Brush Fire Aftermath

After yesterday’s Habitat For Humanity SF/SCV Key Ceremony, we actually had a second event for the evening.

You will remember that we’ve had some huge brush fires in the area. One such fire was the Sand Fire, which burned in the area around the intersection of the 5 and 14 Freeways, in Santa Clarita and environs. Yes, that would be the exact same Santa Clarita where we’re building those new homes.

While our houses were fine, the Sand Fire ended up covering 41,432 acres. While there were relatively few structures destroyed and lives lost (some of these fires can burn down thousands of homes and kill a lot of people), four of the people who lost their homes were firefighters who were away fighting the fire to protect other areas. Our benefit yesterday evening was to raise funds to help those four families.

In order to get to the site of the event, we had to drive through some of the areas that got burnt. You don’t normally see this unless you go looking for it since the majority of the acreage lost in these fires is in the mountains and canyons. But it’s stark and stunning to see up close after the fact. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to be fleeing this on a narrow canyon road with twenty to forty foot flames shooting up all around you.

These burn areas are sometimes described as “moonscapes.” It’s easy to see why.