Fire Alarm

One of the things that I got to experience, but thankfully not too closely, was the fire that was burning near L.A. in early September. The fire started a few days before my trip. I heard a lot about the fire on the news in San Diego in the days before my planned trip up to L.A., and I read a lot about it on the internet. Let's just say I wasn't thrilled to be heading in that direction. If I had had a choice about when to go to L.A. I may have put off my trip, but since I had concert tickets I didn't have a choice about when to be there.

I wasn't worried about the fire actually burning into the areas that I was going to be, but I was worried about the air quality since I anticipated having to spend some time outside. Luckily that aspect of it didn't turn out to be as bad as I was worried it might be. I didn't experience burning eyes or coughing. I was actually surprised that it didn't really seem to smell like a weenie roast either, since I have experienced that here when we had some fires burning in the region. It was disconcerting to see ash floating around in the air, though. And I was worried about what it might do to my lungs.

I can't imagine having to worry about fires burning down your house all of the time. It's got to be such a helpless feeling knowing that you have no control over what's going to happen.

This was the view from my hotel in Pomona, about 30 miles east of L.A.

This was the ash that accumulated on my rental car overnight.

Looking northwest towards the fire the next morning. From photos that I saw in the days before this, this was a big improvement.