I have never been impacted by wildfire but I was visiting my daughter and her family in Escondido when a bad fire was being fought down there. This was the one that did a lot of damage in Laguna Hills then jumped a highway and continued on. It burnt a lot of the vegetation in the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

We stood in my daughter's backyard and watched the smoke and flames over the ridge. I mean it literally- we could actually see leaping flames.

I said that I have never been impacted by wildfire- but I just recalled a scary afternoon at my dad's place some years ago. I happened to be visiting when my brother came in and informed us that a fire was burning up the slope of a hayfield behind the barn.

I spent the next couple of hours with a shovel and a gunny sack beating back flames. Because the field was stubble, the flames weren't high but there was a good breeze blowing and the affected area was wide. My brother had asthma and wasn't able to help directly but he kept dunking the gunny sacks in water and returning them to me.

We got the fire out before it reached the woods but it was touch and go for awhile.