Quote Originally Posted by smilingcat View Post
there is a fire in my back yard.

  • have important docs but my passport is nowhere to be found...
  • have all the animal cages setup 3 big ones for the dogs and 4 small cages for the cats. 2 to a cage
  • bottled water, ice chest, the usual camping stuff.
  • extra cloth and clean underwear so if search and rescue finds me at least I'll have clean undies...
  • oh not to forget dog food kitty food and kitty litter and boxes
  • we both have n95 respirators with chemical filters. its bad out thare.
  • Air quality index currently at 271. (very unhealthy!!)
  • we are in level 1 evacuation notice

Well we are off the hook pretty easy compare to Harvey victims and Irma victims to come. I just hope my farm house and my house that I live in is still standing. My farm kitty has been moved to my house house. Poor guy, he is hiding in a closet.

Oh the fire in my back yard is the Eagle Creek fire in Columbia gorge. Fire line is about 7 miles from the house or just over 10km. Farm house is only 6.5 miles or so from the line. I hope the wind doesn't kick up like it did last night.
Fire sounds quite close, smilingcat. Hope you, others, key documents and kitty, etc. stay safe somewhere! Those fires can travel fast.

In British Columbia there have been over 130 wildfires burning nearly the whole summer now --with some current big fires in some of our national parks. Calgary where I live is approx. 250 km southeast of the closest large wildfire. Approx. 2-3 days per week, depending on wind direction and smoke density, it has blown into our city. Where our famous bright blue skies becomes grey and smoke hangs in the air all over. My partner feels tightness in his chest if there's too much/cycling much. I'm less suspectible but still often smell smoke. Right now, there is a huge forest fire at Waterton National Park near the U.S. -Canada border in Alberta. It's burnt down the Parks' visitors' reception/info. centre building.

There have been various localized evacuations of residents in various areas.

Forest management /wildfire authorities are predicting some of these huge, scary wildfires will smoulder even into the winter/snow.