Devastation View

It has already been, and continues to be, a rough fire season here in the west. This view is the result of the "Mountain" fire, that only by a miracle of weather (and lots of hard work by firefighters), missed destroying our little village of Idyllwild here in the San Jacinto mountains. 27,500 acres were burned.   It started back on July 15, and is still smoldering up in the high country above the town as of August 25, although it is fully contained.  If the wind had been different when it started, or we had not received some unusual rain just at the right time to knock it down when things were looking bad, we might have been goners.  Idyllwild village had to evacuate.. the area where I live is a few miles further north and west, so we were on alert and ready to go, but luckily never had to actually leave.   Definitely the closest call since we have lived here, though.
Another big fire occurred a couple of weeks later down on the eastern foot of the mountain near the I-10, but that was prevented from getting up into the forest which was good for us, but quite a few houses and buildings were destroyed in that one. We haven't even got into the real Santa Ana season yet when some of the worst fires typically happen, so looks like we'll be on guard around here until the winter rains arrive.