I'm not sure why everyone thinks these fires are merely inconveniencing rich people. I'm out here and I'm pretty darned familiar with the area. I own a horse ranch in Riverside County a stone's throw from the San Diego County border. I'm not a rich hobbyist. This is what I do for a living. If you've heard of the Rosa or Rice Canyon fires, we can see the flames. The 2003 fires burned our place. I have friends with smaller ranches and horses in the evacuation zones that I haven't heard from since the fires started. I have no idea whether they or their animals are OK, let alone their ranches. We're keeping some evacuated horses at our ranch.

Sure, a few expensive neighborhoods got burned out - Malibu, Poway, Rancho Bernardo. But remember how huge California is, and 7 counties are affected. San Diego County itself is huge, bigger than a lot of states, and it's mostly working class. So are LA, San Bernardino, Ventura, Orange, etc., on the average.

Things have gone moderately well, though I still don't know why those air tankers weren't sitting on the runways fueled, loaded and engines running Sunday morning. It's Wednesday evening and some of them are just showing up. The state was warning of a huge fire danger a week ahead of time.

But it's not like Katrina was a complete surprise, either. Nor the fact that the levees were going to collapse. I think the lesson is, you don't wait until the storm surge hits or your house is on fire before you decide to evacuate. It's just stuff. Grab your family and get the heck out of Dodge.

Kevin B.