We were lucky. The fire stopped about a couple hundred yards from our house, as the crow flies, when the finally let up. Another hour and it would have been a different story. I’m grateful for the genuine bravery of the first responders who stood against a raging inferno and slowed and ultimately stopped it. I’m also grateful to brave neighbors who came back to help the firefighters put out spot fires in fences and yards on the block next to ours with garden hoses that people had left out.