Fire

     As most of you probably know by now, our city has been fighting a fierce wildfire for the last week.  It started Saturday when the news started reporting that there was a fire in Waldo Canyon.  They started evacuating people through out the weekend.  The news was constantly covering the fire and I knew that it was a pretty large fire.  They were doing a great job of keeping the fire away from homes.  Up until Monday, the only thing that had been burned was a small shed.  I was trying to remain optimistic and had faith in the firefighters in keeping everyone safe.

     Tuesday, they started doing more pre-evacuations.  They kept saying that the weather was just not cooperating for fighting the fire.  On Tuesday afternoon, I watched the news conference at 4:00.  During the conference, the mayor came back on and said that a neighborhood was on immediate evacuation and everyone needed to get out right away.  It's hard for me to even recap the next few hours that followed.  Everything just happened so quickly.  All of a sudden we were seeing images on t.v. of the fire coming over the mountain into our city.  They were showing scenes of bumper to bumper traffic with cars of people trying to flee  I, of course started freaking out. Joey wasn't home from work yet.  I was trying to remain calm for the kids, but it was very hard when I was watching such a dismal scene unfold on t.v.     

       This was all happening on the far west side of town.  We are very fortunate to live on the far east side of town.  Because of the way our house faces, we really can't see the mountains.  The sky started turning this eerie shade of orange and it got very dark.  I could see lots of smoke pummeling towards the sky.  Ash started to fall from the sky.  At this point, I was so scared I thought I would pass out! It took Joey forever to get home because traffic was an nightmare.  In the mean time, I tried to stay as calm as possible for the kids.  Joey finally got home and we put the kids to bed.  Joey and I sat glued to the t.v watching horrific images of the city I have lived in my entire life go up in flames.  They were showing live images of houses burning down.  It was one of the worst things I have ever watched.  It was really hard to sleep that night for fear of what could happen next.  They kept saying the wind changed so quickly and the fire just gained momentum rapidly.  My heart was breaking for so many.

     Wednesday, brought some better news.  They were gaining a little control of the fire.  We later learned that 346 houses burned to the ground!  Everyone I know that lives in that area was so blessed to have their homes not burn.  My thoughts and prayers are with those who weren't so lucky.  This last week has been very trying and scary as well.  Fire is a very unpredictable and terrifying force of nature.  I watch the updates religiously to know what is going on.  This morning they announced that the fire is now 45% contained and they are feeling much better about things.  What a relief and finally some hope for our city. 

       Today is the first day that the smoke isn't that bad.  We were actually able to walk to the park and play.  That has been one of the hardest parts.  The air quality has been so bad we really weren't supposed to be outside.  It has also been hot here.  Like record breaking heat in the 100s.  Everyone was urged to shut their windows and turn on air conditioning.  Most homes here don't have AC, but Joey and I are very lucky that our house does.  We have been going stir crazy couped up in the house.

     Please continue to pray  for my city that the fire will remain at bay and that the worst is behind us.  I know that we are a strong community and we will rebuild. 

    I know these images have been shown many times, but I wanted to post them so I will have them to look back on.

    

     

This is the fire burning houses.



Here is a picture of the aftermath in one neighborhood.  The craziest part, is that my teammate lives on one of those streets.  Her house was the only house on the entire street to not burn down.  Unbelievable.