Blue Shadows & Perpetual Sunset

We’re almost a week into one of the worst firestorms in recent history. For those of you outside of California or living under a rock, the two fires that I talked about in the previous post (the Grand Prix & the Old Fire) have merged into one big, forty mile long fire. I went to one of the lookouts on Saturday night (along with most of Yucaipa, apparently) to see how bad the fire was. I don’t think I have ever seen anything so frightening & at the same time as intriguing as what I saw that night. It looked like a giant, flaming snake, making it’s way through the mountains. Even from across the valley, I could see the flames reaching into the sky. The thought kept coming to me that I was watching people’s homes going up in flames.

There are still evacuations happening. The evac areas keep spreading wider & wider. I’m not sure which way the fire out in Hemet is going, but I’m starting to get a wee bit nervous. I stopped by the Boy’s school to drop off his backpack & told him to call me first, as I am much closer than the ex to his school, if anything happened. He proceeded to tall me that he figures by Wednesday there’ll be a fire in our area. Apparently the Boy’s been reading from his mom’s book of paranoia.

It’s odd looking outside. The sun is hidden behind a hazy cloud of smoke & the filtered light is giving the shadows an eerie blue tint. The ash is falling like snow & my eyes start burning as soon as I step outside. Even inside the warehouse it was getting smokey. We had to turn off the A/C & resort to fans in order to clear up the air. At the Boy’s school, their last recess was held under a rainy day schedule due to all the ash in the air.

This just keeps getting worse.