HOT In the City....

This shot is from directly behind our home!**

Woke up yesterday morning and realized that it was very warm. Before the sun was up, it was 70 plus degrees. The wind began to come up and it just felt....weird. I had the windows opened for awhile and all the doors open. The breeze was going through the house and then some green leaves started bouncing around. That was some strong wind. I closed thing up and turned on the A/C. Our kitchen and dining area faces the East and when the sun rises above our neighbors house, it gets quite warm. I had closed the blinds and curtains in the kitchen area.

Our neighborhood is very quiet during the day. So, it was very strange for me to hear lots of activity. I started to realize that things were busy while I was talking on the phone to Daddy. Then I moved toward the kitchen window and realized that something looked very, very wrong. I saw the black smoke and hung up on him with a quick "(Insert expletive Here)! Gotta go!!!". I ran out into the driveway to see flames licking over the hill into the backyards of the people on the next block, 200 yards away. I ran back into the house, tossed the kids in the car, grabbed my purse and cell phone and left. There were lookey-loos who were blocking my driveway in their effort to gawk at the flames. I almost pulled a "monster truck" move in my haste to be gone. I called Daddy when I was down the hill to tell him about the fire and then we went over to his office which is about 3 miles from the house. After my heart-rate got back to normal and I had lunch, we saw mostly white smoke in the area and thought it might be safe to return. The sheriffs had blocked all the roads. I sat at the bottom of the hill and watched the firefighters putting out hot spots on the scorched hill just a few feet down from where I knew our place is.

When we were finally able to return to the house, we discovered all structurally spared. I saw that my neighbor was home and so I went to talk to him. I discovered that he had returned to his house about the time I was leaving mine with the kids. S's first thought was to check to see if we were home. Then he saw that some of the flames had started on the hill behind our houses. So, he jumped up on the roof and some other awesome anonymous passer-by jumped on my roof with the hose and started battling the flames which came to within about 20 yards of our place. Mr. Singer, if you read this...YOU TOTALLY ROCK!!!!! Thank you.

I really have to check this "Flame of the South" thing....

~~Mama (She of the Southern Flame)

**Photo Credit: (c) AP