Fire Again (later)

Driving home from campus a few minutes ago, I was stuck at a long light. Soot and smoke debris came in through my open windows. Looking east out the passenger side of the car, I could see smoke clouding the downtown air and smoke clearly rising from hotspots.

Brother Dan and his family live down that way under that cloud of smoke. I expect though that he and his family are safe.

Brother Dan sent a URL for a google map of the fire.  Click here

The thing is not contained. It’s 81 degrees right now at 3:30 pm on Friday, November 14, 2008.

Predictions are the winds will kick up again at sundown, though they are not expected to be as fierce as last night.

Once again my car is covered with ash. Over the last 16 months my car has been covered with ash too many times. Summer of 2007 the Zaca fire went on burning in the back country—with smoke and soot getting to the Coast—for three months. At the beginning of this summer came the Gap Fire right next to us, and now this. By far the most destructive in terms of property lost and panic and fear spread. I expect very few people in the downtown area are not anxious about the possibility of high winds this evening.

Officials speak now as if this “event,” as they have taken to calling it, was “inevitable.” Perhaps like people who build too close to rivers we should not be living here at all.

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