It's been a crazy 24 hours.
Around 8:45pm I was driving home with my son and as I pulled up to our house, I glanced at the hill and saw a small circle of fire. My first thought? Crap! It was going to be a long night.
Ten years ago last month we had another fire. A guy wanting to go back to prison lit the mountain on fire. We were a week out from moving into the house we'd spent the last nine months building and several years planning. Luckily, no homes were damaged in that fire. When I saw the small ring of flames yesterday, that's all I could think about--that's all anyone could think about who lived in our town a decade ago.
That fire began around noon on one of the hottest days of the year. This fire (caused by people target shooting...) began at night, and even though we had record-breaking temperatures lately, night was coming on and the fire did not explode like last time.
Of course, the curious came up to our street. People came from all over and parked on our cul-de-sac and did what we all did...stood around and watched the flames devour grass, trees, anything burnable.
I got out my camera and tried taking some long exposure shots. Some worked out; most were shaky. I then got out my tripod and the pictures improved. These are some of my favorites.
This morning it didn't look so bad. As cool as watching things burn last night was, today was very cool as well. Today came the helicopters and airplanes.
By the afternoon the smoke trails had stopped and the firefighters were leaving the area. They stopped the flames from descending into where we live. They're heroes. Just like soldiers, it's something they do as a job to protect us. They fight the fight for us and I hope in some small way, they know that we're thankful for them. Here's to a fire-free night, thanks to them.
How scary - hope everything is calming down now.
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