The Canary Report

The aftermath of the fire in Ookala

Posted on Jul 20, 2010 by Susie Collins in Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

In the days following my neighbor’s house fire, I have discovered gems of protection and compassion from unexpected places.

The charred bamboo that protected my home from the heat and flames of my neighbor's house fire. That's my red roof in the background.

On Saturday, I blogged about my neighbor Dr. Tawn Keeny’s house burning down on Thursday. Since then, I’ve spent a lot of time processing what happened.

As I described in my post, while the tragic event unfolded before my eyes, several helpers and I were manning hoses on my fence line. We had a two-fold mission: keep the fire from encroaching my property on the ground where it was creeping along in the grass, and hose down my house itself as well as the foliage in my gardens that run along the fence line. I wrote about the tall bamboo that took most of the heat during the worst of the fire, even going up in flames at one point, which in turn incinerated the top of the 40-foot palm at right in the photo above.

That half hour of fighting the fire was definitely one of the more intense half hours of my life! Time got very contorted, although I believe only about 15-20 minutes went by before firefighters arrived and beat the flames back for good. I am extremely grateful for my helpers for all their hard work in protecting my home, and I’m also extremely grateful for the firefighters who brought the fire under control– they arrived just in time; I just don’t know how much more we could have done with our little hoses as the fire grew and grew.

Over the days following the fire, we watched as more of the bamboo leaves on the fence line turned brown and died. Our avocado tree is located a bit further up the fence line, above a wood pile that stubbornly burned long after the house fire was extinguished. That avo tree also showed more brown leaves each day. Here’s how it looks today looking up the hill toward the avocado tree:

Looking up the fence line with bamboo at right and my avocado tree at the far end.

The burned site in its totality is sobering, and it feels a bit like sacred ground. I took many photos this morning of the burned home itself, but I don’t feel comfortable publishing them since it’s not my property. The home is owned by my friend and family physician Dr. Tawn Keeney, and I know this tragedy has affected him deeply. I don’t want to add to that sorrow.

I am feeling very grateful for these beautiful bamboos. The fire inspector told us that he rarely sees adjacent homes catch fire when there is foliage between the houses. I can’t even describe to you how hot the fire was. The wood pile you see above spontaneously erupted in flames simply from the heat coming from the flames originating in the house. That entire space you see there above was a wall of fire at least 25 feet high and reaching all the way from the burning house at left to the hedge at right. Trees located much farther away from the fire up in the back were fried. So I know that were it not for this thick bamboo hedge, the gardens closest to my home would have been overwhelmed with heat, and who knows what would have happened to my house. There were two propane tanks against the house less than 30 feet from this hedge.

But look at the inside gardens on my side of the bamboos:

My secret garden would have been fried, and possibly my house, were it not for this magnificent bamboo and my helpers who kept everything wet during the fire.

We called the nursery where we bought the bamboo, Quindembo, to find out if they thought the fire damage was fatal. Quindembo owners Susan Ruskin and Peter Berg thought not and told us to look at the base to find the new shoots. Sure enough, there at the base are the new shoots already emerging– how’s that for timing? And we learned something else very interesting. Because bamboo stems are full of water, Susan and Peter said they don’t catch fire. So while the leaves of the tall blow pipe bamboo ignited in a roaring flame, the stems did not catch like a tree probably would have under that intense heat. Those bamboos shielded my gardens and my home from that wall of fire. They were the guardians of Susie’s Secret Garden.

In the days following the fire, I also have discovered gems of compassion from unexpected places. Because of my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I started to get sick from the fumes of the charred rubble from the burned house. It rained Saturday night and Sunday morning, but when the sun hit the rubble on Sunday afternoon, the evaporation released something from the ash that hit me like diesel fumes. It was as if a diesel truck was idling outside the window. I started feeling nauseous, dizzy, fatigued, and my eyes became irritated. When the good doctor found out, he contacted the demolition company that’s scheduled to raze and haul away the rubble, telling them that I have a medical condition and asking if they could move up the date of the job because I was getting ill from the fumes of the ash. The owner of the company said yes, he could rearrange their schedule and come sooner, starting tomorrow morning. How incredible is that?

I think this extraordinary act shows so much about who Dr. Keeney is. He’s my family physician as well as a friend and neighbor, and in his time of loss, he cared enough to pick up the phone to see if the date of demolition could be moved up because I was becoming ill. It also says a lot about the company owner, Louis Nobriga of D & D Trucking, who was flexible and responsive to a client’s request. It also shows the kind of magic that can happen when you live in a small, tight-knit community.

I’ll be vacating my home during the demolition and removal of debris. We know that dust control will be implemented, and we’ll take measures to seal up the house just in case some particulate matter becomes airborne.

Meanwhile, Dr. Keeney is already making plans for building a new home, a bit further up the hill where he will have a spectacular view of the ocean.

Susie's Secret Garden, my sanctuary.

©2010 Susie Collins

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Garden, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Toxic

Fire in Ookala!

Posted on Jul 17, 2010 by Susie Collins in Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

My neighbor’s house caught fire Thursday evening, shooting flames about 20-30 feet high, reaching out in the breeze in the direction of my home less than 40 feet away. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

Before firefighters arrived, flames engulfed this whole area, shooting up about 20-30 feet, sending some of the foliage in my gardens up in flames.

Just beyond my fence, the neighbor's house is engulfed in flames.

Our neighbor’s house burned down Thursday evening. While struggling in real time to comprehend the tragedy of my dear neighbor’s loss, I spent about a half-hour in thick smoke, spraying down my own house and surrounding foliage so it wouldn’t catch fire. My husband was in Hilo some 45 minutes away. But four people came by to help, two of them I didn’t even know– they were driving by and stopped to see if they could help. Good Samaritans!

Smoke going up into the back gardens. Later, when things were under control, I worried about my chickens, rushed up into the back and found them huddled together in a fairly safe place and just fine!

At one point, there was a wall of 30-foot flames about 20 feet from my house, and four of us worked the hoses until the fire department arrived. The smoke was really thick. My friend Cathy, who came to help, knows about my Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and kept encouraging me to leave the area. I had to make a decision in real time: worry about breathing toxic smoke or protect my house. I opted for protecting my house until firefighters arrived.

I feel okay today, by the way. I was very tired with a sore throat and burning eyes on Friday, and am doing better this morning. I hate to think about what’s in my lungs but I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would be.

I feel so bad for my friend and neighbor, Dr. Tawn Keeney, who lost his house. Tawn owns the historical Honokaa People’s Theatre and is a long-serving physician at the Hamakua Health Center. He’s my family physician, a real life country doctor and such a dear. He was not home when the fire started. The fire was out of control fairly quickly and there was nothing we could do to help.

My house. One of my helpers positioned a ladder in case embers reached the roof, we could douse it with the hose.

Tawn is a pillar of our community here in Ookala. Our hearts are so saddened by this loss. He loves that house so much, and is always talking about how much he loves it and truly appreciates its history. The houses here were built circa 1920s as part of the sugar plantation that existed here in our village of Ookala. Tawn had recently replaced the roof and the floors.

The fire started at around 4:30 pm. It’s really hard for me to say when the fire department got here because I lost all track of time; maybe 15 minutes from the time I called 911. It seemed like an eternity. The flames grew so fast! Within minutes flames were so high and so hot, less than 30 feet from my house.

At one point, the worst two or three minutes of the ordeal before the fire department arrived, we were literally staring at a 20- to 30-foot wall of flames less than 15 feet away from us. The sound was so loud that we had to shout to hear each other. I must have yelled, “Watch for embers!” 100 times. We all stopped what we were doing and watched to see what the flames were going to do. They roared up and caught our tallest bamboo on fire. The flame swooshed up in a nanno second and caught the top of a 40-foot palm. One of my helpers exclaimed, “Here we go!” I literally dropped down on my knees and prayed. But then the miracle happened: because the bamboo stems are not readily burnable, coupled with the fact that we had doused as much of the plant as we could as high as we could, the fire on the bamboo (and the palm) burned out quickly– and then the breeze let up and the high flames pulled back a bit.

It was a big smokey mess and I do worry a bit about what we were breathing. For one thing, these old houses all have layers of lead paint encapsulated under renovations.

One of the good Samaritans was a young man whose arm was burned because he was reaching out over my fence so bravely to keep the flames down on the grass and away from that bamboo. He barely left his post when that wall of fire encroached. The other good Samaritan kept spraying a wood pile that had caught fire bit further up the fence line– that fire was threatening to draw flames into my huge avocado tree.  Two of my helpers were my friends Ross and Cathy Perrins. Cathy had a hose at the fence line and Ross set up a ladder on my house in case we had to access the roof. My job was to keep the house itself hosed down. I credit these four people for protecting my house until the fire department arrived. I could not have done any of it alone. If that bamboo had caught fire and fallen, our house may have caught fire. My appreciation can’t be put into words.

The photos are taken after the fire department arrived. The first thing they did was send fire fighters with hoses to the main fire, but they also stationed one on my fence line by that bamboo and the wood pile. It wasn’t until then that I thought to get the camera. Meanwhile Dr. Keeney’s house was engulfed.

The fire department stayed until 7:30 p.m.. The fire inspector said the cause of the fire is undetermined.

This is shot from the front of the property that burned. You can see how the flames traveled on the grass from the burning house on the left toward my property on the right. My helpers were stationed with hoses on my fence line inside that bamboo hedge at right and kept the grass wet in that green section you see.

Fireman dousing wood pile that threatened to lead flames into my property. One of my helpers had kept flames from this pile away from my property by spraying it with the hose. I don't know how he withstood the heat.

Firemen could not get the wood pile to stop burning even though they'd flooded it with water. So this fireman doused it with chemicals. I was not mad about this use of chems at all, I just wanted the fire out! Those are my wilted plants in the foreground.

Now we can see the rubble as the smoke calms down. This is a tragic story: my friend and neighbor Dr. Tawn Keeney, lost his house.

©2010 Susie Collins

P.S. I’ve had some comments on Facebook that the prayer is what saved my house. I don’t want to get all religious here, but I had no intention of inferring that. One of my favorite sayings is “Trust in God but tether your camel.” The bamboo didn’t catch fire for several practical reasons: bamboo stems don’t readily burn like wood, we’d sprayed most of the plant down with water, and the wind shifted slightly away from my house just as the flames licked in and up. But you better believe I’ll throw a good prayer up there just for good measure when standing between a 30-foot wall of fire and my house.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Garden, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Photography, Toxic

The poisoning has begun

Posted on Jul 03, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Guest Bloggers

Thursday evening we found a voice message left by the owner of the land next to ours saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and select herbicides sometime on Friday. And there went our plans for a safe and happy holiday weekend.

By guestblogger Jacki Palmer-Boyce.

Our neighbor spraying his fields on Friday next to our home and organic gardens. Our holiday weekend has been ruined!

Thursday evening we came inside the house @ 10pm to a voice message left by the owner of the land saying they would be spraying ROUND UP and Select herbicides sometime on Friday. This ruined our HOLIDAY weekend. The soybean field is right next door to our property to the WEST and NORTH side of our land. We had no idea they were going to spray so our plans were to camp in our own yard “campsite” to avoid crowds and chemicals from the Holiday weekend. We had the tent sent up and plans for a fire with a few friends.

With the girls on a better day.

I was very grateful for the “warning” that was a life saver. HOWEVER all our plans of enjoying our own homestead went up in “fumes.” I had to keep all the windows closed today and it is a perfect day outside 70′s and sunny with low humidity and low dew point, so I had to miss out on a GREAT weather day. I could not enjoy my own yard, my “organic” gardens, my spring/well water are all at risk every time they spray more and more poisons into the land and air, which effects the water supply.

With Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, I smell, taste and feel the chemicals even though my husband John does not. So I am locked inside the house while he is outside. We can not go to our parks or Findley due to too many people and all their toxic chemicals they bring with them on a Holiday camp weekend: lighter fluid, tiki lights,sunscreen, the list goes on and on of things you have to avoid around crowds. So needless to say: several hours of spraying ruined several days to weeks of my life.

The tent we'd set up for "camping" in our yard this weekend.

I wonder how this can be legal and yet someone caught with a joint goes to jail. It is all about the $$ and GREED… MONSANTO & DOW should be in prison for poisoning people for year after year. Read about how glyphosate is toxic and Roundup is worse. Read here about clethodim herbicide. I hate when people say it is “JUST” roundup like it is something “safe”… boy did marketing pull the wool over so many zoombies’ eyes… WAKE UP, PEOPLE, CHEMICALS KILL! And not just the bugs!

I am very lucky the owner “warns me”– he doesn’t have to do that in OHIO; some states it is a law. So please know how thankful I am for the warning, without that I’d have my windows all open and clothes on the line and playing in my yard.

The raised beds out front, south exposure, with peppers and tomatoes.

This spraying happens about 3 to 4 times a growing season with different types of herbicides and fugicides. Each time is like a knife going into my heart and soul. We’d love to move away from all this madness they call country living and farming, but at this point in time it is not in the stars. So we try so hard to keep our little eco friendly homestead as chemical free as possible (in our control) and pray for protection from the chemicals when they spray. It beats the helicopter they used to spray fungicides last year– now that really drifted!

Just makes me so sad that this is still legal. Think of the millions of gallons of pesticides/herbicides used all over the USA. Add that to the GULF oil well blowout and we are doomed. They could stop it but choose not to. It brings in too much $$$$ and GREED is the name of the game… NOT HEALTH.

I want to end my day with a positive: I am well for the shape I am in…. I want to end with the positive… I must always be grateful no matter what… each day is a blessing even if it doesn’t turn out like you hope.

jj

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Tags: Environment, Food, Garden, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Organic, Pesticides, Pollution, Toxic

Open tabs

Posted on Mar 21, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Media/Videos, News, Susie Collins

Reports and pages I’ve been exploring this weekend:

ABC reports the Military Admits Fault in Water Contamination: Soldiers at Camp Lejeune in the 1980s were exposed to chemicals in tap water.

For an inside look at the Camp Lejeune horror story, visit this website made by former residents called Camp Lejeune Toxic Water: The Few The Proud, The Forgotten.

I’m annoyed with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Evaluation of Pet Spot-On Products: Analysis and Mitigation Plan, just released. No mention of nontoxic alternatives, but I guess that’s not the topic.

The EPA also urges families to lock up household chemicals and pesticides. No mention about eliminating toxic chemicals from the home in the first place to remove the danger completely. Listen to this: “Leading causes of poisoning include cosmetics such as perfume and nail polish, deodorant and soap, household cleaning products and medications.” Did you know perfume, nail polish, deodorant and soap are LEADING causes of child poisoning? WAKE UP, PEOPLE! Get those toxic chemicals out of your house! Here’s the EPA’s page on Prevent Poisonings in Your Home; again no mention about elimination or alternatives.

I love Paul Tukey‘s blog SafeLawns.Blog. Paul is the founder of SafeLawns.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation. He’s also executive producer of the award-winning documentary, A Chemical Reaction, which can be found at www.pfzmedia.com; the movie chronicles the origin of the anti-pesticide movement sweeping across Canada and into the United States.

Shine reports on the woman who was awarded $100K because her employer did not provide her proper accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act when her co-workers’ perfume and the office air fresheners made her ill. I’m disgusted at the media for the way this story’s been reported: I’ve read at least 50 reports on this story and not one has mentioned that perfume and air fresheners contain toxic chemicals and that it was the toxic chemicals that made the woman ill, not the “stink” or “chemical-smells.” I think this report here at The Ohio Employer’s Law Blog has the most interesting perspective I’ve read yet about the case:

The focus in ADA cases has shifted from the legal argument of whether an employee’s medical condition rises the level of an ADA-protected disability, to the factual issue of whether the employer reasonably accommodated that disability.

Dr. Andrew Weil answers a question about the use of clay treatment for healing fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is in the same group of illnesses as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I was delighted to discover Annie Leonard’s blog The Story of Stuff Project. If you haven’t seen her Story of Stuff videos, you must!

Harrison Medical Center, Washington state, has a scent-free policy.

Nirvana Safe Haven has the most comprehensive list I have ever seen on scent-free organizations and policy. Good resources there for anyone trying to implement scent-free policy in churches, schools, public venues and more.

And the New York Times reports the Department of Agriculture said it would begin enforcing rules requiring the spot testing of organically grown foods for traces of pesticides, after an auditor exposed major gaps in federal oversight of the organic food industry.

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Tags: Chemicals, Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Health, Fragrance, Garden, Home, Indoor Pollution, Perfume, Policy, Toxic, Video, Work

Short film: The Story of Food

Posted on Jan 19, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Food, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

USC Canada’s new short, animated film will get you thinking about our broken food system.

It identifies what’s gone wrong with the modern food system, and what we can do to rebuild it.

Link to more info about the film.

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Tags: Chemicals, Environment, Food, Garden, Health, Healthy Living, Organic, Products, Video

The Christmas Egg

Posted on Dec 26, 2009 by Susie Collins in Organic Gardening, Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

This is Betty, our new hen, a Rhode Island Red I was given by my neighbor. This is her first egg she laid after coming to live with us (not actually on Christmas Day, it was a couple weeks ago, but I just couldn’t resist the play on words). We were all so excited! After a bit of a rocky start when she first arrived– she picked on my littlest bantie, chased all the wild birds out of the gardens, pooped all over everything (and so named Betty Poop), and would not go to bed at night in the coops– she’s now all settled in, getting along perfectly with everyone else, ignores all the wild birds, snuggles in at night right alongside the others on the roost, and now gives us an egg a day. She still poops gigantic poops all over everything, but we love Betty!

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Tags: Garden, Hawaii, Healthy Living, Organic, Photography

My Solstice

Posted on Dec 21, 2009 by Susie Collins in Organic Gardening, Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

Happy Solstice!

I spent Solstice evening in the garden, puttering around, taking photos and planting a bed of vegetables and flowers (you can see the seed packets on one of the slides). After the series of storms that blew through here over the weekend, the evening was calm and peaceful, barely a whisper of a breeze. The melodious laughing thrushes sang and sang from the bamboo. It was one of those perfect evenings in the gardens.

Find more photos like this on The Canary Report

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Tags: Fresh Air Photos, Garden, Hawaii, Healthy Living, Leisure, Organic, Photography

Documentary film: Locavore

Posted on Nov 01, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Home & Garden, Media/Videos, Susie Collins

A film about the return to local food or “Locavorism.”

Locavore is an inspiring new documentary about the inevitable return to the local diet. Less than a generation ago human beings worldwide traveled less than 10 miles to obtain the majority of the food they ate. Today the average conventionally grown vegetable has traveled more than 1500 by the time it has reached your pantry. Our food today is over processed, stale, and lacks nutrition. This new film, featuring some of the neo-pioneers of the Locavore movement will educate, inspire, and revitalize bringing health to our bodies AND our communities.

Link to learn more about the film.

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Tags: Environment, Food, Garden, Healthy Living, Home, Organic, Video

Susie’s Secret Garden: Ponds, chickens and vegetables

Posted on Oct 10, 2009 by Susie Collins in Organic Gardening, Susie Collins, Susie's Secret Garden

Some photos from my garden. I love harvesting fresh greens each night right before dinner!


Find more photos like this on The Canary Report

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Tags: Food, Garden, Hawaii, Home, Organic

The White House Garden

Posted on Sep 20, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, Home & Garden, Media/Videos

This new garden was planted in the Spring of 2009 with the help of local elementary school children and yields a constant supply fresh produce for the First Family and White House events.

First Lady Michelle Obama and White House chef Sam Kass tell the story of the first garden on White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden during World War II.

Feel inspired!

Read more here about the garden and video at Obama Foodorama.

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Tags: Children's Health, Environment, Environmental Health, Food, Garden, Healthy Living, Organic, Organic Gardening, Policy, Support, Video

A tropical depression, MSC style

Posted on Aug 10, 2009 by Susie Collins in Blog, MCS, Susie Collins

I’m not exactly sure when I realized I was in trouble.

Post by Susie Collins.

There’s nothing like a hurricane barreling in your direction to cause havoc with just about everything. No matter how many times the weather service tells you Hurricane Felicia is expected to weaken before land fall, you still have to plan for the worst. You still have to take a look in the food pantry to be sure you’ve plenty of provisions. You still have to worry about your employment if the Internet cable goes out. You still have to wonder about how sturdy the chicken pen and how delicate the spinach starts. You still have to wonder how much wind it would take to whip that tree limb into the electric line. Forty miles per hour? Sixty? How much wind would be too much? How much rain would cause a flood?

To reduce some risk, we spent all day Sunday trimming branches, clearing out ditches, securing potted plants, scrubbing water containers, planning for possible evacuation.

But disaster came anyway, for a different reason. It happened in the front garden when we were trimming back the bamboo from the Internet cable, my husband way up at the top of a wooden ladder lopping shoots, and I hauling off the bundles to the mulch pile. About an hour into the job, our neighbors decided to do their laundry. Only someone with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity understands what this means. Only someone with MCS could understand that a neighbor doing laundry can cause a disaster.

I’m not exactly sure when I realized I was in trouble. Certainly the odor was a clue, that sickening stench of laundry detergent chemicals causing my brain to lurch backwards and my eyes to burn. But exactly how long was it before I actually started to crash? Oh, I remember. It was when the same neighbors started up the BBQ. Yep, that was it, the lighter fluid, hitting my lungs and my brain and my muscles as I lugged a bundle of cut bamboo up the hill. Instantly, it was no longer a hurricane I worried about, it was my own tropical depression.

I barely made it through the rest of the chores, collapsing into bed by 7 o’clock and sleeping for a couple of hours before having enough energy for dinner. I was so sick! Horrible, horrible feeling. Brain not working, body not working, all joy of life gone.

I woke this morning groggy but better. My eyes were still a mess, but I managed to shake off the rest of the aches and pains by the time I started on today’s writing assignments. This evening, Civil Defense is saying Hurricane Felicia is now a tropical storm, quickly deteriorating into a tropical depression herself. She’s wandered north of the Big Island, and will dump some rain on a few of the other islands, but no major problems are expected. As it turned out, she made less problems in my life than my neighbor’s washing machine.

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Tags: Air, Chemicals, Environment, Fragrance, Garden, Hawaii, Home, MCS, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, Products, Stink, Toxic