The Perfect Storm

So, yesterday started out to be a normal Monday. I woke up & went to work, got home, went to my freezer group at 7:00. This is a group of ladies in my ward have made a dish for everyone in the group (make 1 dish 6 times) & we go & swap & have 6 different meals to put in our freezer! Only re-heating required!!! I got home from that & then went to my walking group, also some of the same ladies from my ward, we walk/run 2 miles every M-F at 8:30 p.m. Nothing too exciting. When I got home from that, Heath was watching television & the news was on. There was a HUGE fire in SE Boise up on one of the North Ridges. It started out as a brush fire, & then we had some big winds come through the area, gusts up to 50 mph, & the little brush fire turned into something much bigger. It turned into a 4 alarm fire, & then into a general alarm (or something like that) where they were calling all firefighters from Boise, & then from as far as Emmett, to relieve some of the firefighters that had been there for 3-4 hours so they could rest. There ended up being 50 homes evacuated, 9 homes destroyed, & 10 others that were damaged. The LDS church nearby was crowded with families & others wanting to help. Only 1 person died, a professor from BSU. It could have been much worse. My heart aches for those families. One guy grabbed his wife & animals & got out. He didn't even have any shoes on. (Someone brought this guy some shoes. :-) )This is Boise's version of the California fires.

Today while I was at work, Heath went up to survey the damage for himself, from a distance, of course. He ran into a co-worker who lives in the area. His house was damaged, but not lost, he & his father were on the roof with ski masks & goggles & hoses. He took Heath on a behind-the-scene look at the neighborhood. Of course Heath took his camera. While Heath was up there, they were talking with the fire chief, & an exchange student came up & said he knows how the fire started. He happened to be up in the area with his camera, saw the power lines sagging & saw sparks fly from the power lines & light the grass on fire. He got photos of the fire starting. Talk about being the right place at the right time.

Here are some pics from the news.

Click here for the full story: http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-aug2508-major_fire.117ce9e5.html