Where There's Smoke ...

Tonight, on my way up the hill to teach a class, I was astounded at the amount of traffic heading up the hill with me. At the stoplight at the bottom of the first grade, the traffic was backed up for perhaps a half mile, and much of the traffic was 18-wheelers, which is unusual.

As I continued toward my destination, I came to a "major" intersection that turns off the highway I was on and becomes another "major" route across the desert to the base of the mountain where "Big Bear" is located. At the intersection of these two "major" arteries, the traffic was backed up another good half mile, again totally unusual, especially since the bulk of the traffic was turning onto OWS Road and heading across the desert.

Finally, an "ah ha" moment as the news cast began: the access from the other side of the "Big Bear" mountain was closed due to fires, so traffic was rerouting the L-O-N-G way around the mountain so people who lived on "this side" of the mountain could get home! The traffic was heavy, and I can just imagine all those cars and 18-wheelers forming a parade across the desert, which is one lane in each direction, creating a course for collisions from tired, impatient, and worried drivers trying to get home before the fire gets there.

At 8 pm, just as I was launching into the grand finale of the night's class, I smelled smoke: lots of strong-smelling smoke. Because we've already been through a major fire incident not too long ago, I sent a student to sniff out the source of the smoke to be sure that we wouldn't find ourselves in a difficult situation by the time class let out.

He returned and told the class that someone had left a burning cigarette on the ground and it had started a small fire at the end of the building. Several people were there handling the situation, but that's all it takes for another out-of-control fire to challenge the Santa Ana wind conditions and wipe out acreage, homes, and ecosystems.

I'm glad that people were right there to deal with the situation because it takes just a moment for one person's carelessness to become another person's catastrophe.