Close Call

There have been some terrible fires all over Arizona. One is just down the street from that have watched take over the mountain side. It makes me so sad for the people who have lost their homes and those who have been evacuated. I felt safe until yesterday. There was a fire that was stared on post which is just a mile from our house. I went out to take a picture of the smoke before I knew how close it was to our house. i thought the smoke was from the monument fire just south of us. A few minutes later I got a call from Jer asking if i had heard the latest. I was unaware of the new fire, but didn't feel a sense of panic yet. Jer was on his way to help one of our friends wife's who was in a major state of panic. I was listening to the radio waiting to hear if we needed to evacuate when to police came through our neighborhood over their big horns telling us were under a mandatory evacuation. At this point I was a little stressed. I tried to call Jer but the phone lines were jammed. I started to get stuff together food, clothes, documents, etc. My kids were sleeping so I was able to move fairly quick. By the time I got a hold of Jer I was packed, in the car, and ready to go. I wasn't sure where I was going but I was going to get my kids out of here. This whole situation was a real eye-opener for me. It made me realize what was important to me and what I really could have cared less about. We stayed at Jer's work the rest of the evening. There were able to contain the fire and lifted the evacuation on our neighborhood. We are still on high alert, but we are safe. Jer and I were discussing that our move is a week late:) Hopefully they are able to contain the monument fire in this next week. It's only 27% contained and has taken over 40 homes. We count our blessings daily because things could be a lot worse.

The pictures don't do it justice. The whole neighborhood was engulfed in this black cloud.

This is the fire just on the other side of our neighborhood.

This is the what the hill side looks like just a half mile from our house.