Back to Boring

Posted on October 24, 2007 in Santiago Fire

The smell of burnt chamise, sage, and buckwheat is strong, the smoke thick, but the flames have marched to the east where they have forced the evacuation of our local juvenile delinquents. The fire’s gone into the backcountry — on federal land where it will probably burn through its life until rain or contrary winds extinguish it. The adventure seems to be over.

Most of my immediate neighbors disappeared. They drew out in the first voluntary evacuation leaving a few of us who did not panic at the ashfall and the sight of orange flames in the night. Now it is time to clean up the mess. I have a pair of plastic chairs that the wind blew beneath our deck to fetch and ash to spray off the stairs.

I’ll see what there is to see of the burnt out lands tomorrow or whenever they allow me into Whiting.