"Is that all you got, LA?"

My initiation
05 March 2001

My initial reaction was to grab my camera, as the flames looked pretty contained down there underneath the street. I stood on the wall of my porch and watched.

Okay, so that's when I got nervous. The fire started to spread and get higher. Right above this building is the apartment building across my street. There are very tall pine trees on my porch. If it was windy, the flames would have been angled right towards my house.

Some friends are good in a panic. Some run around and flail their arms and make grand declarations and predictions of mass destruction. I am very lucky that stee is one of the first people. He kept me from being one of the second. He went outside to check on things while I stayed inside.

Since they hadn't asked anyone to clear the area, we felt like we were still okay.

I think this is where I got brave and decided to take a closer picture.

Yeah, that's where I freaked out and ran back inside. I think stee took the next couple of pictures while I paced on the porch.

That smoke started pouring right over my house. The porch was thick with smoke, and I we got wet towels for our faces, still waiting to see the flames start to die.

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