This.... state.... is on FIRE.

With apologies to Alicia Keys.

Southern California has been in the national news for the past few days because of our fires.  The biggie is the fire burning up in Ventura, near L.A., but this week, we got a taste of our own fire.

I don't actually live in San Diego, but rather north San Diego county ("north county"), in a town called Vista.  On Thursday afternoon, when I was busy with some on-site clients at the lab in Carlsbad, we noticed that we could see smoke out the window.

Then some coworkers got the call for mandatory evacuation, and they took off posthaste.  One of my colleagues' smoke detectors were alarming by the time she got home.

People were dropping out of work at an alarming rate as more schools and homes were evacuated.  I was definitely scared, but distracted by my clients.

And then I got home and made the mistake of turning on the TV.  Horses running everywhere, people evacuating, traffic backed up, and camera shots that looked like hell was being unleashed down the sides of canyons.

Wouldn't you be scared?

The Santa Ana winds were blowing to the southwest, and Vista was south of the fire zone.  I put Franz's collar on just as a precaution, and then they started making rumblings of evacuating Vista.

I will admit to having a mild freakout.  I threw a suitcase of essentials together for both girl and cat and gathered crucial documents and keepsakes for easy car loading.  Only northwest Vista was being evacuated, but I was ready for the call.

I didn't sleep well, as I kept waking up and checking for alerts on my phone.  But once those winds died down, the fire crews were (amazingly) able to hold the line on the Lilac fire.  Schools were out as a precaution, and half my coworkers weren't there the next day, but as far as I know, no one's home was burned.

Here are the current boundaries of the Lilac fire.  Fire crews have now switched to an offensive fight from a defensive one.  It is predicted to be ten more days before the fire truly is extinguished.

Lilac fire boundaries, Dec. 10 morning

I've endured tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms, and blizzards, but my fear in those paled in comparison to the fear I felt with the threat of fire.  And with these dry conditions, the threat is constant, as well.

It was a real wake-up call.  I'm no longer in a land with an overabundance of water.