Laura and Quinn Wilkinson
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Quinn Noble Wilkinson and Laura Wilkinson recently spoke with KUT News about their experience during the Wildfires.
Q. Wilkinson: It started with a squid.
L. Wilkinson: No, it did not with a squid. Okay. Enough. Now you remember we had gone out to grandma’s house.
Q. Wilkinson: Yeah, I wanna tell the story. I wanna tell the story.
L. Wilkinson: Well, then settle down and tell the story.
Q. Wilkinson: We went out to my grandmother’s house and it apparently looks like someone had started a brush fire. It looks like they accidentally had it too close to their house and it seems that the house catched on fire.
L. Wilkinson: Well, that’s what we were afraid of…
Q. Wilkinson: And…
L. Wilkinson: Because when we were out at Maw Maw’s house, we – we went for a drive and we saw the big cloud out where Bastrop would lie. ‘Cause where Maw Maw’s house is, it’s about 30 miles away from the Bastrop State Park. And remember you kept saying you thought it was a storm at first.
Q. Wilkinson: Yes.
L. Wilkinson: We didn’t know what it was. And so we thought for a while there that the fire was local, that it was somewhere either in Red Rock or Rockney and so we went for a drive looking for it and we couldn’t find it.
Q. Wilkinson: And it turns out it was farther away than it was closer.
L. Wilkinson: It was farther away. Now that was the morning of Labor Day.
Q. Wilkinson: Why…
KUT News: Tell me what you were doing that day before even the fire started.
Q. Wilkinson: Well, what we were doing, we decided to go out to my grandmother’s to spend – to spend…
L. Wilkinson: The weekend.
Q. Wilkinson: With her and so we saw the fire begin.
L. Wilkinson: No, we didn’t see the fire. We saw the – the smoke…
Q. Wilkinson: The smoke and…
L. Wilkinson: How long has – how long has Maw Maw been on the ranch?
Q. Wilkinson: She’s been there I think for like 40 years.
L. Wilkinson: That’s right, since 1970.
KUT News: Wow, really?
L. Wilkinson: Oh, yes. Yeah.
Q. Wilkinson: We bought the farm. So what – what I was – me and my family was afraid of ‘cause there was one fire here and one fire here so it’s like a – it’s like a triangle, the two fires. If – if one – if the wind blew this way, the – that fire would come here and if the other one blew this way, or if it just blew in the middle that means that either two could all blow…
L. Wilkinson: For a while there, we didn’t know exactly where the fires were coming from.
Q. Wilkinson: And – and then they said if you get a phone call it says you have ten minutes to get out of the house. So we put a ribbon up and we watched it all day.
KUT News: What do you mean “a ribbon”?
L. Wilkinson: Well, what had happened was both my – my grandma – my mother, Quinn’s grandmother, and Quinn were very nervous because all – there were these cloud plumes from the different fires that were starting and – and Quinn kept wanting to pack us up and go into Austin to where we live. He was gonna move – my brother and sister-in-law live right across the lane from my mother and he wanted the whole family to come into Austin right then. And so we knew – by that time, we knew that the Bastrop fires, where they were and how far away – we weren’t in immediate danger from them, but…
Q. Wilkinson: They were 32 miles away.
L. Wilkinson: That’s right. But the Cedar Creek fires were only nine miles away and if the wind shifted in the wrong direction, it could’ve jumped 535. My mother’s ranch is out on High Grove Lane, which is in the area. It could’ve come straight for us.
Q. Wilkinson: Straight at us and burned us.
L. Wilkinson: So – so what I did is I got a long ribbon and I tied it to…
Q. Wilkinson: We got on my jungle gym.
L. Wilkinson: On his jungle gym and his job for the whole day was to watch how the wind blew.
KUT News: Why don’t you explain to me that ribbon. What was it and what was your job?
Q. Wilkinson: Okay, mommy, I wanna talk by myself.
KUT News: Okay, you talk by yourself.
Q. Wilkinson: Well, the ribbon was for – so if the fire did come either way, either one, like if the wind shifted where the fire might come to us, we were watching ‘cause if the ribbon came straight at us, that means that the fire’s gonna come at us.
L. Wilkinson: That’s right.
Photo by Mose Buchele, KUT News
Q. Wilkinson: But the ribbon didn’t do that. Well, my aunt and uncle, they lived across the street, they started packing up that day when they first heard about it and they had everything packed up and they were just ready to go if they had gotten a phone call.
KUT News: Described to me how the – the ribbon waved in the wind.
Q. Wilkinson: Well…
KUT News: Did it ever turn?
Q. Wilkinson: What the wind – what the ribbon was it was kind of like an air sock. It was supposed to capture the wind and if the wind blew the air sock like the ribbon would move to the angles that the fire was coming. So pretty much…
L. Wilkinson: The wind was coming out of the north, right?
Q. Wilkinson: I wanna talk by myself.
L. Wilkinson: Okay.
Q. Wilkinson: So if the wind came at us, we would run out of there even before we got the phone call ‘cause more time more better.
L. Wilkinson: That’s right. We just wanted more time.
Q. Wilkinson: And then if the ribbon blew away or was close to us like if it was – if it was like here or if it slanted over like it was here and our house is right here and it slants over a bit, that means that the fire could start coming towards us. It wouldn’t start directly at us, it would probably start at the forest area of our farm.
L. Wilkinson: Because we have a lot of forest around.
KUT News: Did it ever – did the wind ever –
Q. Wilkinson: Well, it usually would flicker to us then out.
L. Wilkinson: It was pretty consistent the way it blew all day.
Q. Wilkinson: It was pretty consistent, so…
KUT News: And that was your job?
Q. Wilkinson: It was my job and…
KUT News: How did you feel about…
Q. Wilkinson: I was just – I was – I was happy and scared. Like I was happy so the fire came at us, like we would be able to evacuate and that’s never happened before and scared ‘cause if we didn’t – if the people were dumb and they didn’t give us a phone call early enough we could burn to death.
KUT News: What were you thinking about the fires when you were watching, because that’s am important job, right?
Q. Wilkinson: Yes.
KUT News: What were you thinking at that point?
Q. Wilkinson: Well, I was thinking like we could set up a camera to watch it during the night when we can’t stay awake and watch it, but the scary thing about it is that if we’re asleep at night and the ribbon is straight at us for an hour, that means even if we wake up, the house would be on fire and we probably wouldn’t be able to escape.
L. Wilkinson: And some people weren’t able to escape –
Q. Wilkinson: Some people actually did die from the fire.
L. Wilkinson: Well, not directly, but…
Q. Wilkinson: And some got injured.
L. Wilkinson: They lost their homes and they lost a lot of businesses too.
Q. Wilkinson: Yes.
KUT News: Wow. Wow, what a – so, okay, so you – that was during the day.
L. Wilkinson: Mm-hm.
KUT News: You – you monitored the ribbon.
Q. Wilkinson: Uh-huh.
KUT News: What were you doing, mom?
L. Wilkinson: Pretty much trying to keep him calm and keep my mother calm because it was – it was the – it was the whole idea of not knowing if the wind would suddenly shift and because the winds that day was just incredible. I’ve never seen winds that violent and that sustained. It blew from the morning until we left to go back – ‘cause he had to go to school the next day. We went back into Austin and that whole night…
Q. Wilkinson: I wanna say something.
L. Wilkinson: We were – we were watching – watching news and they kept – they kept saying, well, another fire had started and then they showed us where the Cedar Creek fire was and seeing how close it was to my mother’s ranch, you know, if – if the wind had changed even a little bit, it would’ve – it would’ve come straight at her.
Q. Wilkinson: I wanna say something.
KUT News: You wanna say something?
Q. Wilkinson: Yeah.
KUT News: Okay.
Q. Wilkinson: The scary thing about the fire is that if the fire went this way it could overlap around in the circle and not come directly at us so it would prevent us to get out.
KUT News: You were afraid of being trapped?
L. Wilkinson: Yes, exactly.
Q. Wilkinson: Yes, the fire could swirl around like a circle cuffing us in the middle. Imagine this mic head is our house and then the two fires come around but not directly at us, they collide here and then they mass around our house, so even if we drove out, we would have to drive like 60 miles per hour to get out of the – to stop from being burned alive from the fire.
KUT News: Let me ask you, is this – was this your first time to witness a fire like this?
Q. Wilkinson: No, this – this has been – this has happened before, but this – it was not as drastic as this.
L. Wilkinson: It was not as big. We’ve seen like…
Q. Wilkinson: We’ve seen ones that are very bad.
L. Wilkinson: Well, it’s brush fires, controlled fires, you know; timber, old timber, or rotten wood that his uncle will burn. He’s been to those kind of fires, but nothing – nothing on a level…
Q. Wilkinson: Like this.
L. Wilkinson: Like this. It was just…
KUT News: Nothing out of control?
L. Wilkinson: Oh, completely out of control.
KUT News: Did it seem like it was out of control when you were at home watching it?
Q. Wilkinson: No. I wanna take off the microphones.
KUT News: You wanna talk off the headphones?
Q. Wilkinson: Yeah.
KUT News: That’s okay.
Q. Wilkinson: It sounds weird.
KUT News: It does sound funny, right? I know. I have to wear them all the time, but I’m so used to it. I’m so used to it. I wear them usually around y neck like that. Like a necklace.
L. Wilkinson: So, you were – you were scared that you didn’t quite know what was gonna happen at any time, right?
Q. Wilkinson: Yes. I wanna say something about the fire now.
KUT News: Go ahead.
Q. Wilkinson: The thing that was the most scary about the fire is that either way the fire came, like if this fire came here, would probably evacuate and if the fire came here, we would evacuate. If the two fires came at once, we couldn’t even – the ranch would burn and it would be harder to like rebuild that ‘cause that’s like humongous. I think it’s like 300 or 200 acres.
L. Wilkinson: No. It’s 147 acres, but we’ve been there since 1970.
KUT News: So that was during the say. When did you guys make the decision that you should probably get going?
L. Wilkinson: We – at – at about six o’clock, it was pretty apparent that the fires were, at least in Cedar Creek, were under control.
Q. Wilkinson: And not coming towards us.
L. Wilkinson: And the winds were – yeah. With the night, the winds were – were starting to decrease and so Quinn and I came back home to Austin and my mother was given strict instructions that if she got that phone call, she was to let us know and then she would come into Austin and stay with us and so would my – my brother and sister-in-law and Quinn’s cousin, Annika.
Q. Wilkinson: I wanna say something.
KUT News: Okay, but let’s lean up when you say it.
Q. Wilkinson: Okay, sorry.
KUT News: There you go.
Q. Wilkinson: Well, one thing is that if we were supposed to come – if they were supposed to come into Austin because of the fire, that means that what would happen we would need to – our house is a wreck, so we would need to clean it up to help them, but the baddest thing would be that if the fire actually came straight at us and we had like 12 minutes to evacuate. That’d be like the worse thing ‘cause my grandmother has so many precious things she has to pack up that she got and she doesn’t wanna lose.
KUT News: Right.
L. Wilkinson: Yeah, yeah.
KUT News: Do you wanna talk about grandma a little bit?
Q. Wilkinson: Well…
KUT News: Tell me what grandma’s all about.
Q. Wilkinson: Well, my grandmother is – she’s one of the people that had been on the farm for the longest possible time. She – she has had so many times that if the fire came at her, she would have lost her home, all her memories would have gone to ash and if she – she would’ve have to have like a couple of minutes to pack up everything…
L. Wilkinson: She doesn’t move very fast.
Q. Wilkinson: And she – and she has so many precious items that she got from her children, from her husband, he – he died a couple – a couple of years before I was born and she – if she was supposed to leave right before she was done, she would lose some of the only memories that she could’ve gotten from some of her old family members that are no longer around from her husband, from us and from me. They would just be ashes and even if they survived, they would be almost impossible to recover getting them back to their natural state.
KUT News: There are a lot of people that sort of – that happened to.
L. Wilkinson: It happened to some of our friends.
KUT News: Yeah, did it really?
Q. Wilkinson: Yes.
KUT News: Wow.
L. Wilkinson: Yeah, my brother’s childhood friend had – was living in Bastrop and he also has a business, and he had literally five minutes to get his kids unloaded from the house, get all the insurance papers and the bank papers, all the relevant papers, out of the house and into the car and as they were leaving their house, they saw the wall of flames come after them and so he was worried about his business and he – my brother was worried about his business as well, because he – Robert owns a automotive repair shop and my brother’s car was a 1967 Ford Mustang was at the shop at the time, having repairs done, and so the first thing my brother asked Robert when they finally got on the phone was if his car was alright, not how – not how Robert and Wilma were doing, not – not how the house was doing, not how the, you know, is the business okay, but is my car alright? And, of course, it’s understandable but, you know, it’s – it’s one of those that when you really think about it, everything’s temporary. You know, you just don’t know when you’re gonna lose it all and – but fortunately, even though they lost their house, the business was spared, so they were able to recover from it and right now they’re building a brand new house, but they lost – they lost so much.
Q. Wilkinson: Can I please say something about his friend?
KUT News: Yeah.
Q. Wilkinson: One thing about my uncle’s friend is that I think it was kind of just mean to say like are you okay? Is your family okay? He just said, “is my car okay?” ‘Cause it’s like he’s – it’s like he’s a teenager and…
L. Wilkinson: That was the most…
Q. Wilkinson: And if he…
L. Wilkinson: Yes.
Q. Wilkinson: If his dad figured out his car had gotten burned to dust, he would get – he would get grounded like for so many – like for so long. But, actually, that car is I think almost as old as I think you, Mommy, or is it…
L. Wilkinson: It’s not quite as old as mommy, but it’s – it’s getting up there. It’s – it’s called a…
KUT News: Classic.
L. Wilkinson: Classic, yes, it is.
Q. Wilkinson: And also…
L. Wilkinson: So your mom’s a classic, right?
Q. Wilkinson: Yes. So that means if the wall of flames – my uncle has an older car and it’s been there on the farm for so many years. It hasn’t started up for a long, long time. He has it since he was a teenager and if that car – he was finally repairing it and if that car – if that flame just came straight at the car, he would lose I think a very rare car model in the flames.
L. Wilkinson: Yeah, he’d probably – he’d be very, very upset.
KUT News: Right.
Q. Wilkinson: And…
L. Wilkinson: What do we – what do we call the car?
Q. Wilkinson: I don’t know.
L. Wilkinson: We call it The Mistress, don’t we.
Q. Wilkinson: Yeah, it – it was so…
L. Wilkinson: Yeah, it’s the other woman in the marriage. My – my sister-in-law has to compete with the car.
Q. Wilkinson: I know.
L. Wilkinson: That’s why it was so funny when he called Robert up and said, “Is the car okay?”
Q. Wilkinson: It’s like so – it’s like so selfish that he said that, but…
L. Wilkinson: Well…
Q. Wilkinson: But he still wanted to know that the car was okay.
L. Wilkinson: He was – he was still glad that Robert and Wilma were alright.
Q. Wilkinson: Yes, but I think he should’ve asked if they were alright before the car.
L. Wilkinson: Maybe his priorities were a little bit skewed. Yeah, you’re right.
Q. Wilkinson: But – can I say…
KUT News: Did you go and help Robert and Wilma afterwards?
Q. Wilkinson: No, I don’t know them very well. They – and they were pretty far away. Can I describe some of my family members?
KUT News: Sure, go ahead.
Q. Wilkinson: My grandmother is one of the oldest people in our entire family.
L. Wilkinson: How old is she? Do you know?
Q. Wilkinson: She is 78.
L. Wilkinson: Not quite.
Q. Wilkinson: I think she was…
L. Wilkinson: She is – how old is mommy?
Q. Wilkinson: I think 50 or 48.
L. Wilkinson: Not quite, 48. So Maw Maw is?
Q. Wilkinson: Eighty…
L. Wilkinson: Eighty…
Q. Wilkinson: Five.
L. Wilkinson: Around that. She’ll give that to you.
Q. Wilkinson: She’s about 88.
L. Wilkinson: She’s – yeah. She’ll be 88 this year.
Q. Wilkinson: So she’s almost 100 years old.
L. Wilkinson: Oh, God.
Q. Wilkinson: She has 11 years to go.
L. Wilkinson: She’s got a few years to go, yeah.
Q. Wilkinson: But the baddest thing would probably – the baddest thing to – so my grandmother is the oldest in the family. She has – she pretty much supplies all of us with our – with our bank problems, stuff if it gets broken. My uncle, he works on stuff, so he’s pretty much the strength of the family. Diana is his wife and she’s pretty much – she’s pretty much the carer of the family. Annika is my – my cousin. I don’t call her my baby cousin anymore ‘cause she’s – she’s almost six.
L. Wilkinson: She’s almost six, yeah.
Q. Wilkinson: So she’s energetic, very energetic, she bounces off the walls sometimes.
L. Wilkinson: Yeah.
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