Santa Barbara Living at the mercy of the winds

In that conflagration,which wiped out our house and more than 500 others-at the time the worst fire in California history-I sat in a car on our mountain road,watching the fire pick apart my bedroom,our living room,all our past and present and for me ,a writer,who had his next eight years or so in notes ,my future.Now it was all happening again.The phones were dead.Electricity was out across the city.Reports came that the fire had receded a little but still was most intense and threatening right next to my house.All I could do was sit in the town below-the traffic lights around me blanked out-and listen to the blades of the helicopters above,watching for the turning of the wind.