THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: A SPECIAL REPORT : EYEWITNESS : ‘The First Thing I Did Was Call the Angels to Stop the Winds’ : LUCILE YANEY: Restaurant owner

Lucile Yaney is pure Topanga, a singular soul of equal parts faith, grit and whimsy. When the fire threatened her home and restaurant--the landmark Inn of the Seventh Ray--she grabbed her hard drive and some family pictures from her nearby house and began what would become a days-long prayer vigil.

As the fire raged, Yaney, 54, worked--clearing brush and feeding firefighters stir-fry. She was in constant communication with “the angels,” calling out for help and protection.

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It worked.

I was out at a class I take, one which I usually stay after and talk to the people. This time I just had this urgency to get in the car and run right home. I saw the plumes of smoke circling. This was Tuesday morning. The first thing I did was call the angels to stop the winds because it was a Santa Ana condition. Then I made calls to different people around the country to do prayer vigils. Right after the prayer vigils, the Santa Anas just stopped.

So we were working very fast and we were cutting dead branches. And then we put everything in a stone trash room--everything flammable. We really were working that morning. When all of that was finished and we had everything packed, the staff came in and we did prayers. That was probably about 5 p.m. Tuesday. By Tuesday night, all the anxiety was somehow gone. We just felt such peace.

The next morning we were still in danger. The fires were closer. We were watching this ridge and we kept asking the angels to wave the flames. The fire was just inching down very, very slowly on this ridge. That was all Wednesday morning, when we couldn’t get helicopter support. And we just kept asking the angels to do the little breezes. If I would start feeling an easterly breeze, I would make calls for the fire to go back on itself and to stay very gentle. I think we saw a number of instances where that happened.

In this flame of gratitude we came down and started cooking for the troops on Wednesday. For the first breakfast we brought out our gourmet cream cheeses mixed with fresh basil and all our fruit-sweetened breads. So breakfast was really OK. When lunch came, we did a stir-fry vegetable thing.

And then I realized the firefighters were up there cutting with power saws and here they are eating this lovely organic salad and these vegetarian things. So then we went down and cut up all our chicken breasts and threw them into this seaweed and noodle and tofu dish. Lunch was all vegetarian, but by dinner time we had some meat. They were just so appreciative that it was hot food.

I would have been very shocked if the inn had burned down. But I’m also kind of a realist. When you’re in the middle of a big firestorm and there’s a hurricane-force wind, I don’t expect that all of a sudden it’s going to make a left turn and then a right turn and totally blow around us. I saw in Laguna Beach that swirl of fire. You can have a saint in the middle of that, and it’s going to hit. So I don’t have, I think, an unreal expectation. But I do definitely have a sense that we are being protected.

I kept a prayer on my lips the entire time. I think a lot of people did. I think that’s why we don’t have the damage that could be here. But there’s also another principle on the spiritual path: that you don’t let down your guard, which is what these fire people know.

I wouldn’t just relax and say everything’s OK, because there is actually this teaching where you can be deprived of your victory at the eleventh hour. It means keeping the vigilance all the way to the very end. So that’s what we’re doing.