Hell on Earth

Wow, what's this? It looks like a scene from some apocalyptic war movie but this photo was taken just a few hours ago in California. Some of my best friends on the planet live there and they've been on my mind. I woke up about 6 and turned on TWC to see if there was a report on it and there it was. There was live footage going on. It was still dark there and the flames were vivid. Last night around midnight their time residents had to grab the kids and the dogs and split no questions asked.
 They showed someone in a 4WD and it was on fire. All along the back above the tailgate window it was burning. I couldn't tell if it was a ragtop and that was burning or if it was the vinyl underneath a hardtop but either way it was rough. Ordinarily if your car catches fire you pull over and hop out but with the fire closing in they didn't have that luxury. Can you imagine? All they could do was turn on the flashers and drive slowly forward and hope their vehicle didn't completely go up in flames. I'm going to text my buds in a minute. I hate to see this. I've looked out over those same hills and been amazed by the beauty. I saw a wildfire when I was out there too, but it looked like a few embers from a backyard barbecue compared to this one. Wildfires are a part of life out there, but not many are like this.
 As of last night this fire, which is centered in the Napa region, is so big that they've dubbed it the "Atlas Fire." I had to blink and rub my eyes when I saw that on the screen because I thought I was seeing it wrong, but there it was in the corner of the screen...Atlas Fire. Holy cow. We're naming fires now. It's not the "Cottonwood Creek" fire or whatever...it's so big it needs a proper name. Waking up to that nightmarish scene wasn't the best way to start the day but I was worried about my people. You could see layers of fire as the trees on top of all the ridges were bursting into flames. It reminded me of some of those paintings of Hell by the old masters. Just then the announcer said: "This looks like...well...'Hell on Earth.'" Yes, it does. Hell on Earth is not a good thing. God help us. Stay safe.