Southern California Danger Time

I hate this time of the year here in Southern California. Our weather just screams "fire season"...high winds and temperatures accompanied by low humidity. Here it is mid-November and the trees are moving sideways and the temperatures are into the 90's.

First it was the devastating fire Thursday night in Montecito with the loss of 100+ homes. Then Friday evening, I opened the bedroom window as we were getting ready for bed and had to close it a few minutes later due to the smell of smoke. Oh, oh...we knew something wasn't right but everything seemed OK when I stepped outside so to bed we went. Then, sometime in the middle of the night, my computer battery backup alarm kept going off in the den. Finally at 4:30AM, I got up, went into the den and turned on the TV. Sure enough, there were scenes of a terrible fire in the hills north of us and in the area near where last month's fire burned.

Thankfully we live in the "flatlands" so our home was never in danger. Still the smoke was nasty and we tried to stay in the house with the windows shut all day long. The TV was on and we were greeted later in the day with images from another fire which began in an adjacent county to the southwest and which has now spread to a second county to the south.

Hundreds of mobile homes and houses have been destroyed and my heart goes out to the families who will come back to their neighborhoods to see the utter devastation. In one mobile home park alone, more than 500 homes were destroyed and many of the residents are senior citizens who will have to face the loss of their prized possessions, the daunting task of dealing with insurance companies and the difficult decision of what to do next...move or rebuild. All the victims and the heroic firefighters who are putting their lives on the line continue in our thoughts and prayers during this horrendous battle.