In the line of fire:

One of my mom's first graders described the fire-line as the edge of a lava flow-- glowing and leaving ash and charred wreckage behind. We're not being affected, thank goodness, but we're just over the pass from the San Bernadino fires and not too far from the others. Some of my friends, however, aren't as lucky. This tragedy is more than blood red sunsets and huge clouds of smoke ringing the edges of my home valley. All of you are in my thoughts--if you need anything, I'm here.

The scary thing is that, for all the destruction they have wrought, the fires have only burned a fraction of the fuel that's out there. All the "Old" fire needs to do is hop over a ridgeline and there's a whole other set of heavily populated valleys full of dead, dry trees with hot, dry winds making things worse. It was 99 degrees at home a couple of days ago-- a pretty toasty end to October, even in the desert.

Here's what it looks like:



Keep in mind that this map is about 150 miles west to east.