Another Year of Fire Storms

I live in Upland California. About 5 years ago, our area was ravaged by wild fires that turned into a massive fire storm. The mountains and foothills above my home burned to a crisp from several miles to the west and spanned several miles to the east as well.

One fire had started out west of us and another started east of us and eventually they met in the middle and started an even bigger fire. Hundreds of homes were destroyed and several people died.

We can still see the burned out homes that were never rebuilt and now the fires are back again. There is currently the Station Fire that is burning out of control about 20 miles west of us. Our sky is filled with dirty brown smoke and once again ash is falling like snow all around us. I feel like I'm drowning when I go outside and breathe in the particulate matter in the air.

I suffer from asthma and so does my grandmother. These are trying times for us and we are struggling greatly with the ever increasing heat and the fire spewing it's toxins into the atmosphere. Our breathing has suffered ever since the last fires and now it threatens to get even worse.

As we were driving home from the car dealership last night, we saw the plume of smoke billowing over our neck of the woods. The winds seemed to have shifted and now all the smoke is blowing our way. I took some quick images while we were in the car. They are not that great but you can get the picture of what we were driving into.

 The smoke does make for some beautiful sunsets. Too bad it feels like I'm breathing through a straw every day. I think I'll be going through a lot of inhalers.

Are you near the fires too? Let me know how this is effecting you where you are.