Fire in my backyard!

Yup ladies and gentlemen- there is a huge brush fire barely 2 miles away from me in Griffith Park. The smell was strong even in Oldtown Pasadena, and the thick cloud of smoke was visible from our window in the audit room at the client I was on today, elsewhere in Pasadena.

Here are pix from my driveway. That red cloud is basically smoke from the fire on the hills. In the 2nd, the cloud is somewhat above the barely visible hill, and the bright lights in a row are blazing fires. There are about 500 firefighters at work here, aided by helicopters which I can hear loudly from my living room. The fires had died down earlier in the day, but have flared up again after the sun went down, sue to the high winds. All around us, there are folks standing in their balconies, raptly watching the blaze as they would porn. Needless to say, its really warm- the days have grown hot anyway, but the nights are pretty cold out here, with tonight an obvious exception.

It has been over 9 hours- long enough to make us, if not uncomfortable, then definitely question our safety. Folks in the Los Feliz area have begun evacuation, mostly being housed at Marshall High School. While only one man has suffered burns, there are- or were- living animals in Griffith Park (it is more than a park- it is a wooded area encapsulating a few hills, parks and planetarium), including coyotes, deer, raccoons, opossums and rabbits. At this minute, there are other brush fires burning in San Bernardino, Anaheim and Corona- makes it harder all around, with county resources stretched to the limit. Not a good start to the brush fire season.