The Creek Fire is out and clear skies return to North Fork

The Creek Fire is Out!

After over two months of smoke and disruption, the largest single fire in recorded California history is officially out and the clear skies have returned to North Fork. The welcomed clear skies allowed us all to to get outdoors again and to inaugurate the bocce ball court at Standing Stone Village.

Residents were notified on September 4th of a fast moving fire that had started near Shaver Lake, about 12 miles from North Fork. Hours later the evacuation notices came in for most of North Fork and the area around the California Vipassana Center, forcing the cancelation of a 20 day course that was starting that day and forcing the residents to find places to evacuate to. The Creek Fire brought spot fires near Standing Stone Village and the Center but ultimately left the community grateful to firefighters, each other, and to the rain over the last few weeks. In the end the fire burned just under 380,000 acres.

Almost as soon as the fire started, community members developed ways to help each other. A neighborhood What’s App group and regular zoom calls helped the old students and friends get updates on the fire activity near their homes and the center, find shelter for evacuees, and ensure that everyone was safe. The What’s App texts and zoom calls kept everyone connected during this challenging time and reinforced that the community and our meditation practice is what is really important about living in North Fork.

In these calls and upon returning, we were all relieved to find all the homes in North Fork and the area of the Dhamma center were protected and spared. But the boundary of the fire came very close. A dozer line along the Whisky Creek was created on the adjacent Rublee property within half a mile from the center. The good news is that controlled burns from the dozer line and spot fires have significantly reduced the fuel load in the forests in this area. Both the Rublee’s and the Dhamma Mahavana have been approved for grants from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA for brush clearing. This work will start this year. The brush clearing, back burns and fire will help create a protective barrier that will reduce the fire risk from the east for many years to come.

Creek Fire Containment Line near Dhamma Mahavana and Standing Stone Village

One promising outcome of this event has been the development of a fire-wise community collaborative effort between us and our neighbors. This collaborative will address fire safety issues on a larger scale, allowing us to make decisions based on how future fires are likely to behave across our region -- behavior that is unlikely to be influenced by individual property lines and be better managed collectively. A silver lining of this ongoing shared challenge of managing fires is the opportunity to work collectively with all our neighbors, both meditator and non-meditator.

The Creek Fire and pandemic slowed down the Standing Stone Village development schedule, but grading continues which has already paved way for multiple bocce tournaments on one of the house lots and easier visioning of homesites. Despite the knowledge that fires are part of life in California not likely to disappear soon, we take comfort knowing that the site plan, onsite water storage, and the new construction integrates fire resiliency in the design offering higher fire safety features overall.

Although disruptive, this fire served as a reminder of how resilient the North Fork community is. Perhaps built on the practice of supporting each other through the pandemic and earlier fires, the Creek Fire provided yet another opportunity to appreciate the strength and support of the community in North Fork.