Algeries and smoke, no thanks

Luckily I'm a few hours away from any fire, but the smoke still settles across everything at night. On my walk for coffee this morning I could smell the smoke but it should blow out in a few hours. I'm pumping my body full of histamine blockers, super. But I am doing fun stuff, how about running up the side of a hill...

and back down... guess what part is harder.


My friends house is still standing, so that's great news. After we bailed out with his family, they came in and bulldozed his front yard and set up a command post. I told him to send the S.O. an email asking that they give the chickens some more water.

The brown house in the middle is his, only a few tree's close to his backyard. This picture is from a few hours after we left, the winds didn't change direction and the fire was still creeping instead of jumping (in his area). Like I mentioned in the last post, it did creep enough to get the people on the other side of the street across his front yard.


The fire has been moving North for the most part, but turned around yesterday burning back onto itself. 5% containment, ~400 homes and 2 people, that's the current count.

It's unfortunate that people don't evac when told, especially for a fire. I'm as stubborn as anyone, but come on. They made calls two times to a friend saying they were packing up and then leaving, in the second call the friend said he could hear the fire in the background. They died in their car, in their garage. Tragic loss of life, the garage door doesn't work when there isn't power. What could be in a home, my home or yours, that would keep you there that long even if you weren't prepared. We have two dogs and two people, how much longer than 3 minutes do we need to be out of the gate and on the road.

It's frustrating to hear about this kind of thing. I keep seeing interviews about people who left their animals in the house but have a car full of crap that will get stolen in the hotel parking lot. Criminals don't take time off, a lot of hard lessons being learned all over again.

Next year home insurance rates will go up again. $400 this year, from last years fires and hail storms. Just like healthcare, everything is averaged and spread around, but I suppose I shouldn't rant on that. I'll just say life isn't fair all the time and fair and equitable doesn't mean good for us.