We live in California but there have been no large fires anywhere near us.

However, we live in a pine and oak forest and the pines are dropping like flies - on average about 40% are dead. In some places it's as high as 90%. We have a very small lot and, so far, only one tree has died and it was rather puny. We had it removed to protect a nearby house.

No one around here can remember a time when the forest was so dry. If a fire starts, it will be explosive.

A few weeks ago we had the worst lighting storm we have seen in 55 years in California. It started two trees smoldering. One burst into flames 5 days later and the other nearly two weeks after the storm. Fortunately, firefighters got on both of them (and a third one) really fast and held them to about one acre each.

So far, so good but it can happen at any moment.

Bev and Jerry