Oakland Hills Fire

by  Dennis Fritzinger

So good to know I
live next to a wildland--
the fire marshal informs me
the Berkeley hills fire
was in the "city-wildlands interface"
and so not susceptible
to fighting by ordinary means.
I have a friend in L.A.
who described tankers
flying over his house
and dropping retardant
while he soaked his roof
with water from a garden hose.
The day the fire began
I was visiting a friend
for the purpose of putting out a newsletter;
at one point he came in
and announced: come outside and see
all the smoke.  Already
the sky was thick with it.
Soon we were up
on the roof, hosing it down,
till we heard a loudspeaker
commanding us to evacuate.
I have a friend who lost
the manuscript of a book
she had been writing for ten years
in that fire, and another friend
who lost original tapes
he had made, along with a van
painted to resemble a rainforest.
The smoke billowed for days,
and every fire engine
in ten counties made an appearance.
The weather was hot,
dry, exceptionally windy,
and the fire was unforgiving.