Quote:
Originally Posted by bigjohn
the fires are national news... and my company had to evacuate one of our offices! thank goodness we have a redundant facility in KS.
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Yes it's really bad right now. I live only a couple of miles from the first one, the High Park fire. It got pretty smokey and bothered my asthma but I was never in the direct path and did not have to evacuate or anything like that. My heart goes out to all of the people who lost their homes. Material things can generally be replaced, but not those with sentimental value. And it's hard to have a home one day and be homeless the next. At least the death toll is low; one elderly woman who refused to be evacuated and "went down with the ship." All reports seem to point to her wanting it that way. But a life cannot be replaced and so far a lot have been saved. They did a good job of evacuating people; and of course the firefighters - I can hardly imagine how hot it must be for them, the temperature is over 100 and they are right in a fire and wearing heavy clothes. Many of them from around here are volunteer firefighters. I'd do it if I was able to, but with my asthma I'd never be able to do it well, if at all (I can tolerate cigar smoke of course, but I do not inhale and I don't think too many people inhale cigar smoke. I did have asthma issues when I went to a cigar show though).
I know what it is like to lose home, I lost mine to Hurricane Andrew in Miami in 1992, but at least it was salvageable, not like the ones here that burned to the ground. What pisses me off about the fires is that they are usually started by some jackass who doesn't know how to make a firepit or put out a firepit; or someone burning piles of yard waste without a permit (although sometimes they have a permit and they still manage to start a fire), and sometimes it's arson. All in all, people cause most of them.