27 October 2003

An eerie yellow-orange glow filled our Monday, as fires burned to the east and south of us, and the smoke dispersed across the county. This unbelievably fast firestorm was the talk of the town, and covered on most of the TV stations all day long. Work and school were cancelled for all of us and most of the county.

The "cedar fire" passed within 5-10 miles of us. There are four to six separate fires, actually. Scripps Ranch was the hardest hit. That's where Scott plays basketball and where many of our friends live. It's just to the southeast of us, across interstate 15 and a bit south. As of 11 am today, 150 homes were lost in that community alone. It's one of the closest and most civicly active communities in the city, so I expect they'll recover, but never fully.

They say the particulate matter levels in the air were twice the "healthy" levels and five times what we usually experience. We stayed home with the windows shut, watching the eastern hills and the TV news coverage for warning of any danger to our own neighborhood. I'm thinking that maybe we should trim our trees.

DWL