On Wednesday, our engine toured the burned-out Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which lost about 477 homes on the night of the Sylmar fire last weekend. These were not small single-wides, but rather, large modular homes complete with brick foundations and manicured front lawns.
With us was Captain David Yonan, who has been credited with helping save the remaining 131 homes there. LA County units returned to make an incredible stand that morning. You can read his story here. 
I know that after firestorms, phrases like "war zone" get thrown around a lot, but I really can't think of any other force on earth that could cause such vast destruction. Acres and acres of rubble and burned out cars sitting in driveways of now-nonexistent homes. I could only shake my head.
As we walked around, I tried to draw our boot fireman into an existential discussion of theodicy, God, and the notions of fate and luck.
But as I've said before, in the end, everything must go...
