Fires in SoCal

As most of you know, we are having a fire problem here in southern California. It seems like there is a new fire every hour. With the super dry conditions along with the 70-80 mph Santa Ana winds, this creates an ideal formula for fires.

I have been working since Sunday, and that was when we first heard of the fire in Malibu. Malibu is quite a distance from us, so we didn't feel affected. It wasn't until Monday when I hear about the fire in Castaic when I became concerned. We live less than 10 miles from Castaic. When I was driving to work on Monday, I called Alfonso (he was at work too, but on his way home) and said that for whatever reason, if we have to evacuate to gather up our valuables and important documents.

Later that afternoon I started to get a funny feeling in my stomach. I called my friends Elsa and Janet for updates. When I called them, they were saying that they couldn't talk for long because they were evacuating from their house. There was a fire on Magic Mountain (which is next to us). I then called Alfonso, and told him that the neighborhood was evacuating (he was just waking up from working the night before).

It became a little crazy at work, since many of my co workers live in the same area as me. People were calling home, other people were trying to locate their family members. As I was leaving work, I caught a glimpse of my subdivision on the news.

When I came home, they had opened up my street. There were police officers barracading the rest of the subdivision. I went to sleep that night hoping that we didn't have to evacuate during the night. As I fell asleep, I could hear the hum of helicopters and airplanes overhead.

As of now, the fire that was near us is contained. Unfortunately, many people are not so lucky. Many people have lost their homes in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles County. It has just been horrible these few days.

Here are some photos that my friend took of our neighborhood under evacuation: