Out of the Fire and into the Sun Pat Walker c. 1993 Pat Walker It was a hot time in the small towns of Round Mountain and Montgomery Creek, California. Starting on August 20, 1992 and continuing for many days, a giant, out-of-control fire burned through both towns and the surrounding 60,000 acres of timberland. After a house we owned burned to the ground in minutes, I watched as the fire swept wildly after people fleeing with whatever they had been able to grab quickly. A horse tied to a truck trotted up Highway 299 followed by an odd assortment of vehicles, people, and animals looking for a safe place to stop. Countless pets, farm and wild animals were killed. Miraculously, no people perished although there are many harrowing tales of daring escapes and feats of bravery. Enter FEMA With wet weather on the way, a much overworked government organization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrived to help. In early October I received a phone call from Jeff Jurew of FEMA. Would I meet with them and discuss the possibilities of designing some small solar systems for people living beyond the power lines? I liked Jeff immediately. He is a very caring and diplomatic man, just the type of person needed to deal with all the displaced and frightened people. He was hundreds of miles from home and worked for weeks without a day off. He listened to people and got the job done. The problem was that the trailers that were brought in to house people required electricity to run lights and the 12 Volt blowers on the heaters. Plus an ac water purification pump was to be installed. Suggesting Solar FEMA was considering providing gasoline generators to these people. As many of the folks had used solar power before the fire, they suggested solar to Jeff. It was a nice surprise for them that Jeff and FEMA were willing to consider it. Generators were all the FEMA people knew about. They had never considered solar power in past disasters. So I met with the G-men. I learned the requirements to run the trailers. I gave them as low an estimate as I could. Fearing I might frighten them away from all this new "solar thinking" I tried to keep things at a bare minimum. They agreed to the solar. The only catch was they wanted it immediately. With the help of Bob-O Schultze of Electron Connection, we got everything together in two days. Each system mainly consisted of one Solarex MSX-60 Watt panel, two Trojan 220 Amp-hour T-105 batteries, a small SunAmp controller and a PowerStar 200 watt inverter. We also created a small water pumping system made up of a 12 Volt pump and one 60 Watt Solarex panel. The big gasoline water pump that was being considered for this tiny trickle of water was just plain crazy. And solar power was less expensive. The electrical contractor already doing work for FEMA did the installations. He had never been involved with solar before, yet the work went fairly smoothly. All the trailers and the water system were running in two more days. Postscript We found that most of the people did fine with their solar equipment (it was theirs to keep). Most added on to their systems with new or salvaged stuff from the fire. One person did have a problem keeping his battery full. I think using the lights caused the battery drain. One 3.5 Amp panel just couldn't keep up. My husband Rick and I are replacing solar systems in this area. The main work will come this spring and summer when most of the houses are to be rebuilt. Lotsa Watts Solar will replace all solar equipment that was burned in the Fountain Fire at cost. Access Pat Walker, Lotsa Watts Solar Electric, No. 1 Shotgun Road, POB 167, Big Bend, CA 96011 ù 916-337-6687