Hopefully My Only Post On This Subject

October is fire season in California, and perhaps the worst fire in Northern California history occurred 15 years ago last October 20 just north of here in Oakland California in what was called "The Oakland Fire". That fire, fed by dry, gusting winds and low humidty levels eventually consumed over 15oo acres, destroyed almost 2500 houses, and took 25 lives.

So it should come as no suprise that we Californians start to feel a little nervous when late fall comes around and the humidity levels drop and hot, dry easterlies begin to blow. Which just so happens to be exactly the conditions the Bay Area is experiencing today, and it's also the reason I'm feeling so anxious right now as I look at a billowing cloud of brown smoke blowing southerly across the hilltops just to the east of my house.

Something's burning.

In fact, I'm writing this post right now with my eyes on the computer screen and one ear cocked to the TV to listen for any news. According to the reports, there is a fire is about 5 miles northeast of where I live and there are winds blowing north to south with gusts up to 25 miles an hour. That's good news for me because the fire would have to burn almost due east to threaten the homes in my area. Needless to say, winds can be fickle and shift directions on you and there are still a lot of concerned neighbors around here, although I must say the smoke seems to have died down in the past 10 minutes or so. I don't know if that means the fire has been put out or just that the winds have just changed. I'm hoping it's just a small fire and it's starting to die out because, damn, I don't want the house to burn down.

Ahh, this California living. If you can't handle earthquakes and fire then move somewhere else. Earthquakes you can handle because they're so unpredictable, but fire - you can see it happening and there's nothing you can do about it. Earthquakes happen and then they're over but fires just creep along. Very hard on the nerves.

Wait a minute there's something coming on the news. Ok, the fire has burned 200 acres and 1 house has been damaged. The firefighters say they've got it surrounded, whatever that means. I don't think it means they've got it contained or else they would have said "contained". Besides, with these winds all it takes is a gust of wind to sweep some burning embers over a ridge or into some trees and the whole thing can get out of control in a hurry. In fact when the Oakland fire happened the firefighters thought they had the fire out and were just mopping up when the winds started picking up. As we know now the fire wasn't out and pretty soon the whole hill was on fire.

Oh man, I'm not liking today at all, and the news is another Red Flag alert for tomorrow. Geez, that means more high winds. Sometimes California just sucks.