Please pray for my friends and their friends

Or think good thoughts, or whatever you do for someone in danger. The friends with whom I spent Christmas afternoon have a home up in the foothills west of town. Yesterday a wildfire started near the west end of their 40 acres. At 9 PM, the fire was 5 acres in size. Overnight, fanned by high winds, the fire blew up to 2,700 acres. I learned this morning that my friends were trapped in their home in the midst of the fire overnight, although luckily a fire crew was with them and was able to save the house. People and animals (horses and dogs) are uninjured at present. However, the forecast is for strong wind gusts all day, making firefighting efforts extremely difficult. The fire is reported to be 75% contained, but that can change in an instant with wind.

And I suspect that my friends' 40 acres are devastated, with loss of trees and grasses. They're in no shape to do the heavy work of reforestation that is required to prevent erosion and the like. To say nothing of replacing fencing for corrals and the like. I don't know what this means for them. They've lived out there forever, and have found peace and solace in the beauty, the groves of standing pine, the meadows. I think it's all gone. Nature will rebuild in her own way, but not in my friends' lifetime.

I am beyond grateful that they are safe, and beyond sad at what has befallen them.