fire"Good morning Mr. Brandon. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!"
Well, the fires were sorta 10 miles away so maybe I exagerate a little bit, LOL!
Last night returning from the concert I didn't think much of the tree limbs, branches, palm fronds, flowers and things strewn all over the streets in West Hollywood, but the winds were pretty damn strong, I thought. Then the news showed wildfires north of Malibu. This morning they were out of control, Santa Ana winds had whipped down some power lines apparently starting the conflagration (I love that word!).
Choppers and planes were doing water drops and something like 600 firefighters were on-call.
I didn't think much of it as I headed east the 50 miles to I-15 which would take me north to Vegas this afternoon, but then I saw a warning sign that said "I-15 northbound closed to high profile vehicles". Once up on the interstate I really noticed the buffeting winds. I've never experienced the Santa Anas before. I started to notice not only the strong cross winds (west to east), and the blowing dust and tumbleweeds (I still have one wedged in my car's grill), but that smart southbound truckers were pulling over and many were taking refuge at underpasses where the bridge overpass served as a wind breaker.
Within the next two miles I gripped the wheel, watched debris fly across the roadway like I was in a hurricane, and saw two big rigs laid over on their sides. This shot came quickly and I missed the whole truck, you're looking at the steel cross-beams that run under the trailer. You can see the drive tires of the tractor to the very left, and the tires that look like they are on the roof of the passing car are actually the outside tandems of the rear trailer wheels.
As I continued up the grade I could see more clearly how bad the dust was lowering visibility in the area I had just passed through :
So there was a bit of an uh-oh a few miles later when I noticed thick gray smoke coming up in front of me from a small canyon along the interstate. It got thicker and blacker and traffic slowed. A wildfire had burned up the west side of the hill to the edge of the highway and was being blown across the lanes where it then started a fresh fire in the median which was swept by the winds towards my northbound lanes. No drama, we all slowed to 5 mhp, left room in front, turned on headlights, and crept through the smoke until daylight appeared.
Driving away from the fire, I opened up my windows and sunroof again and realized I might have a litttle smoke damage. What more could a fireman want than to have a car that reeks of fresh smoke? LOL!
