a closer look

 Yesterday I decided to get a closer look at the fire damage. We have a gate that leads out to the open field that burned. It was hot, but windy so I decided to take a walk out to see for myself. Cows normally graze in this field year round, but they haven't been here for about a month. It's been really dry and most of the grass was gone. Down this dirt road is a lake that was dry for about 4-5 years. This past year we had a lot of rain and the lake filled up again. Every winter Canadian geese come to spend the winter on the lake. They are gone now, but build nests and raise their babies in the field.

 To the left of this picture is a big open field that did not burn. It is a drainage area for the neighborhood and for the prison, which is also to the left of the picture. Those pipes help the water flow under the fire access road and into the little creek which helped save our house. The last time the fire came in about 2003, the fire burned this field and one of those houses because this area wasn't part of the city. Both Fairfield and Vacaville argued over who should put out the fire. Neither did, so the house burned.

 This is a view of the edge of the drainage field. Those trees have to withstand a lot of wind and did get scorched by the fire, but I think they will come back.

 The wooden fence posts weren't so lucky. All night long, all of the wooden fence posts glowed red. In the morning, the firefighters went around and put them out with water.

This is the busy 2 lane road that the fire jumped. To the right is the SPCA.
If you haven't see the video of the rescue yet, it's pretty incredible. The Vacaville police department released body camera video showing how they got the animals out before the fire got to the shelter. None of the buildings were burned, but they lost power and the smoke was really bad.

Here's the link to the video.
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2018/08/13/caught-on-video-vacaville-police-solano-spca-evacuation-nelson-fire/