Why Can't We Have Some of the Fun

Growing up, my mom would take us all over the state of California to follow sirens. I remember clearly when Rancho Santa Fe was burning we went and took a look. We were there days after the Northridge Earthquake. We had to take a detour to see damage of mudslides in Malibu. I'm actually kind of surprised we weren't following OJ in the white bronco!

This afternoon, on my way to the store, I noticed what seemed to be a new fire, with TONS of billowing smoke. So, really, am I going to stay focused and go shopping, or try and get closer? Well, my mom would be proud.

I thought the fire was right at the mouth of American Fork Canyon, but when I was headed there, I noticed I was just one canyon too south. And I wasn't sure how, exactly, to get to the actual canyon where the fire was. I navigated the best I could, while listening to the news reports, and it just wasn't worth getting lost to get that close.

Regardless, I had plenty of great photo opportunities, that I will now share:

The view from home, when I went back to get the camera.

This gives you an idea of how far it is from our home.

How much of the mountain it's already taken. (It had only been burning for maybe an hour).

Those cars in front of me are doing the same thing I am!

You could see the flames pop up, over the ridge. They must have been huge!

I really didn't want to leave! But this is me driving away.

From the Target in Orem.

If you look close, you can see the "G" Mountain. For those of you familiar with where we live, that kind of gives you an idea of the proximity.

So, the details.

Right now they are speculating this started by some construction in a park. The flames are moving up the mountain and to the east. Apparently American Fork Canyon is closed and the park rangers are warning all campers and hikers to leave. They also said they've got planes in the air just to look for campers and hikers that ground crews might have missed. They also had to evacuate a neighborhood that has "elaborate" homes (6-8000 sq ft). Only one barn has burned down, so far. If the winds change, a lot more structures will go.

This causes no alarm for us. It's far enough away that we won't be affected at all. However, my pottery teacher lives in the older part of Alpine (the city where the fire is). I don't think he needs to worry, either, but he's certainly close enough to probably be packing the valuables...

I'm assuming some of you are aware of the reason for my title...but just in case. It just seems like our entire state is on fire right now. Literally, we have fires from our southern borders all the way to our northern ones. We've been on fire for a couple weeks now, and we haven't even reached the 4th! I can't imagine what stupid things people are going to pull tomorrow.  It's just so sad that people are so irresponsible and those who are end up paying the bills.

Oh, and just a couple weeks ago my school in Saratoga Springs was an evacuation center for the residents south of it who were in danger of those fires. I've been meaning to go out there and hopefully get some good photos of that damage done.