In front of the news

I stayed up until about 1:00 a.m. this morning watching the horrific fire photos coming from San Bruno. The information kept changing as reports were updated, upgraded, downgraded and then the individual personal stories started drifting in.

I hate fire, I fear it more than almost anything. I got used to earthquakes after we lived through several, including the 1989 quake when the Bay Bridge collapsed. But I've never come to terms with fire.

The East Bay fire of 1992 broke my heart. I knew too many families who lost their homes and I spent too many hours combing through the rubble with them in search of anything, just anything that might have been spared.

I know the shock that today's survivors are going through and I ache for them when I think of all that they have in front of them. I also know that the survivors of the East Bay fire are now being retraumatized in the memory of what they went through that dreadful October Sunday.