Susan Fisher sat at the dining table with her son, his wife and three grandchildren at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 11. When one of Fisher's granddaughters took her usual spot, facing south towards the river, for dinner, she smiled, and moved to different chair.
Facing west in her Verdi home, just past Reno along Interstate 80, she saw through a window the black plume of smoke first.
It shocked Fisher, who watched light bands of white smoke drift down along the river from a small fire 25 miles away in Truckee earlier that afternoon. That fire was less than four acres and was quickly contained.
But this was dark black smoke. It was new.
"What is that?" Fisher asked. Her family turned and looked. Off in the distance a funnel of smoke rose.
Her son, who had moved into Fisher’s home with his family after an electrical fire at his south Reno home a week earlier, took off down the picturesque walking path to investigate. Fisher's husband was out of town but she watched carefully as her son walked along the Truckee with his daughter, expecting to see a car on fire on the freeway.
He came running back.
"Get the kids and dogs and go," he told his wife as flames were now visible 500 yards away.
“What do I take?” Fisher thought. “Insurance information? My marriage license? No, I can get that online. Where are our passports?”
Fisher grabbed her toothbrush, night gown and a pair of underwear.
Paradise on the Truckee
Married just a year, Fisher moved into the perfect home with her husband, Steve Oldham, at 45 Hirsh Road in Verdi.
A widow, he and his late wife built their dream home in a beautiful spot along the river. His late wife would stare up at a peak in the Sierra Mountains every morning. The new couple met when Oldham reached out to Fisher to ask the respected Reno lobbyist how to start the process to formally name that peak for his late wife.
The home is just off the exit of Gold Ranch off Interstate 80. Turning north off the freeway, the gated community along the Truckee was once the Moya Lear Estate. It was a sanctuary for the business woman and philanthropist, who was married to Bill Lear, founder of Learjet.
When she died, it was split into eight private home lots along the river.
Fisher and her husband were married at the house last July. They recited vows and celebrated with family along the river, posing for pictures in the gardens and lush landscaping.
Along the Truckee, friends often kayaked down the river, stopping at their yard. Her husband went fly fishing as often as he could. Grandchildren spent afternoons crawdad fishing.
Aug. 11 it was no different. A huge metal bin sat at the edge of the yard, a collection spot as Fisher's grandchildren caught crawfish from the river.
Fisher, a longtime lobbyist for the McDonald Carano law firm, had made it her home, too.
Leaving the house
Fisher left the doors of the home unlocked as they fled. She thought the home — built with the latest and best materials to defend against fire, including concrete walls and a fire-resistant roof — would be a refuge for firefighters as they battled the blaze. Her son had started a fire suppression pump, taking water from the Truckee to protect the home from flying embers.
"I'll just go into the wine cave," Fisher told her son about riding out the fire inside the concrete reinforced enclave built into the side of the mountain. It was just steps from the house. It was filled with cases of wine from Italy from a trip the newlyweds took in April.
“I should clear the dinner dishes,” she said, as her brain tried to catch up with the gravity and danger of what was happening.
"No, Mom. You're not staying, We are going," her son said.
When her son couldn't find his keys, he jumped in her car and left his truck in her driveway.
'We are safe'
Fisher first saw smoke at 6:20 p.m. according to a time stamp of the first photo on her phone. By 6:29 p.m. she could see flames in the distance. She took another photo. When she drove away at 6:49 p.m. she pointed her phone camera, recording video. You can hear her begging her neighbor to evacute, too. Her video captured giant flames engulfing trees surrounding the property.
It had been 20 minutes and just 400 yards from when Fisher first saw flames to now being confronted with a massive fire that fearlessly swept east from the burning car along the river to her doorstep.
Fueled by wind, the fire moved fast.
Fisher said when their home caught fire, firefighters knew it would be lost. Fire crews dedicated their time to protect neighboring homes.
Their home was the only one lost in a blaze that burned 674 acres. It is now known that the Gold Ranch Fire was caused by a car fire. The car's Utah driver has been arrested on a DUI charge.
Their home looks as if a bomb went off. Metal is twisted and bent. Appliances are reduced to ash. The fire burned through the garage at such a high temperature, it’s hard to tell two cars were left inside.
Her son's truck burned beyond recongition. A stream of melted metal from the truck looks almost drawn from the back of the flatbed as if a tiny river.
Fisher said she is unsure if she and her husband will rebuild.
Her former law firm offered to help collect things for her, since she left with just the clothes she was wearing.
She still had on the same jean skirt and T-shirt when she met with county officials and an insurance agent on Tuesday.
But she wants people to donate to others who may need help instead.
“We have insurance,” Fisher said. “We are safe, and our dogs are safe. No one was hurt.”
But they are heartbroken.
What was lost, and what remains
Fisher regrets leaving a 6-foot wood sculpture given to her by the firm when she retired. It had been in the lobby of the law firm for as long as she could remember. She was touched when it was given in honor of her long, successful career.
Hanging on the walls of the home was original art, keepsakes and family heirlooms, including a quilt made by Fisher's great-great-great-grandmother for her great-great-grandmother. On the back of the framed quilt were letters written back and forth between the two women during the years of the Civil War.
Family pictures were in boxes in the garage.
But out of of nearly everything lost, she found three things unscathed. They give her her some comfort now.
A ceramic monkey that was a gift she had given to her late mother still stood near the destroyed wine cave. The wine cave burned and collapsed in on itself. But the monkey was left standing.
A glass angel that was a special keepsake of her husband’s late wife was undamaged, too.
And just feet from where the couple was married, a metal garden stake was standing up in the ashes.
The little metal garden sign somehow survived even as the family's cars melted like lava.
“It says ‘Hope,’” Fisher said. “We do still have hope.”
This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: The story of a home in Verdi that was destroyed by the Gold Ranch Fire
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