Fire

By Roxana Sanders

My name is Roxana, and I was 12 years old when this happen. I was just reading at home with my family. My three older sisters, Laura, Dora, and Jovita were playing tag. My brother Jack was watching TV.

Suddenly we all noticed the smoke. It smelled like rubber was burning. When I looked out the window upstairs, I could see ashes raining down. It looked almost like snowflakes falling. I was startled to see gray smoke traveling through the sky not letting the bright sunlight shine through. The sky looked almost like it was night time, it was so dark.

It was Wednesday, the 27th of December at 4:30 am, when two cars accidentally crashed in Alpine. One of the cars started to catch on fire and strong winds attacked the hot flames, making the fire spread faster. By the early afternoon strong winds took over, and the fire fighters were too late to stop it.

More then 11,000 acres burned. And 12 houses were lost in the fire, and 1 horse was burned badly.

When the fire came closer to our house, we were told to evacuate. We packed valuables like pictures, clothes, and meaningful things. I was frightened that the fire might reach our house. I was sad for the people whose houses were burnt and scared for the houses that were close to being burned.

From a distance you could tell that the smoke was moving southeast. It was hard to tell where the fire would go next, because the wind kept changing directions.

When we evacuated our house, we went to the Jamul Intermediate School. We stayed there for a few hours. It was getting late and cold, so the Hanscoms, friends of the family, invited us to stay over at their house. We spent the night there and stayed until Thursday the 28th.

When we got back to our own home, we were so happy that our house wasn’t burned. But it was not over. Th fire went back to Alpine, it burned a few more houses. The ordeal was not over until Sunday 31^st. The weather had changed and it had started to rain. The smoke filled the air of the entire the San Diego County.

I was really glad when it was over. I was grateful that all my family was safe and that we had a home.