Before I hit the bed, I flew into Santa Barbara close to midnight, over the black night and orange flames of the Gap Fire. You could smell the smoke in the plane before we came in for landing. You could see the flames spread over the hills out the window, orange and smoky.
(Here is a panoramic my friend, Daniel Girard took of the Gap Fire late on 7/3/08. That's the fire to the right and town to the left.)
My roommates and I climbed the hill behind our house to take a look at the flames across town. It was about 12-15 miles away from where we stood, in the front country, city lights just below it. Our friends, Britt and Chris were evacuated (and are still staying downtown at Geoff and Henry's) and others of our friends have been in and out of their house on voluntary evacuations. They're here this morning for breakfast to get away from the heavy smoke at their house.
News last night said the fire was 24% contained and evening winds that fueled the fires earlier in the week had subsided.
I also heard on the news there are 300 fires burning in California right now. Wow.
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oh no! Santa Barbara sure gets beat up a lot for such a beautiful place. Not long after I left there in the early 90's it was beset with all manner of mudslides.
ReplyDeleteI hope, as I hope for all the fires in California, that things are brought under control very quickly, and with no further loss of life or property.
and, of course, I hope that you yourself begin to feel better.
wow, that's an amazing picture--
ReplyDeletelisa