I’ve been wathcing the fires up here in Alishan.
The choppers have been flying up here all day dipping their water buckets into the loacl river and then water bombing the fires which have now reached near some peaks.
That sucks, is your house and family safe?
A similar event happened when I was living in Taoyuan. Sitting on my balconey one night I notied a red glow in the distance. It soon became apparent that Tigerhead Mountain was on fire. Turned out it was a blaze in the garbage dump section. Still dangerous though.
You’ll be happy to know, the garbage dump section is gone, though they still have “controlled burns” on the mountain from time to time.
We go through this a couple of times a year up on the hill.
It’s kind of cool to get off work and see your entire community up in flames, but I’m used to it by now.
Growing up in California also steels you to the effects of fire. During the Saugus fire of 1971, we watched the blaze creep over ridgeline after ridgeline as it progressed toward our neighborhood. On the 4th night we were ordered to evacuate, and spent the night huddled in a park with our belongings along with several hundred other families. We woke up the next morning to find nothing left of our house but the foundation and the fireplace. It finally burned out after consuming 700,000+acres of Ventura county scrub…Arson.
Are the roads still clear in and out of your small town?
If you need to clear out of there for a few days, let us know. The forumosans of Sunny hill will only be too happy to put you up. 
But be warned, if it dries out here and we have a strong NE wind, you may be going from one fire to another 
You’ll be happy to know, the garbage dump section is gone, though they still have “controlled burns” on the mountain from time to time.[/quote]
Right, didn;t they build an incinerator? I remember one was planned to go up across from an elementary school when Annette “how dare you not vote for me Taoyuan” Lu was representing the area.
Well fortunately the fire was on the other side of the mountain burning up to the peak.
The roads are mostly fine but the rain has also caused some landslides. Falling boulders are another problem. One that’s best avoided as some tourists have been crushed by them.
Fire and Rain… lol