Never a dull moment

Up until about an hour ago, it was a normal Sunday evening: watching TV and eating takeout. Then the power went out, which surprised me. It's raining here, but not a bad storm (they never really are, here in Montana). Then I looked out the window, and saw sunset colors-- which was even odder, since night had fallen earlier.

Suddenly, from CJ: "Mom, come here-- you gotta see this!"

So I went upstairs to look out the kitchen window. The sky glowed bright orange, and we could see massive flames shooting up in the distance. "It's the refinery!"

We drove over to a parking lot on Main St., still well away from the blaze (I'm curious, but not stupid enough to get in the way of emergency personnel). Sure enough, the fire was coming from the plant on the south side of town, something less than 2 miles from where we live. Cops and sirens everywhere. It was an inferno.

Blessedly, they seemed to be getting it under control when we came home-- at least enough that we are not braced to evacuate. The power's still out, though (I'm blogging on a battery backup). Wonder how long that will last?