Fire on the Mountain

Our old house (which is currently rented out, and filed under "Things we really wished we hadn't purchased before the housing bubble burst") was evacuated, because it was essentially Ground Zero for the fire.  

The old neighborhood, Camarillo Springs, is the "Springs" in the Springs Fire, which ended up destroying about 12,000 acres of the Santa Monica Mountains. 

 Our former neighbor, John, took this photo, as he was evacuating --

his house has the covered car in the driveway, and our old house is to the right.

Most of the smoke and ash was blowing straight toward the ocean.

This was pretty scary to see, as I was driving Nola to school.

The fire raged on that day (and for a few days after), 

as you can see -- I think this was later in the afternoon...

One cool perk, was the "Command Central" for the fire-fighters

was right next to our little preschool, so the kids got to see all the fire engines...

and news vans.

But the coolest part of all, is that no houses were burned AT ALL,

and this is how everything looked just a few days later. 

From this picture, you can barely even tell that the hills are totally charred.

One friend, whose house was about five-feet from the flames said,

"I just want to kiss every fire fighter I see!"

I, like most other women, totally agree.