Saturday, August 29, 2009

This is Not a Sunset; It's Smoke









No fire within 16 miles of us, but look at the skies around 2 p.m. this afternoon! Most of the smoke is coming from the huge Angeles National Forest fire, also known as the La Canada/Flintridge fire, which is only five per cent contained. Evacuations have reached nearly 3000, and tens of thousands of homes are threatened. Then, shortly after 5 p.m., a fire broke out in the Agua Dulce area (which had such a bad burn last year), closing down the Antelope Valley Freeway in both directions.

The latest report (10:05 p.m.) on the largest fire closest to us is that the LaCanada/Flintridge fire is moving rapidly toward the horse and hill country of Acton, an attractive rural community about 12 miles from us. We don't want the Agua Dulce fire and the LaCanada/Flintridge fires to merge. Acton is located midway between where we are and the Agua Dulce fire. Here's some pictures...very dramatic. The silhouette shot is of Karyn's sister, Kimberly, visiting for the weekend, and she's the woman in the straw hat near the pool. She and I took these photos. The regal pampas grass in our front yard stands guard at the gate!

But fear not, if we have to leave, we're ready: dogs, people, documents, survival duffel bag, two iMacs, a couple dozen irreplaceable pictures, and water, coffee and snacks. Check. Oh, and dog food and Teddy Valentine's blankie, known as Priscilla. Check.

10:17 p.m. Update: And my damn manuscripts and the backup discs!!! Good grief, CHECK!






2 comments:

Ann Somerville said...

I hope you're all safe :(

Unknown said...

Attach your mss to email, and then send the email to yourself at your Gmail account as a backup.

Do you face these fires every year? Wow.