remembering 09.09.10

this image will forever be in my mind. 

seeing it over & over again on the TV screen that evening of 09.09.10. feeling confused, helpless & scared! i was driving home from work that day. my route is san mateo to pacifica. sometimes i take 280 and sometimes im on the dreadful 101. that day in particular, was a carpool day with jose, so we took 101 home. within minutes of walking through the door, the news of an explosion in San Bruno was all over the news. i, like many others thought that it could possibly be a plane that had crashed into homes! the footage of flames was unbelievable.

i remember hearing helicopters over head that were needed to drop water on the fires! all night i watched the news. i think i even fell asleep to it. i couldnt imagine how scared the people in that community were. something like this could have easily taken place in our neighborhood! something so scary yet i've never thought once about it. those poor people didnt have a clue what hit them :( im sure it happened so fast. 

driving to work the next morning, i took skyline to 280. for the first time, ever, i wasn't worried about the traffic. i was in awe at the trees that were burnt black. they had no leaves, just sticks. the sun had just come up and the smoke from the fires that had been put out sometime over night was hovering over the explosion area. it was an eerily feeling to be driving by. in an instant, the whole neighborhood had changed and no one had control over it. 

only thing standing are the chimney's

i drove by the area with my mom one day. it was so sad to see... NOTHING. just fences and memorial flowers. houses that were still standing were melted on some sides. they had their tags on the front. some windows were boarded up. it looked like a real disaster had struck.

close to hell?!

its been one year and where there had once been homes, it is still an empty lot. if i lived there, i don't think i could rebuild my life there again. too many bad memories. i would have to start fresh elsewhere! i hope those people have found some peace in their lives since then. it really isnt fair what they had to go through. cant help but think, who's next?! are we ever completely safe!? 

makes you not sweat the material things. be thankful for the loving people in your life who are irreplaceable. 

a home can always be rebuilt.

thinking of you San Bruno fire victims <3