Smoke in the Night

We are miles away from the flames but the smell of smoke permeates the air and there is an ominous haze that is evident even in the nighttime hours. There is an eerie orange glow on the far eastern horizon. And ash, cool and black and gray, is falling on my neighborhood. My eyes are burning and my animals are anxious and out in the night brave men and women are putting their lives on the line to try to tame a fierce force of nature.

There are two uncontrolled wildfires…fed and swept inexorably along by the hot Santa Ana winds that sometime sweep in from the desert and bake and blow through Southern California…burning in San Diego County tonight. They started this morning and this afternoon and there is no end in sight. At least one person has already died…more than a dozen people have been burned (including four firefighters) and are in hospital…thousands of acres have already burned…homes are lost…

And the smoke…and the acrid, pungent, forbidding smell…hang ominously over the entire city blown west towards the sea by the aforementioned winds.

Four years ago, a monstrous fire brought havoc and destruction and death to our area and, of course we have not forgotten those days.

And so we watch the skies…we are far away but not so far away that we can not feel vulnerable…and listen to the winds…which have not, as they more often do, abated with the coming of night…and we pray for those in the capricious paths of the flames and for those who struggling to save lives and struggling to bring the rampaging flames to bay.