unfortunately this is not a post about the band, but another boring post about.. the fires. but hey at least i actually live next to one. i got a few concerned calls from family and friends, some emails.. some im’s; all asking if we were okay and what was going on with the fires.

on october 21 around 6:30pm joel and i headed out to get some dinner. we both smelled a hint of smoke in the house but it was so mild it was more like smelling your neighbors grill. stepping into the hallway we were convinced “someone is having a bbq!”. we first headed to blockbuster to drop off some videos, then headed towards the freeway for food and noticed a ridiculous amount of, what appeared at the time to be, fog. “what the hell.. that’s a lot of fog!”. Joel promptly rolled his window down to put his hair out his window to see if he could feel the moisture, instead we were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of smoke and warmth forcing joel to quickly pull his hand back in and roll the window up. “that’s not fog.. that’s ash!”

confused by the volume of ash and smoke in the air that wasn’t there just minutes ago, i grabbed my blackberry and started googling “fire southern california”. sure enough listings of wildfires devastating malibu and san diego filled my screen and i passed the news onto joel. “Ahh! There’s tons of fires north and south of us! that must be the cause, remember in 2003 when the riverside fires left us covered in ash and dreary apocalyptic orange skies?”

after picking up food we headed home and ahead of us joel noticed a stretch of flashing lights, “wonder what’s going on there, tons of cops ahead of us.” not thinking anything was amiss in town, we stayed on course for home and pulled into the garage, 30 minutes ago completely untouched by bad air, now rich with the smell of smoke and ash.

we walked into the house and ate our dinner. chatting with friends closer to malibu we all discussed the fire and the smell and ash it was leaving behind. also being next to san diego i figured, maybe that’s why its so heavy here as well, though enough distance from malibu to not get this kind of ash.

i continued to google about the fires and found a link with irivne locals posting comments and sure enough i see “wildfire in irvine burning up portolla by jamboree, northwood residents are being evacuated.” i double checked the date and time and it had been posted just minutes ago. everything made sense now. the intense smoke and ash, the flashing lights, well crap, wildfires in my backyard, 2 miles away from my home a wildfire was raging.

today is the 24th and while the fire was contained by me its still burning. here are some current links and stats (santiago fire only).

• map of santiago fire – courtesy of the oc register
• satellite images of southern california wildfires
• oc register fire tracking – good source to keep updated with the fire
• name and reference: santiago incident, ORC 0706855
• cause: arson. 3 ignition points discovered. FBI and OC sheriffs search orange county home.
• containment: 50%
• acres burned: 20,000
• manpower: 600 firefighters, 110 engines/trucks, 4 helicopters, 4 air tankers, 5 handcrews, 2 dozers, 2 water tenders
• injuries: 4 minor
• structural damage: 12 outbuildings, 8 destroyed. 8 residential structures damaged, 9 destroyed