By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
Yesterday, while I was headed out to Orange County for a California Family Council conference, I recorded a video on Facebook to talk about the Fires in California. I assured all of my friends, family and fans that I live in Southwest Riverside County, so we are far from the flames. No worries.
As I was driving home from the conference in Orange County, I noticed I had over a dozen missed calls on my phone, and smoke was rising in the vicinity of where I live.
Suddenly, the safety of our location turned out not to be as safe from the fires as I had originally assumed.
A fire in Murrieta had erupted. The image above is one my son took while picking his kids up from school. The school is only a few blocks from my house.
Embers started a few small fires on Mira Mosa (the road the school is on), but for the most part remained on the hills, and over to the other side where the Los Alamos Hills community is. Los Alamos Road was shut down, and only one house (to my knowledge) went up in flames.
The school was also shut down today, for safety reasons, and because of the poor air quality.
My son told me that because of the flames being so close, the air was very hot, like he was standing next to an open oven.
Fortunately, the winds were blowing the smoke due west, over the other nearby hills, and over towards the ocean (rather than it lingering and choking us all out).
My wife was upset she could not get a hold of me (I was in a conference, I was not going to answer the phone until it was over - then, I forgot to turn my ringer back on), and she was bothered because we really don't have an emergency plan in the sense of what to grab, and a meeting place. For her, the fire was real, and very frightening.
Later on that night I asked everyone if they wanted me to start a fire in the fireplace for the evening. Strange. There were no takers.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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