Zaca Fire Effects

When we wake up in the morning, we expect to see the morning light coming through the window. Depending on the wind, lately the morning light is a creey/beautiful orange. This is because of the massive Zaca fire that is happening in the mountains behind Santa Barbara.

Today the air seems clearer, or at least not so orange, but check out yesterdays photos. Every day at work my co-worker Rusty and I go out for coffee in the morning (Lazy acres), sometimes when we have extra time we sit down for a few minutes and relax. The sun was so creepy yesterday people were likening to the End of Days. Enjoy.

The Santa Barbara News Press site seems to be the easiest link to the often update Zaca fire zone map. I have been checking it every day to watch its progress. Apparently, as of this last weekend, we are out of the danger zone. If I was in Ojai or the Ventura foothills I would be loosening my collar right about now.
This past Tuesday (before the sky was orange, there was a huge increase in the smoke over the mountains, news reports were mentioning how well seasoned firefighters had "never seen anything like it" in the way that so much brush and land went up in flames so fast that it created ash that looked like a bomb had gone off. I took this photo of the plume of smoke with my camera phone. The smoke was moving so fast up into the sky that for once, during this fire I could actually see it moving from my window. Usually it holds still from my vantage point, only having movement visible over time. It was both beautiful and ominous.