East Wind Fire

For those of you who are reading this blog for updates on East Wind (which is why I originally started this blog), the most recent news from EW is that a couple days ago there was quite a fire that burned down the whole shower house. The shower house contained all the laundry facilities, all the showers and baths, the community clothes closet, the sewing room, and the massage room. It seems like a bit of a tragedy. I'm not as East Wind right now, but I can try to imagine how difficult it would be to lose all the bathing facilities, washer and dryers, and all the clothes in the community in the winter time.

Some people have started donating clothes, and Twin Oaks will soon be sending clothes to East Wind.

Here's a story of the fire, written by Jude, who currently lives at East Wind. She also took all these photos.

"at 2:30am on december 16th (pod's birthday), pod and i were in bed watching a movie when we began to hear distant cries for help. i instantly thought of yellow sun, who has been incapacitated with two broken ankles and a fractured back, and we both ran towards the showerhouse as fast as we could. i assumed that yellow sun had fallen, but as we ran up the hill, the screams changed from, "help! help!" to "fire! fire!" as soon as i made it to the showerhouse, i tried to enter through the back door that i'd walked through a million times before. i understood the seriousness of the situation when i opened the door and was met with such a thick cloud of smoke that i could not possibly enter the building. after this terrible realization, i ran to yellow sun's window and tore off the screen. though his room was already filled with smoke, he was still fully alert and ready to get the fuck out of there. 

meanwhile, bert had seen the fire and called the police. while he was on the phone, the police notified him that there was a man on the other line who was trapped in the same burning building he had called the report. he ran to the showerhouse and met us at yellow sun's window just in time. pod jumped through the window and helped yellow sun out of bed and then passed him through the window to bert and i, and we then lowered him to the ground. pod then ran off to attempt to put out the fire, and bert gave me a boost through the window back into yellow sun's room. in just a minute, i managed to pass his wheelchair and some important personal possessions of his out the window to bert and then get out of the smoke-filled room myself. 

we then wheeled yellow sun to safety and i took a moment to calm down and feel the relief of yellow sun being out of that burning building. i then immediately ran back to my house and grabbed my camera and returned to the scene of the fire. the first of these pictures were taken less than fifteen minutes after yellow sun escaped from the building. within less than twenty minutes, his room become engulfed in flames entirely. much of the community was woken up and alerted and the fire department arrived soon, but mostly all we could do was watch as the showerhouse burned to the ground." 

the shower house, photo taken last month

the dryers and washers, last month

shower house during the fire










the washers and dryers after the fire