As many of you know by now, I live in Las Vegas part time. I was listening to the news when I saw the video of the flames pouring out of the top floors of the Monte Carlo Hotel. Somehow, you never think of things like this really happening.

Oh sure, you see it in the movies and on TV all the time, and I've even been close to being evacuated for wild fires in California twice, and I was evacuated for a fire in Malibu once, and believe it or not we lived on the sand just steps from the ocean. Those were residential areas. A fire causing evacuation of all of the guests of a hotel like the Monte Carlo somehow seemed surreal.

Freeways and streets were closed and the locals simply used the alternate routes that we know. As a local, I find most of us avoid driving on the Strip if we don't have to. So, we know all of the "back routes."

But I think the most sobering thing was driving on the 15 Freeway the following day and realizing that the exterior damage was so clearly visible from the freeway and that it covered quite a wide span of the top of the hotel.

Whether it is made by man or nature, nothing is safe when fire starts to spread. Fortunately in this case it was contained quickly and from all reports the majority of the damage is exterior and will be fixed as quickly as the MGM people can.

In the case of a wild fire, like the Malibu fires, it takes a long time for the blackened trees and ground to sprout little shoots of green. While writing my Amazon Short "What Happened to Mandy Blake?", I conceived the idea for Justin to drive through Malibu Canyon as a form of relaxation, because I loved to do that. However, I couldn't help but think about how devastated that same canyon looked when I drove it after a fire. Still, everything seems to regenerate...vegetation comes back and people rebuild their homes. Life goes on.

MORGAN ST. JAMES
www.silversistermysteries.com
A CORPSE IN THE SOUP by Morgan st. James and Phyllice Bradner
Best Audio Mystery Book-2007 - USA Book News