Tracie and I sending our thoughts and prayers to all our California friends and colleagues who have been affected by the current wild fires in my home state.

As I read this morning on the Sonoma Sheriff Twitter, “Cuando sea hora de irse, no lo dudes. When it’s time to go, don’t hesitate.”

The photo above was taken by a good friend in Napa in 2017 during the Tubbs Fire, “the most destructive in California history.”

Parts of Napa have been evacuated and badly damaged over the last week in the Kincade Fire.

I used to live in a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley that was evacuated last week in the Tick Fire.

And this morning, we woke up to read in the Los Angeles Times about what is being called the Getty Fire. It’s burning just across the 405 freeway, a stone’s throw from my alma mater UCLA.

Across social media, a number of people have been posting their — how else to say it? — bewildered terror.

We all grew up with the occasional however deadly and destructive wild fire. But they are simply more frequent, bigger, and more deadly and destructive than ever before.

I took the photo below when I visited northern California wine country in late 2017, after the fires had been put out.

Please stay safe, everyone! I’ll follow up with aid resources here on the blog.