Another big fire here — scary!

See KEYT

Not too far from where we used to live...Adam was over there a little while ago to pick up a prescription at our old pharmacy and called to tell me about it. He just got home and said it was getting bigger by the minute.

The winds in the hills are gusting at 60-70 mph. This is a very dangerous event.

Update: Millions of dollars' worth of property gone. Evacuees clogging the roads. The winds won't die down until tomorrow morning. It's very dramatic — and terribly sad, as these catastrophes always are.

The fire has spread to more than 300 acres in a scant two hours. We're not as close as we were the last time, but that doesn't make the fact of this terrible fire any less appalling — or threatening.

The local newscasters are very brave. They're in the thick of it. They report hearing "explosions," which are probably eucalyptus trees going up. Eucalyptus trees are a great feature of our landscape, but they are oil-soaked and thus terribly dangerous in these circumstances. 

Update: This fire, now named the "Tea," is a very different sort of fire from the "Gap" fire of last July. That one burned primarily in the wilderness high in the hills, and very few structures were involved. This one is in an area closer to town, and far more thickly populated. Local TV has been showing many houses engulfed in flame. There are lovely lovely houses in that part of town, and many mansions. 

Here's an annotated map. (You may have to click on "Madison" as well as "T Fire" in the left sidebar to see the annotations.) If you scroll over and look at the lefthand side, you'll see a marker for my house. The polygon is an approximation of the current mandatory evacuation area. It's just been extended down toward town. We have a number of friends who live within the perimeter. But cell phone communication is spotty, and there are power outages, so we don't have news. We may have to wait for morning.

There are fire crews from all over Southern California pouring in to help...from Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Monica, all the communities around Los Angeles. "Hotshot" crews from Vandenberg AFB. Ventura County strike teams. Staging them is sometimes difficult, because many roads are winding and narrow. How valiant they all are, and uncompromising in their commitment to duty.

I'm going to try to go to sleep now, but will be hard.