Our own little natural disaster

This is not exactly what you want to see at the end of your street as you arrive home after a long day at work: the warm, red glow of a rapidly traveling, wind driven grass fire. You start to take a quick inventory of all your possessions and try to figure out how much can fit in the car. You wonder if it's possible to squeeze two cats into one carrier. You try to think if you know enough people who would come and ride your bikes away to safety.

Fortunately, I've been home for a few hours now and the dreaded reverse-911 call has not come to my block. The winds have died back some, down from 70 mph, and the biggest hazard has been all of the extra cars in the neighborhood full of fire-gawkers. I went out to get a better view and took the opportunity to catch up with a few of my neighbors whom I haven't seen since the end of gardening season. Lots of people were giving their dogs a longer walk than usual and there were plenty of camera flashes going off. I think the bright flames make the fire seem closer than it actually is, but it was still a relief to feel the wind start to blow from the south. I hope my friends who live a bit further north and were evacuated earlier are somewhere safe and sound tonight and that they still have homes in the morning. The hills I can see out the north window will be blackened when the sun rises tomorrow, but hopefully that will be the worst of the damage. I'm sorry for the residents of the houses already lost.