I grew up in Yorba Linda, CA and was in close proximity to many, many fires....luckily enough, we never had to evacuate, but it has touched some of my friends personally.

The wildfires in San Diego last year came so close to my work that I couldn't work for a few days. And the air quality was absolutely terrible there afterwards--we had to have our filters changed.

I lived near Oakland back when there was the huge fire that burned down the hills, but not close enough to have been affected. I saw all the smoke from the fires down here (SoCal) last year, and the air quality was pretty awful, but other than that I was unaffected.

had all our stuff packed last year (due to the san diego fires) but luckily didnt have to go anywhere. did end up with inches of soot and ash on everything outside. was not fun at all.

I live in Ohio and I don't ever recall seeing or hearing about wildfires in these parts. It's still so scary to see them in other places. I can't imagine how scary that would be.

Last year we went camping in Mendocino County, Ca...a week after the fires there began. We checked with the rangers all week beforehand to make sure it would be ok to camp, and it was pretty much undecided until the day we arrived. Driving to the campground we were convinced it would be closed because the smoke was so bad. The rangers said we weren't in any danger (most of the fires had been contained), and if we wanted to stay we could. Once we got to our campsite, the air was clear and you couldn't tell there was a fire going on!

I think the tree cover helped keep the smoke from settling in the campground. That's about as close as I've ever been to a wildfire.

I was a wildland firefighter for a little while in my life. I went into them on purpose with initial attack. They are amazing creatures with their own weather patterns. I think they can be beautiful for ecological reasons, but prefer the ones that don't have urban interface.

We had a close call with bush fires in Australia.

No, I live about a mile from the hills in the South Bay Area (45 minutes from SF) but I don't think we've ever had any terrible wildfires right by my house. There have been some in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but I wasn't affected.

Yes and it was a traumatic experience. I haven't been back to Cali since and don't plan to return.

Last year's San Diego fires found us evacuated, spent 3 days in hotels and the rest of the week cleaning the horrible ash that got everywhere. I didn't open my windows before the next rain, the air outside was so bad, the smell lingers for a long time. My apartment complex had 7 buildings burnt, the rest were fine. The worst thing is not really knowing if you still have a house and things or not, you have to wait to be able to go back and see for yourself. Kudos to the firefighters and police, they kept our belongings safe, great job.

We were evacuated from our house last year in October during the SD fires. The flames came within 2000 ft of our house! Pretty terrifying. Now we live in between 2 houses that burnt down last year and are being rebuilt as we speak. October is a scary month down here.

yep I have in both colorado and in montana i have been evacuated here in montana and almost in colorado its really not fun and the ash and smoke is less than fun

Close, but we got lucky. We were evacuated in the Oakland Hills fire in '91. My besty at the time wasn't so lucky, and lost her house.

When I lived in Highlands Ranch (a small part of Littleton), Colorado a few years ago, there were wildfires there but to us it just looked like the Rockies were glowing from behind. The weirdest part was all of the ash that got blown our way and blanketed the ground like snow!