Friday, September 4, 2009

Smoking Section

The fire continues to burn. Heavy smoke on the eastern perimeter yesterday limited air drops of water and fire retardant. That same smoke fills the foothill communities, choking the city and turning the moon orange. On a normal South Pasadena night, mountains would span the background of this view.

Now I fully understand the term "smokescreen."

Of course, everything reminds me of a poem. As I stood on the hillside trying to make some sense of scorched earth and shrouded mountains, I remembered these few lines by Tennyson:

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks.
The long day wanes, the slow moon climbs,
The deep moans round with many voices.
Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

--------------------------

For continuing fire coverage, refer to my usual links:

Altadena Hiker
Altadenablog
LA Observed
Firefighter Blog
Inciweb
LA Times dynamic map of current fire zone
LA Now (LA Times blog)

UPDATE: 8:45AM Station fire 42% contained. New fire on Ortega Highway.

UPDATE: 2:30PM 40 miles of Angeles Crest Highway closed "indefinitely" due to fires.

10 comments:

Virginia said...

Frighteningly beautiful.
V

Judy Williams said...

The verse could not be more fitting. The composition of your photo is spot on gorgeous. I'm ready for this to all go away.

Anonymous said...

Of course you'd have the perfect poem. I slept with windows opened last night, and tho it was a little smokey, it was worth it to have real air in the house again.

Ken Mac said...

Beautiful poem, sad day

Yakpate said...

Your sepia-hued photo, like so many other shots of this conflagration, is eerily beautiful. But...

There's an arsonist on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad

(With apologies to Jim Morrison and The Doors...)

Jean Spitzer said...

Beautiful photo. I was out last night, briefly, looking at that moon, too.

Above the City said...

lovely

Petrea Burchard said...

This one's a long haul. Great poetic choice. I don't know how you do it.

pasadenapio said...

It's terrific that so many local bloggers have continues with updates on the fires.

Laurie Allee said...

Thanks, everyone. Til tomorrow...