I Smell Smoke

Thanks to everyone who contacted me yesterday to make sure I was okay. I was, and I still am.

As mentioned in my previous post, my friends, Ellen and Alan (a.k.a. Walendo), lost their home in yesterday’s fire here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. They live about 10 miles from me. Which may not sound like much, but in a case like this, makes all the difference. The picture above is one that Ellen snapped as she and Walendo were evacuating their home early yesterday morning. At the time, they still weren’t sure they were going to need to leave. It’s a riveting story, and you can read it all here.

This morning I woke up to the smell of smoke. I got up, looked outside and could also see smoke. The winds must have shifted overnight because I didn’t smell smoke last night. I immediately checked online. I’m still safe. The fire did jump Summit Road last night, but the firefighters are working to keep it contained. It still hasn’t moved significantly further, if at all, in my direction. The winds are much lower than yesterday.

UPDATE: Ellen just posted an update over on her site, complete with some pictures of what’s not left of their house. Here’s a shot taken from approximately same vantage point as the one above.

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