Wildfire

Saturday, August 03, 2024

Yesterday, in our triple-digit temperatures, a vehicle’s heated exhaust ignited a fire on this town’s northern outskirts, calling for evacuations. The city streets packed with traffic had vehicles crawling. In the department store where I work, all the electricity quit. We sent the store’s customers outside and waited an hour until the lights went on again.

Later, on leaving work, I avoided heavy traffic by taking an alternate route home. I knew the fire wasn’t active in my neighborhood, but I was worried about my horses in the smoke-filled air. At home, emerging from my air-conditioned vehicle, I was in a very noticeably hot, stagnant, and smoky environment. I checked on the horses; they were okay and hungry.

The heat and smoke made caring for them a chore. It included capturing and medicating my donkey, soaking hay bags, and struggling to hang those drained heavies. A good note is that her meds are working quickly, as Pimmy has a noticeably better appetite.

There’s sad news that the town of Paradise, CA, is again hit by wildfire, this fire having spread from a nearby city up in flames. Several years ago, many lives were lost in the first quickly appearing and raging Paradise fire. This second round is a double tragedy.

I often think of Paradise while watering areas around my house to hopefully keep it less susceptible to wildfire. I recall Paradise in two ways: first, as a community on television, in an astonishingly blazing fire. The other is a memory from twenty years ago: Paradise when I first spotted the tucked-away, surprising pop-up community in the middle of seemingly nowhere while traveling to and from Central Oregon in the process of moving here.

Here’s hoping that yesterday’s local wildfire is the closest my critters and I will ever be to one.

Dear Friends: Locally, the suns and moons spectacularly are reflecting wildfire. Diana