The perimeter map posted on the useful-if-slow InciWeb site, which tracks big wildfires across the country. We are closest to the little nub of fire to the southwest. It’s about ten miles away and the Santa Ana winds, as forecast, are blowing, although relatively mildly at this point. We have been given a preliminary evacuation order, but bulldozers have cut a line twenty-four feet across all the way from the Topa Topa mountains northeast of Ojai to Santa Paula canyon, between us and the fire, and that line has been soaked in fire retardant.
A neighbor visited with the firemen standing watch at the top of the hill. "Yep," one said in country-tinged voice, "when that fire gets here we’ll fight it. I got a bottle of water right here."
Kit Stolz 