Billion Dollar Firestorm 07

LOS ANGELES -- Fires raged across California for a fourth day Wednesday as officials said property worth 1 billion dollars had been lost and President George W. Bush declared the region a major disaster zone.

Around 1,700 buildings have been reduced to charred rubble in 18 fires that have erupted since Sunday, forcing an estimated 500,000 people to flee their homes and scorching 172,000 hectares (426,000 acres) of tinder-dry countryside from celebrity-studded Malibu to beyond the Mexican border.

I have been lucky enough to not really be affected by the firestorm. The air is bad and we have to keep all of the windows closed and run the air.  My work is very close to the Hairrs Ranch fire and we have closed early  the last few days do to a real lack  of customers.  My local grocery has run very low on alot of goods do to the evacuation site right  down the street.  We have fire to the north and fire to the south and they almost meet each other  on the far  east end  of San Diego.  I am safe in my house, with my pets, a hot plate of food and a worm bed.  My heart goes out to all that have be hit with hardship and devastation. I pray they have lost no family or pet, but only things that time, family and friend can and will help replace.

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