Terrible fires are burning through the Los Angeles area, and not in isolated areas but burning through towns and residential areas. There has been loss of life as well as loss of homes and property.
I'm not in LA and experiencing those horrific fires, but I do know what a fire is like to go through. We had a big fire in 2011 at our orchard.
Our barns caught fire and we lost everything - my Dad's eight antique tractors, the cider press and apple grader, and so much more. What hurt the most was the loss of a place that my siblings and I were so strongly connected to through our shared family memories. In fact, the emotional loss was the hardest of all. It still hurts.
Mountain Mama Jessica lives on Dry Mountain in Utah. What a descriptive, even foreshadowing sort of name for that mountain. It and its neighboring mountains lived up to that name in 2020.
Jessica took this photo from her backyard and sent it to us, describing how odd it was to have an orange glow inside their home from the fire outside.
A view of another mountain involved in that fire.
I was terrified for Jessica, her family, and others in the path of that fire. Fortunately, they got some rain and between that and the efforts of firefighters, the fires that were raging around them were put out.
Fire is my worst fear, even more so than tornados. When my kids were young, I lost sleep more than once wondering what we would do if we had a house fire and Craig and I had to get all six children out and to safety. I am grateful that we never had to face that dilemma.
As for LA, I grieve for those who have been devastated by the fires and pray for all involved, from the residents to those fighting the fire or providing support for the people who have lost their homes.
I sure had hoped for a better start to 2025.
