esrosedotblog

There is a serious forest fire in the Santa Rosa mountains.

It is one of the most fire prone areas around here.

Since we have been here there have been big fires almost every year.

I drive to San Diego through that part of the mountains, Route 74 and on 371 through Anza to 79 and west into Temecula. There are blackened areas everywhere. One good thing is that since this is an alpine area, for the most part, the stuff grows back and heals up pretty well year to year.

We can see the fire itself and we have smoke so that there is no sun. There is a lot of ash, almost like wispy snow on the roads that blows around the same way. It is a hit from the past to see it early morning in the dark.

There are flakes in the air and a dusty look to the air when it passes through the headlight beams. Otherwise, there are never headlight beams.

There is a very big animal sanctuary up there and the rumor is that it had been evacuated with the fire very close to it when they bailed out. Too bad if it is gone.

At 3 AM this morning, the flames on this side of the mountain were spectacular. Huge, high, a deep deep red. This lasted for a half an hour then burned out as the fire went around to the other side.

Terrible to contemplate.

I got John up to see it which was good timing as that was its peak.

It is all pretty close as the crow flies. Maybe ten miles. The way the land lies here, you can be fairly close to something and very far away at the same time. It would take an hour to drive to where this is going on.

Labels: fire, weather