Fire!

It is becoming a seasonal occurrence here...hot summer, little rain, resort area of the west all combined with camping, gas storage for Quads, boats and BarBQ's leading sadly to my today's topic....Forest fires. Yesterday afternoon, we saw the first black  plumes of smoke over our beloved Peachland. The Valley Ventillation (wind) had started up about an hour before, relieving the heat of the afternoon but unknown to us pushing the fire towards the village. This morning over 2000 people are evacuated. Three homes, out buildings are destroyed and several of our heritage wineries beautiful grape vines lost to the fire. I worry about the safety of those people fighting the fire to protect people, homes and animals living in the  many small farms and ranches in this area. It is no longer a remote possibility here. Fire has threatened us four times in 6 years to the extent evacuation  preparation in our home was done. Woken at first light by the Water Bombers flying over the lake, picking up water, I flicked on the TV (clicker was still in my hand) to hear the progress report. Today was forecasted to be 29 C but when I checked the sky out side, a light rain was falling and the revised forecast was 18C....this will help....the safety of our fire Fighters and the dryness of the forest. Still on Alert, watching the sky, listening to Castenet.........