The Fire

Not much has happened since yesterday. The fire is looking pretty bad, at least from what I can tell. The smoke is really black and it's everywhere, it's actually pretty hard to breath if you go outside for more then a few minutes. The older lady Doris, who lives next door to me, gave me and a few other neighbors those little off-white doctor masks to help us breath. The Fire department updated us at around 8pm last night saying that evacuations are currently voluntary but might become mandatory very soon. All the neighbors met last night to kind of discuss if we were going to leave or not. Cam and Linda who live behind me said they are leaving for sure. Doris believes this is just like fire season, and the fires may get close but they won't reach the homes. I am unsure how I feel about it. About every two years we get a fire along the mountain that threatens our homes, and some people leave and some stay. Where I live I have always been lucky the fire either gets put under control or the wind shifts it a new direction. This fire feels different, its not really even that close to use but the smoke is so black. I am think the evacuations are because the smoke might be toxic. That is just a guess. It doesn't really make sense to evacuate when the fire isn't even within 3 miles of us so why is it happening? Tom says that one of the firefighters, a friend of his, told him it was best to leave, and that several places in Simi had already been evacuated.

I finally saw some news this morning but all it said is that we have a large wildfire that is only 17% contained, and that some areas have been evacuated. It also said traffic into Simi Valley was restricted to emergency personnel only. I guess this means we are free to leave but if we do we can't come back.

All of this just isn't adding up for me. It doesn't explain what happened by the hospital, or why guys in Yellow Hazmat suits were all over, or why all those house were covered in plastic sheets. I guess I need to make a decision pretty quick. I will keep you posted. Oh and here is a pic I got this morning of the smoke.

~Johnny~
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