California Fires: How Many More Days of This Hell?

First Person Account from Ventura County

It's Saturday morning. We've all been dealing with The Santa Ana Winds and temperatures in excess of 100 degrees for two days now. Every one in knows what that means: 4% humidity, trees in the road, fires likely to break out, and power outages. It's part of our "Autumn" in Southern California.

7:00 AM - The winds are worse than usual. They say they've been blowing all night at 108 miles per hour. My son calls to see if I'm still alive and tells me he was almost killed over and over Friday night by huge trees falling, trash cans hitting his car, and humans screaming for him to stop and pick them up. All of Santa Barbara and now Los Angeles is on fire. I live right between the two out-of-control fires in Ventura County. I can hear the adrenaline in his voice as he tries to be calm for my sake.

12:00 Noon - I am terrified as I walk through my house and see the sky through the windows. News anchors are calling it an "apocalyptic nightmare". To me it looks like what I imagine Hell-at-night looks like: total blackness with an eerie red glow. It's noon! Where's the sun? Why can't I breathe?

4:00 PM - This is the scariest day of my life except for when the Northridge Earthquake hit. The winds are so vicious and loud I can't hear people on the phone and they can't hear me. Relatives from all over the are calling to see if I'm okay. They know Cookie (my Shih Tzu) and I live alone. My daughter lives in New Mexico, my youngest son lives 4 or 5 hours away, and there's no way anyone would drive on these highways today. Between the fire lengths of 40-50 feet and the 108 mph winds, no one except firemen and police would voluntarily be on the roads. Now there are hundreds of thousands of panicked home owners are trying to evacuate before they're burned alive.

The fires are now burning out of control from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles . I live in the mountain and valley interior area and every one knows fire burns uphill.

6:00 PM - I begin packing for evacuation. What's most important? Fear keeps gripping me even though I am working overtime not to let it control me.