Purple Haze ?

I woke up early Monday, with nausea and a pounding headache. A smokey haze surrounded our house. It had infiltrated through our open windows during the night and the smell was unmistakable. Vaguely like  campfire, with a sickening aftertaste.

There were no flames to be seen, and no helicopters or small planes buzzing overhead. This assures me that the fire itself was not too close.  But it’s a huge fire, if  it’s haze wafted over to us and still smells so strong.

For the first time since living here, I closed all the windows and turned on the air conditioning. I set the thermostat  to 84 degrees, and already it was blowing cool air at 6:00 AM because it was 85 degrees in the house, . A downside of having good insulation?

Anyway, I wanted to find out more of what was going on. I call it “staying informed”, but hubby says I’m nosy. Either way, I went  to the local on-line newspaper, The Pine Tree, and poked around awhile.

I found this interesting fire update article that I wanted to share with y’all.  The outstanding photos show the helicopters, jumpers, and air tankers working at the scene of the fire.

Fire Update…Ramsey Still at 250 Acres, 20% Containment, Moderately Active

Posted by: John_Hamilton of The Pine Tree on 08/12/2012 07:22 PM

Cottage Springs, CA…We just checked in with the USFS Dispatch Center in Sonora for the latest on the Ramsey fire as they get the last loads of retardant dropped to shore up the lines for the night. The fire is still being held in the 250 acre range but it is nibbling at the retardant lines and trying to break through. The risk is that with the lack of air drops that it could break through some lines overnight. Since it is down in the canyon an inversion factor can come into effect according to the USFS. This is where even as the temps cool out of the canyon the temps can remain high down in the canyon and keep the fire active. Air Attack 440 from Columbia will resume flight over the fire at 8am in the morning. Helicopters and Air Tankers will resume efforts shortly after. On the fire are 8 engines, 5 hand crews, 1 dozer, plus a water tender and other misc personnel overnight. We would like to thank James J. Shinnick & Bill Minkel for the latest photos!

Don’t you just love how the reporter writes like he’s chatting with you personally?