Esalen in the line of fire

The Esalen Institute is a difficult thing to explain: idyll in the wilderness around Big Sur, California; farm where seekers look for meaning through hard work; influential driver of innovation in psychotherapy, massage, and all things new age. Click on the image below and you can see it, stretched along the water between California's Highway 1 and the Pacific:
To the east is the great Ventana Wilderness, full of redwoods and pine and unmapped hot springs streams. Zoom out a little and you can start to see how vast it is, and how tiny Esalen and the other Big Sur settlements are in comparison:
Right now, that wilderness is on fire. The fire is moving towards Esalen. And my father, one of the people who helps run the place, has no plans to leave.

Over the past few days he's sent out updates; they're not quite public, but I hope he won't mind my sharing excerpts here. I need to, out of worry.

Not that I should be worried. There's a rich tradition of the Esalen community rallying to keep forest fires at bay; when the "big one", a fire in 1985 that destroyed tens of thousands of acres, came right down to the highway, close enough for a few stray embers to fly across and catch on Esalen property, Esalen folks formed bucket brigades and cleared brush like mad, and outlasted the fire in an epic slugfest. (They'd had practice during the 1977 Marble Cone fire in Big Sur.)

What I love most about my father's dispatches is that in this crisis, like in those before, the Esalen spirit -- enormous concern for people's balance and well-being, repeating your guiding values to make sure that you are following them, the wellspring of acupuncture for firemen -- comes through so clearly:


Friday, June 27

We are in no immediate danger here, for say the next 48 hours, while the fire works its way slowly, under these conditions, westward down the canyons toward the coast. A change in winds can of course change this at any time.
...
Western fire defense perimeter is Highway One itself. In the very best outcome, the marine cover remains in place for some days, moistening the canyons at low altitudes, the two fires meet and extinguish along the southern boundary.
...
Meanwhile, Esalen is located exactly between the two advancing firelines...

The best map I could find; Esalen is located right above the Highway 1 sign. As of this writing, the Basin Complex Fire is moving south; the Indians Fire is moving west. If the map is accurate, it puts the Indians Fire at about 10 miles wide.

Our Esalen team of designated firefighters will work with and in support of [the] primary professional force. Our primary team consists of a crew of 19 training now to work together in defense of South Coast [Esalen cabins] and/or our first Esalen vulnerable sites.
...
Our priorities continue to be: 1) safety of people first; 2) protecting the Esalen property wherever possible without compromising #1; and 3) ongoing management.
…
Currently about 95 staff and others are choosing to remain on property, both to defend the campus itself when and if the fire does come down to the coast here, and also to support our primary team of firefighters... everyone currently still here is choosing to be here. Anyone with respiratory distress or any respiratory/circulatory disease is being specifically asked to leave now...

Spirits are tense but high here, with everyone stepping up, student massage practitioners offering free sessions under the coordination of displaced refugees [names omitted] -- today [name omitted] made it down from Coastlands to show support at our daily community meeting and also to offer free acupuncture to those suffering from respiratory or other stress.
...
We continue to provide refuge for about 8 neighbors who have been evacuated from their houses...

Thanks to all for all your messages and good wishes. With gratefulness and with prayers for all those suffering loss or danger - Gordon

Saturday, June 28

Last night around nine fire was sighted in many places coming over the [nearby ridge], moving in a transverse line slowly down the hill toward South Coast [Esalen cabins]...

Meanwhile we could see the truth of what Division Chief Brian Savage had told us yesterday morning -- that the fog blanket would stop the advance of the flames, or at least slow it drastically. [Two Big Sur residents] told me early this morning that they had watched the flames die to an invisible smolder as the moist blanket rolled back up. The fire is still there of course, and once the day warms up and the fog lifts (as it looks like it will in a few hours), the flames will resume advancing down the hill, in both Burns Creek and Hot Springs Canyon.

Everything now depends on the weather...

Spirits are good, [Esalen CEO] Harry plans to encourage all, especially the first responder team, to take as much time off today as possible, to be rested and ready to go tonight or more likely tomorrow.

Sunday, June 29:

With clearing skies this afternoon we can see smoke coming over the ridge in Hot Springs Canyon, as well as plumes of smoke on this side of the top of the canyon -- still quite high up.
…
At some 35,000 acres and growing, the fire has at last been declared a Federal Emergency, triggering more federal resources and FEMA funds. Over 1000 firefighters are now in the area, with more than 50 big rigs, countless other vehicles, and now some air support.

To the south, word today is that the Fire Service has abandoned their firebreak at Dolan Canyon as either unsustainable or already breached (we're not certain which)...

Esalen continues to be on "pre-evacuation alert." If mandatory evacuation is ordered, there are some 60 of us who are committed to stay here no matter what, either to fight the fire or to support the teams who do. Air masks presumably arrive tomorrow.
…
Spirits continue to be high and determined here on the campus. Young people not having changed in the past 40 years that I know of, the main complaint I hear out of management is that some people do not seem to be necessarily sleeping in their newly assigned rooms, but are rather elsewhere and thus not easily accountable in a nighttime emergency.... [A staff member] promises a veil of absolute confidentiality if people will divulge to her where they are actually overnighting, in case of an all-property alert during the night. Meantime, we trust in the deafening alarm signal we have here on double electrical backup... Two blasts for first responders; three for everyone on property to go to the oval for instructions.

Today a team of our clearing crew was scheduled to be up on the Hudson Ranch foaming houses there (again, it's not something we can do here ahead of time, as the foam has a limited effective life once it's sprayed on -- so they're learning the process up there, while helping neighbors at the same time)…

Enough for now! appreciation and regards to all, and endless kudos to the dedicated core team remaining here on property. - Gordon

That is the last I have heard from him. My sister called just now, a little after midnight, to say that the authorities have ordered mandatory evacuation of Esalen and other nearby areas, and that he has decided to stay. It's especially alarming because at the time of his last email he didn't seem to think an evac was likely, so I wonder what changed and how much worse the outlook has gotten.

Dad, I wish I were there with you. Everyone at Esalen, stay safe, and keep being ridiculously supportive of those around you while you fight the fire! Or rather, as my father would emphasize, in order to fight the fire. (My sister would add: but don't be supportive of the fire. At least not now. Admire its primal wisdom later.)