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Friday, August 14, 2009

Another Year Another Fire













Well I woke up Thursday morning at 5am to the news of another fire in my mountain community. This time though, it is the big one. The two bottom photos were taken 5 minutes from my house. The top three are taken from Hwy 1 along the Pacific Ocean, 10 miles North of Santa Cruz, California. I am a big outdoors guy and I know when things can get bad ie dry vegetation, winds etc. This has the recipie for a disaster. As of today, 8/14/09 the fire is 5% contained. What that means is the fire fighters try to circle the fire and then close in on it until extinguished. The 5% means that they only have a circle around the fire of 5%. My wife and I drove around near the fire to catch a glimpse of it. As we got nearer to the fire, we ran into police that had blocked off roads. What I saw was the slimey news folks set up, and many folks that live in the area with trucks and trailers to try to get back in to get their belongings and pets. Many people live here to get away from the city. They have horses, cows, sheep and pets. Most of these people are good hard working folks. The people that live up here are of a different kind. Very sufficient and don't like authority too much. Many are staying at their homes and taking their chances. Good luck to them. I don't know if that is what I would do. Back to the story though. My wife and I felt it was wrong to be there, because of all the panicked people, who are in a state of shock as to what to do. I don't want to be a voyeur in their misery. We went into Santa Cruz and headed up Hwy 1 to see a different view of the fire. It was pretty intense with big winds blowing the fire towards the coast. As I was heading to work down in Monterey today, I saw probably 50 fire engines heading up Hwy 1 to the fire. My hats go off to them. All I want is for no one to get hurt and I hope that lose of homes is minimal. My area was declared a State Of Emergency today. Sad thing about this fire. Last year we had one in the same area. Though smaller, but it did some good damage. This one is 5 times larger
Ken

4 comments:

  1. K'in hell Ken. I can't imagine how bad it must be but those photos give me a clue. There was something on TV a while back here about the Cali fires and it focused on the prisoners out there who get let out to fight the fires. They join the local fire services and work when a biggy goes off. Quite a good idea if you ask me. Beats staying in a cell all day getting hooked on smack or whatever.

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  2. Yeah it has been bad. The good news is that no one has lost a home, and injuries to the firefighters has been minimal. The fire is 50% contained and from what I hear, full containment should be on the 20th. The smell of smoke is wrecking havoc on my respitory system though.

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  3. Stay safe Ken.
    Daz AKA Sedated

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  4. Thanks Daz! How are you??? Everything is ok now. The fire is mostly contained, and more importantly no one lost a home.
    Ken

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