Forest Fire

For roughly 2 weeks, starting mid April and going through the end of April or first part of May, our area had a major forest fire!  We were able to see the flames from our house.  The smoke became quite an obstacle in our area as sporting events had to be rescheduled due to the poor air quality conditions and the ashes that were floating around for those couple of weeks.  It was really sad and scary.  I am all about smelling a campfire when camping, but when you are constantly living in it and it seeps in your home and in your place of work, it gets really tiresome.  

The firefighters were amazing!!  They were doing everything they could to get it contained and keep it from taking over the homes at the bottom of the mountain.  They were successful!  No ones home was in danger, but there were so many in the path.  While we could see the flames from our house, our house was not in immediate danger thank heavens.  At the time, we had not had rain in so many weeks.  God answered our prayers and brought the rain that ended up extinguishing the fire.  It was wonderful!!!

These pictures are ones I wish I could take credit for, but can't.  The top one was taken by a friend of mine who works in the school this "smoke face" appeared over.  The flag is in front of her school.  For several days we just saw smoke.  Then the flames started being visible.  More so at night, but even during the day from certain areas. The second picture was taken as a view from our house, but is taken from the school that is next to our neighborhood.  We saw the same view, but the guy who took this was not on our deck when he took it.  :)  The pictures I took were this same angle, but not this nice.  It really was pretty, but crazy how it was living in it.

My cousin, Michael, was making a delivery at Coors during the forest fire.  He called me and told me that Mike needed to turn the heat down on the grill--he was burning the steaks.  :)  Too funny.  We have seen the damage and growth of the area on Skyline Drive.  It is amazing how much growth has come back!!  It happens quickly!!