Yesterday I had mentioned on our blog, that there were remnants of a fire by way of smoke in the distance. Evidently that fire was contained however early this morning around 1:00 AM, some brainless individual deliberately set fire to some dry brush along the Esperenza Highway in Cabazon. Cabazon is about 20 miles west of here, where there is a large outlet mall, a casino resort and an RV park as well as a small town. The fire as of this writing has engulfed over 19,000 acres, caused the evacuation of hundreds of people and destroyed several homes.

From here we have seen the smoke billowing all day and this evening once it got dark, we could even see the flames. The folks in the RV park are trapped because the only road going in or out of the park is closed! Currently there are 29 crews, (1,100+ personnel), 144 fire engines, 10 air tankers and 13 helicopters being used to bring the fire under control. With more wind in the forecast and no rain in sight, getting the fire contained soon is not looking good. The worst thing of all is four firefighters have been killed when the fire turned on them and trapped them as they were trying to prevent a house from burning. A fifth firefighter is in hospital fighting for his life.

For the life of me, I cannot understand what kind of mindset a person would have to have to deliberately start a fire. There is a $100,000 reward for the capture of the arsonist-turned-murderer because apparently, this is one of several fires that have been recently set. I hope he/she is caught soon! We may be in a desert but it goes to show that it is not barren, things are extremely dry and it is like a tinderbox. Though I didn't get any pictures today, this one shows you how dry the land is and why with some wind, a fire could easily spread quickly.