Wow, so it has been a very interesting weekend! On Sunday, Travis and I went over to my parents house for our usual Sunday dinner, we stayed til about 8:30 and proceeded to drive home. We get on the freeway and we take the bypass that goes to our apartment, look to our right and see an incredible wildfire that is awfully close to homes right on the edge of Irvine, about two miles from where we live. It was the most amazing sight I have ever seen and we had no idea that this was going on. So, what did we do? We drove as close as we could get to the fires, naturally! :) We got down to Irvine Blvd which was the border of where they were letting people go and parked on the side of the road and watched the fire blaze for a little while. It was dark, so we had no idea how close it was to homes and how bad it was, but the ash was overwhelming and we finally had to get out of there. Here are a couple of pictures from our experience:
This was the best my camera could do which, of course, is awful and does it no justice whatsoever. 
This is a picture we found on the internet which is the exact spot where we parked on the side of the road to see the fire. Isn't it amazing!?
This is the next morning. Travis and I both had work off so we slept in and then came outside to this. Our apartment building looks like it is on fire but it isn't. I love this picture because it shows the blue sky and the gross clouds of smoke that seemed to consume us!
This is a field that is right near our building. This is the air that we had to breath all day today.If you haven't heard, Southern California is almost completely on fire. There are more than 12 fires going on at one time and Gov. Shwazzenager declared a state of emergency. We are luckily safe and don't have to worry about losing our homes but some people are not so lucky. In San Diego over 500 homes have been destroyed and even our friend Dan and Liz had to evacuated their home. Our prayers go out to all those who are homeless or who are in danger of losing their homes.
5 comments:
The fires are so bad. Dad, Tyler and I spent our family night helping out at El Toro High School. That is where the red cross has set up for the evacuation center. Lots and lots of people there. Lots of retired people from a hospital. We set up cots, made sandwiches, helped people get their beds set up and even took over crayons, markers, paper, coloring books and of course play dough! The kids were thrilled and so were the parents. The red cross was very happy we came to help. Us and Brother Hogan were the only ones from the communtiy there besides the red cross workers. It was great being of service to those that were in need. I am going back now to see if they need more help.
Great pictures! I can't stand all this smoke, though it's much better here in Huntington Beach than it was in San Diego. Thanks for offering to help us. We might take you up on that if we have to stay evacuated much longer. Dan's sister has no air conditioning and it's been brutal in the afternoons! You guys are awesome. I hope all is well and let us know if we can do anything for you, too!
i can only imagine what those people who lost their homes are going through. its so depressing! i've developed a cough/sore throat from all the smoke in the air. Hopefully you guys are doing alright in irvine!
The fires are so crazy and scary. My sister and brother in law had to evacuate. Luckily they were able to just go to Santee and stayed at my cousin's house. However, there was a while where they thought they might have to evacuate from there also. But they were able to return home yesterday. My heart goes out to all those people that lost there homes. I am grateful you guys are safe. Love ya.
Hello Travis! And nice to meet ya Ashley :)
This is Jessica (Scherer...now Ladin)...Teags successfuly got ahold of me and now I'm into the world of blogging...How are you?!
Did you know my brother Randy lives in San Diego? Not sure how far you are, but we were so worried during the fires. Hope you guys were OK.
Sending hugs across the country~
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