Fire

So the next week, the week of June 11th, we were packing and getting ready for our trip to visit my family back east.  PC was working nights and we were going to leave on Wednesday, the 12th.  On the 11th, PC left for work and I flipped on the TV to watch something while I nursed Baby Girl.  There were breaking news alerts on all the local channels about a fire in the forest near our home.  They were telling everyone to be aware and to know if you were on evacuation or pre-evacuation orders. I didn't know how to find out, so called my MIL to see if she knew. She said not to worry, that they were far enough away that we would be fine.  Well, we could see the smoke and smell it from our house and the kids were starting to worry.  PC called from work and said he would be watching the news as well, but we would be fine.  I am scrambling to pack our van for our trip, get all the food ready for our trip (I made pepperoni rolls, banana bread, and egg salad, so I was busy!), and watching the news at the same time.  The kids start to worry and Bucko starts packing all of his stuff in his bags, including all his stuffed animals, his piggy bank, and every DS game he owns.  I took him to violin lessons and on the way home, we drove out a little farther to see it better. (In the collage, it is the top right picture.)  Around the time the kids went to bed, the moved the evacuation line to about a half-mile from our house and we were one pre-evacuation orders.  PC wasn't getting home until after midnight, so I just kept checking all the updates on Facebook to see if we changed to evac, especially since the area close to us had gone from pre-evac to evac in a half an hour.  The winds had been blowing our way and the sheriff had warned us to really be ready to go if needed.  Luckily, we never did get to evacuation orders, but we really didn't get much sleep that night either. We woke up early and headed east.  We kept checking the news while we were gone as well. It really was a devastating fire--the worst for home damages in the state, with over 500 homes completely lost. 
After we got home, we drove through and saw the devastation. Some places were just all black, bare trunks of trees.  Homes with nothing left but the chimney. I got a couple pictures, but was in such awe of all the destruction that I didn't get ones that showed the worst of it. 
One story that came out of all this was one of our church's ward buildings that was right in the heart of it all.  The week before the fire started, they had been inspired to have a clean-up day where they cleared 15 truckloads of dead pine needles and debris.  The building sustained some smoke damage, but that was all.  It truly was a testament to following the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  (The bottom right picture shows the edge of the church property.)