Too much excitement...

Yesterday started calm enough.  Same routine as normal.  A little tidying up before the girls got up, then breakfast, etc.  Nothing exciting there.  Then there were some errands that had to be done before it got too hot out.  As we were heading to our first destination we could see the sky turning very dark and lightning coming down here and there.  So we made sure there wasn't any monkeying around with errands and made it home before the storm got to our area.  The temps cooled down enough and the winds were blowing to where the windows were opened to get some cool, fresh air in the house.  All was good, so far.

Then around lunch time the storm hit our place, nothing terrible really.  But lots of lightning.  There were a few loud booms from it, but nothing unusual.  About 15 mins. later we started to hear sirens from the fire trucks, the sheriff dept., etc. zooming past our neighborhood towards the foot hills.  Not good.  We knew the lightning sparked something.  Something big!  Not even a 1/2 hour later we started to hear the big air tanker planes flying over our house along with the water bucket helicopters.  It was serious.  We knew it was bad when our street started to get all hazy from the smoke and the windows had to be shut.  The girls kept running outside to watch the planes and helicopters flying over us to get to the hills all afternoon.  Glenn even called at one point (we were keeping him updated you know) to see how bad things were because he could see huge plumes of smoke from one vantage point on his route.  There were no worries here because we were at least 1 1/2 or more (aerial) from where things were burning.  Things would have to get really bad to make it to our house because of all the green area between us and the hills.

The smoke cleared from our neighborhood for a bit and it seemed from what we could see in the sky that  things were winding down.  But then shortly before 4pm the winds picked up something fierce and the sky changed from a smoky blue to a weird orange.  All the light in the house seemed to be sucked away.

That is when things got bad up in the hills.  The fire went from about 400 acres to nearly 5000 in just a couple of hours.  The planes and helicopters were picking up the pace then.  Very scary few hours for those who live up on the hills.

There were 5 fire departments out there, BLM & NIFC all trying to get a hold on the fire along with the aerial attack.  I guess the only good thing to say about the fire is that all those brave individuals know what they are doing and we are lucky to have all that experience around here.

Around 7 or 8pm they fire was contained after the winds died down again.  But 3 homes and a huge barn were totally lost, and one house has major damage.  It's just amazing that more homes didn't burn down. No one could pay me to live up in the hills because of things like this.  Yeah, it would be nice to have that gorgeous view but that view isn't worth the risk of what you could lose when a wildfire starts.  Especially when that fire was moving 100 yards in a minute because of the wind at times the fire chief said.  No thanks.  Even if I had lots of money, I would find a safe, wildfire 'free' spot to live at.  Just another clear example why homes should not be allowed in areas such as that, no matter how much money one has.  At least there were no lives lost.  Thank God.  We will have to go up in a few days to see how our sunset spot is being it was right in the middle of all the action.  The girls want to see if they can see any of the pink fire retardant on the hills.  I'm sure there is lots of that to be seen.

So, today is starting off quiet.  Let's hope it stays like that.

here's a link to some pics that were taken of the fire.