home fires

I anticipate fire. I live on the edge of the canyon, in a high fire zone, and am fairly prepared. I've got extra fire insurance, a fire safe, important documents ready to go, large water containers and a fully gassed truck. I evacuated before. I anticipate fire. 

But my family does not. They live in a city: Santa Rosa. And Sonoma. Immediate and extended family, everywhere in the region. And many are evacuated, just awaiting news. Physically safe for now. 

I read the tweets, check Facebook, watch the news, listen to the radio. All the places I've known and loved, where I grew up swimming, going to school, hanging out with friends, visiting the store, hiking, all burned, gone. 

The fire crews are doing their utmost best, but it's a firestorm, uncontrolled, just waiting mother nature to them a hand in stopping it. But the winds pick back up, from yet another direction, and push flames into neighborhoods, embers into trees. I get the evacuation orders for cities and places my family and I have known, lived in, loved: Santa Rosa, Sonoma, Boyes Hot Springs, Bennett Valley, Calistoga. And see the fire maps glowing red for Fountaingrove Parkway, north Santa Rosa, Kenwood, Glen Ellen, Shiloh and Annadel parks, the list just keeps growing. 

It's just too much. And a feeling of helplessness. You just want it to stop, but it doesn't go away. More news reports, and the sun rises on new destruction.