Wild!

I'll write this as concisely as possible since it's extremely late:

A transformer blew, knocked out the power and started a huge fire in the field across the street tonight. I'm so grateful for ready and willing neighbors with nothing but shovels to dampen the flames. The jurisdiction between city, county and national forest service was debatable so the trucks didn't show up for a long time, scaring us all into "evacuation-ready mode" as the flames reached high and across a vast space. Canyon Road was lined with cars as concerned passersby were fraught with worry too, because from where we all were situated (downhill from the fire) it looked as if it was burning much closer to barns and homes than it in fact was.

Anyway, the fire trucks pulled up a good twenty minutes after we all called which was a little disheartening as there is a station just down the street from us, but it was hard to feel too upset with them because we started to notice that the bright orange glow was getting weaker (heroes with shovels!) The road was shut down and the fifty or so people on the road dwindled back down to around ten.

We started to calm down and eventually felt assured that homes would be secure and the fields would be barely even smoking by morning. Juan and I and a neighbor (the last civilians still out) were saying our goodbyes around 12:30 as the mayor walked up to the scene. He had been one of the first people there, but as he couldn't do much to help he left and returned later to check up on things.  It's just now a quarter to two in the morning and the firetrucks are starting to leave.  I'm so so so grateful that nothing worse happened!