I grew up in Colorado where we had occasional fires in the summer. Once when I was a kid there was a huge fire that burned up an entire mountain. 20 years later it's still mostly bare and the burned tree stumps can still be seen. Back in 2002 there was a fire started accidentally by a park ranger burning her divorce papers. I think it ended up being the biggest in Colorado history and for the better part of a month it turned the skies above Denver this weird orange color and no matter where you went you couldn't get away from that camp fire smell.
Now I live in Los Angeles and it seems as though fires are just a part of life here. Granted, I don't have a TV so I don't know how much the fire near Glendale is being reported but it doesn't seem to be the big deal the fires back home were. Yesterday I was driving home with dog and over the Hollywood hills I spotted what looked like an enormous thunder head. Back where I'm from thunder heads are a normal summer occurrence and at first I just thought, "Oh, some rain will be nice". But then I remembered I live in a desert and they don't get thunder clouds here... "What the fuck is that thing?!!"
If you look between the palm trees in the picture below you can just make out the Hollywood sign. The fires are about 20 miles away.
