Huh.

6/25/07

So it looks like my hometown is on fire.

I tried calling my parents right after Emily spotted this in the paper - they weren’t home, but the answering machine picked up, which I guess means the house is still there. But from what I can tell from the Tribune report it sounds like it’s inside, or at least very near, the evacuation area. And they’re not answering their cel.

What an odd thing. I hope they’re okay.

Update: caught up with Mom at the office — they have air conditioning there, so the smoke doesn’t affect her asthma as much. Sounds like a “so far so good” kind of situation; there’s an inch of ash on the ground, and they’re saying the fire won’t be under control until at least Thursday, but at least at the moment it’s not encroaching any further on the town.

Update again: the high school is on fire. And I see that the level of reporting at the Tahoe Daily Tribune remains at its usual high standards: they have reporters “in route” to the scene, quote the same people saying the same quote multiple times in the same story, and in three consecutive paragraphs give three conflicting estimates of the number of burned homes. There’s also a story posted which boils down to “I went to where the fire was. It was on fire. There were firemen. Then I went back to my office.” Small-town journalism. Gotta love it.