A Day In The Smoke

You might have heard me today updating Hugh Hewitt on the air about the Santiago Canyon fire that was threatening Foothill Ranch.

I spent the day just a mile or two downwind from the fire, watching through plate glass windows as great columns of black smoke rush skyward, and smelling the smoke that breached the filters of our building's AC units, turning eyes red and throats sore. Tough, huh?

Anyway, what I shared with Hugh was the oddness of commuting home on thoroughfares just three or four blocks from where fire fighters were struggling -- successfully! -- to save homes, all of us sitting in our air conditioned mobile cocoons, like we do every day ... even though this was hardly a day like the others. It was strange, very strange.

What I forgot to mention to Hugh and his listeners was that this fire would have been much more interesting a few years ago, before the Marines abandoned the El Toro Marine Air Station. Today the now empty ammunition dump went up in smoke. I imagine the Marines would have put up one heck of a fight to keep the fire from those munitions.

Here at home, we're not under any risk from the current fires, but there's about 30 miles of dry brush starting just a couple blocks east of us that runs all the way across the Santa Ana Mountains to Riverside County. We know that if a fire were to break out, the fire fighters are over-extended and we couldn't depend on a rapid response.

So we're praying ... for the victims who have lost their homes, for those who sit in fear tonight, for the fire fighters and, yes, for our neighborhood's safety too.

One more thing: I'm quite certain they will catch the @#$%&! who set the Santiago Canyon fire. The doofus set three separate fires along the Foothill Corridor Toll Road. Thing is, the Foothill Corridor uses transponders and cameras, so every single car that was on the road at the time the fire was set was recorded. I'm sure the cops are running the plates and knocking on doors as you read this.

What an idiot!