Fire on the Mountain(s)

Friends, there is a big old forest fire burning in the mountains just west of where I live. Saturday night as I drove home the mountains were glowing an eerie red and billowing red smoke. Yesterday, the sky looked like this.

From the front door.

From the back yard.

I am not used to being blanketed in smoke. In the three years I've lived here, there have been no forest fires anywhere close to me, just little grass fires. This year, there have to been two major fires in the mountains near my town in the last month. This most recent one is much worse than the last one because it's much closer, and it's HUGE - 37,000 acres (~58 square miles) and growing.

It was sort of hot yesterday morning, and the smoke was not bad, so I left a few windows open to cool the apartment down. I shut my windows in the afternoon when I found my pillow covered in ash.

It looks like dandruff, but it's little bits of incinerated trees.

Stepping outside is similar to sitting in the smoke of a campfire blowing into your face. You can see the air your breathing, and you cannot see the fire on the mountains anymore because the smoke is too thick. Compared with all the people who live further west than I do, I'm not even in any danger - except for my crazy allergies and inability to breathe. I know my house won't burn down,  but so many people may not be so lucky. I've been sending up prayers for firefighters and people in harm's way all day. Maybe you might send some, too?