Californian fires.

This was written by a friend of a friend in California - it's scary stuff
and gives some insight into what it's like to be there ...


"Hi there,

We are doing fine, although it's becoming a bit tedious sitting around
waiting for the next evacuation - which hopefully will not occur. The roads
are continually being closed around here so it is making travel very
difficult. Yesterday a friend spent several hours in her car sitting at the
bottom of the hill less than a mile away from her house waiting for a road
to reopen so she could return home.

The last couple of days have been a blur. But, last night I got 9 hours of
sleep and I feel much better. My family evacuated late Monday night as the
fire crested the hill across the canyon, and I and about 10 neighbors stayed
to help the very understaffed fire fighters into Tue.
The fire passed within 50 feet of my house very early Tuesday morning, and
was unbelievable.

About 30 minutes before the fire pushed up to my house I received a call on
my cell phone from a friend that lives around the corner. The fire had just
passed his house and he was ecstatic with adrenaline. He was yelling into
the phone that he had made it, the house was fine and all of his neighbors
were fine. The fire came right up to the house and the fire department
fought it back with foam and water. It was a very reassuring phone call but
it also removed my denial that the fire wouldn't actually come all the way
up to my house.

I had a fire captain in my backyard with me most of the night. As the fire
got close he gave me some very clarifying advice. He said "get prepared,
this will be hotter than you can imagine and you will not be able to breathe
for a while because of the smoke." And then it came! It was a 40+ foot tall
wall of fire that stretched more than a quarter mile in length. I've heard
about things like this but never really understood what it meant. It was an
ominous sight. I could not actually believe how fast fire can move and how
loud it is. It covered the last couple of hundred feet in what seemed like
a matter of seconds. The fire raced up to my house, around the side and kept
going. I watched as it jumped a 150 yard long fire break that runs the
length of one side of my street. It crossed it like it wasn't even there.

As the fire was closing in on my house the fire captain sent 4 firemen into
my back yard with two fire hoses, and he spread out 10 or so other firemen
over the two houses next to me. The fire dept stood its ground, and the
homeowners were given the job of keeping the homes and decks covered in
water. Not a single injury or home burned. What a prayer answered. The
firemen of Foothill Ranch and Portolla Hills were incredible; what a bunch
of warriors.

The fire burnt behind my fence until around 4AM when it finally went out. We
had secondary fires behind my house that continued until sometime after day
break. The rest of yesterday we spent cleaning up what we could and have
stayed on evacuation notice since then.

The fire is about three quarters of a mile away now on the hills in front of
my house as I write this and the sky is filled with fire tankers dropping
what looks like water and fire retardant on the fire.
The fire line is enormous. The entire area around here looks like a war
zone. The landscape in every direction that I can see from my house is
either on fire, about to be on fire, or black and smoldering. Thousands and
thousands of acres are just gone. The entire area is completely covered in
thick smoke. I'm hoping the fire will burn up towards Santiago Peak and
will leave us out of harms way. But so far it hasn't done so.

Three sides of our hill have burned but the hills directly across from me in
the front remain in direct danger and the fire dept's worry is that if that
side burns it will place all of the homes on the hill in danger again. If
you know the Mewes they live on that side of the hill.
Periodically they are sending out updates. So far, so good.

So, here we sit and wait. Our cars remain packed, but we'll probably start
to unpack later today. The schools are still closed, but we hope they'll
reopen tomorrow. Trying to do some work to keep busy but not particularly
focused. Yesterday afternoon we had fire tankers flying
overhead until dark, and lots of rumors of the fire coming this way.

It appears that a friend lost his family's home to the fire in Modjeska
Canyon late yesterday (which is about 2-3 miles from my house). When I saw
him he had just been forced to evacuate. On Monday night/ Tuesday morning,
he'd been up watching for the fire and had watched from the hill as the fire
burnt up to my house at around 2:30 AM on Tueday morning and thought that it
had burned my house down but as the fire finally passed, he cheered because
he could see the houses still standing. As the fire left my house it swept
in two directions, one of
which went directly towards their house. If you know the Jacksons,
keep them in your prayers as they await word on their family's home.

Hopefully today will be much better for all. Your continued thoughts and
prayers for the folks around here is much needed.

I will let you know how things go."


Thank goodness for all those brave firefighters because without their courage many more homes would have burnt to the ground or been damamged and more peoples would have lost their lives.