm 8:00 pm The patrols continue all night in groups of two (except for the early morning shift, when we think it is safe enough to have just one person scouting), working numerous spot fires and refueling the pumps every three hours. The sound of Dharma Rain is a constant presence and reassurance throughout the night. THE DAY AFTER Friday, July 11: Day 19 since the first evacuation of June 23 From Keith at Jamesburg we learn that the fire had burned over 9,000 acres the day before, perhaps the largest spread in one day since the Basin Complex fires began. We just happened to have been smack in the middle of this largest and fastest expansion.
After a breakfast of cold cereal, we gather in the dining room and perform a short service of the En Mei Jukku Kannon Gyo, dedicating the service with gratitude to all those who helped prepare Tassajara for fire and supported us with prayers, blessings, and numerous other forms of generosity. Our patrols continue throughout the day. Several of us begin recording the fire’s impact on Tassajara and assessing more completely the extent of the damage within the monastery grounds and upon the wilderness around us. Word spreads quickly throughout the extended Zen Center sangha and beyond that we are all safe and unharmed (as well as exhausted), and that Tassajara has survived mostly intact. The Monterey Herald proclaims, “Priests Survive Inferno.” The status of the road is unclear to us, as is the current perimeter of the fire. We expect to be unable to leave the valley for days to come. Throughout the morning several reconnaissance helicopters fly low over the valley. After this surprising loss, we realize that we must maintain our vigilance for some time still. For many days following, piles of smoldering leaves and burning logs remain active despite, in many instances, being doused repeatedly with water. Just as the fire seemed to take forever to arrive, it seems equally insistent on taking its time to depart. (On July 21, a 4x8 beam still buried in the ruins of the birdhouse cabin once again ignites into flames, having smoldered underground for 11 days after the initial inferno.) While Tassajara and its community now seem to be on the far side of imminent danger, we must simply acknowledge that the fire’s lessons on impermanence, attentiveness and “don’t know mind” will be forefront in our minds for months, and perhaps years, to come. See “The Events Surrounding the Third Evacuation and the Tassajara Five’s Return” for an account of the day before the fire arrived, and “Now that the fire has passed” for a more complete overview of the effects of the fire on the grounds of Tassajara and the landscape around it. Here is a brief account of the 17 evacuees who arrived at Jamesburg. Photos courtesy of Mako Voelkel. All photos are linked to an on-line photo album that contains higher resolution images as well as images not displayed here. |
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