update on the firestorm.

I went to bed last night at 3:30am after catching up on my Grey's Anatomy with the excitement that I would be waking up the next morning with an exciting trip to LA to visit the Felt Club and Ghetto Gloss' Silverlake Art & Vintage Show. Within an hour, my plans for the day had completely changed. At 4:30am, I got a knock at my door from my mom telling me that the fire was closer.

Yesterday, all we saw were heaps of black smoke stirring up into the sky from the mountains across from us. But when I woke up at 4:30am this morning, spurts of blazing fire were visible from our house. And it only called to deal with the idea of a mandatory evacuation as a likely reality.

We spent the next couple hours packing our cars with more necessities, and waited until the sun came up. When it did two hours later, the sky looked clearer but before we knew it, more smoke was looming over The Country Estates, and we were put under a mandatory evacuation. We got out of Diamond Bar at around 8am this morning, and we are all staying at my aunt's house in Hacienda Heights.

We've basically spent all morning watching the news with all the stations focusing on the fires in our city and with our housing community constantly being labeled as "in danger." And even though the fire was within a mile of affecting the houses on our street, the fire has so far been under control thanks to our dedicated fire fighters. Eight hours later, we are still hearing the positive news that no houses in Diamond Bar have been affected.

Let's just hope it stays this way until this is all over.
And boy, do I hope it will be over soon.

To all other Southern Californians affected by the firestorms, please be careful and take of yourself and your family members. You will be in my thoughts as well.

xoxo,
Steppie

P.S. An awesome photographer, former coordinator, and awesome friend Louis Trinh of Tikko Studios has amazing photos of the fire that affected his city of Chino Hills. I'm glad to hear him and his family are safe, and I recommend you take a look at his blog.