[visualops]

Having come home one day to a fire on the mountain (Paris Mtn., Greenville, SC), and apparently got thru just before road blocks (or I wouldn't have made it home), and the anxiety waiting for word of evacuations, I cannot even IMAGINE being near fires of these proportions. Luckily the fire was out after some hours and we were not among the evacuated. We have since moved further away from the mountain, but that was an experience I'll never forget.

[ladyinred]

I know what you mean. One time my hubby and I drove into a mt. resort area in the Sierra for dinner. While we were eating a wild fire started on the mountain. Ash was raining down on us as we came out of the restaurant. The CHP escorted those of us up there back down, fire was raging on all sides of us on the highway, and it was becoming doubtful that we could get down. They closed the road right as we made it away from the fire, or else we would have had to go back up into the higher elevations. Frightening beyond words what fire can do.