I’ll be fine with 4 hours of sleep.

Got a call from my principal around 10:15 tonight.

There was a fire in the auditorium and the Fire Marshall needed some information about the stage lights and how the light board worked.

He tried to get the information from me over the phone, but in the end I ended up having to head down to the school to turn things on so I could answer his questions.  I ended up being there for a while, I didn’t get home until a little after midnight.

We figured out that is probably wasn’t a short in the system, and that none of the lights were left on.  What we think happened is that a couple of the spot lights that are on light trees on the stage were a little too close to the curtains, and somebody probably accidentally pushed the curtain right onto one of the lights on their way out of the stage.  Even though there were off, they had been on and if you’ve ever worked with them you know that they get incredibly hot, and can stay that way for a while.

Fortunately, thanks to the fire-sprinkler system, the damage (to the building) was minimal and we’ll still be having school tomorrow.

The main curtain was ruined, as was one of the black side curtains.  The nice hardwood on the wall by the curtain was burned and had to be removed, and a little of the hardwood floor was singed a bit too.  The stage and auditorium floor were drenched, according the the Fire Marshall there was 3 feet of water in the orchestra pit area.

The big damage was water damage to the sets.  The school production of “The Wizard of Oz” was scheduled to start next week, but since the witches castle and the front doors to the emerald city were destroyed, we’re not sure it’s going to happen.

Anyway, at least the building didn’t burn to the ground and I’m getting real tired so it’s off to bed.  Hopefully they’ll have the smoke smell cleared out of the building by morning so I won’t have to deal with that. 

G’nite.

One big campfire.

30 miles (48km) south of Salt Lake City a 4,000+ acre fire is burning, along the mountains that separate the Salt Lake Valley from Utah Valley.  With the winds coming from the south, the majority of the smoke is blowing right into our valley.

Salt Lake smells like one big campfire.  Now I like the smell of campfires, but only when I can move my chair around and get out of the smoke.

But one thing a smoke filled valley is good for is sunset pictures.  The smoke draws the oranges and reds of the sunset throughout the whole valley.  Here are some pictures from tonight’s sunset.

And a few other shots from tonight:

An airplane, seen through the smoke cloud.

Requisite moon shot.

The same airplane, out from behind the smoke, reflecting the sun.

Traffic on the I-215/I-80 interchange.

Here you can see the smoke cloud above the city.