Nov. 16--Smoky Sunday

So there are wildfires raging all around us, in a manner of speaking. None of them are very close to where I live, nor where any of my family lives, although the Yorba Linda fire is extremely close to D3's store. In fact, there is an evacuation center just behind the shopping center.

She's also run into lots of problems getting to and from work, since the freeways she usually takes are both blocked off.

We all met for breakfast today, to celebrate D5's birthday (which is actually tomorrow) and this is the view of the "Freeway Triangle" fire from the parking lot. (That's the Corona/Yorba Linda/Diamond Bar/Chino Hills area, south and east of the Sylmar Fire. )

You can get an idea of how fierce this fire is when I tell you it's probably a good 5-10 miles south of that line of freeway. Even up in our area, the sky is occluded with smoke, and the air smells like a campfire. There was ash blowing on the cars in that parking lot, although we haven't seen any ash up here.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a Montrose Monday, but with the Sylmar fire relatively close to that area, we're going to have to wait and see if it's feasible to go out in this. Latest bulletin is that the fire in the Sylmar/Newhall Pass area is again out of control. All we can do now is hope and pray that the winds die down, and the humidity goes up, and that the by-now-exhausted and overstretched crews can make some headway with these fires.