California saw the worst fire ever this year. Some of the bravest souls fought it in Southern California. Unfortunately one will never come home. One is still in the hospital burn unit. Please consider sending your support to these folks. A card can do so much.

http://www.novatofire.org

I live in one of the wildfire areas (Crestline in the San Bernardinos) and the fire made it to within 2 blocks of my house. This is a subject close to me.

The devistation up here is indescribable. The closest I can say is it is like a bomb went off. In the middle of that bombs explosion were HUNDREDS of firefighters and private citizens alike trying to save individual homes and whole communities.

I cannot imagine what it would have been like to be in the line of fire (Literally) of this disaster and I have nothing but gratitude for these folks that helped save MY home as well as many many others.

On the backside of that help and support are linemen trying to get the power infrastructure back up and running and safe, and hiway workers repairing guardrails and keeping the hiways clear of landslides (A daily occurance now) and countless others that are working 7 days a week to get the mountain back up and running again.

Here is but a small example of what these men and women put up with to save the area here.

http://www.fireupdate.com/recovery/fu/pictures8.htm

I'm proud to know that Minnesota sent smoke jumpers out to relieve the local crews, and also sent at least one of the state DNR's Canadair CL 215 amphibious waterbombers to join the battle. Hope it helped in some small way. I've seen a CL 215 in action on the small lake I regularly frequent, and it is a sight to behold!