Lane von Herzen: Documentation of Unscheduled Visit by Woodside Fire Protection District to Lane MacWilliams' Home

My Third Novel's Conclusion, My Heartbreak

My heart begins to break when I think about completing this particular book -- because this narrative has sustained me like no other story I've known. It's both more personal and more universal than my other works. But beyond memory and archetype, it's a cri-de-coeur about needing to become the person one is destined to be. And in the writing, I have met my own life's work, my own fated journey -- having the sense all the while that the pages are suffused with a resonance, an energy, an electrified field that defies explanation. Writers hope and pray to be overtaken by a work in this way -- to be conscripted into passionate service of a profound story. To experience it even once in a lifetime seems a great privilege. I still have several months before this novel is complete, and this constitutes my reprieve. Because I'm not ready for the beauty to end.

Monday, October 31, 2022

Documentation of Unscheduled Visit by Woodside Fire Protection District to Lane MacWilliams' Home

This is to document with the OIG Hotline Investigations Division that, while I was alone in the house this afternoon and in the bath, a man apparently affiliated with the Woodside Fire Protection District spent approximately five minutes walking around the deck closest to my location within my residence.

He did not knock. He did not announce himself. He did not go to the front door and ring the bell.

So far, I have not located any notice of his visit left at my residence.

He simply walked fifty feet from the public road at Vista Verde Way to stand ten feet away from the location of my bath for five minutes, after which he proceeded to examine the rest of my property.

Given that my emails to Fire Captain Sean Devlin of the Woodside Fire Protection District went unanswered, and given that this fire department is signatory to Infragard, I am concerned.

I continue to receive ongoing threats of arson at my property. Yesterday, the following messages were sent to my iPhone:

This "Show Me Your Firetruck," "Little Fires Everywhere," "Home Fires/Careful" sequence appears significant given the unprompted appearance of a fireman on my property this afternoon.

When my husband called the Woodside Fire Protection District, he was told that there had been a reported smell of smoke approximately two miles away on a Los Trancos cul de sac and that firemen may have traveled to Vista Verde Way "without ever leaving their fire truck."

This is not what occurred in fact.

Thank you for allowing me to document these events.

I hereby certify that the foregoing is true and correct.