Epitaph for a Fire

When I first saw its smoky billow,
on a day so crystal clear;
just poking beyond a willow,
I didn't think it should be feared.
But then days later on the news,
I saw that I was wrong.
It looked like someone had lit a fuse,
100 miles long.
And all throughout that day,
I tuned in to channel four.
I saw it race through Cucamonga.
I saw it burn Devore.
Those orange pitchforks of a mob,
set to rape and pillage.
Dancing, spitting flames of envy,
just blazing through a village.
So many days singed out in wood,
One by one by one.
Till cloud and smoke join hands above,
and damges by be not undone.
Well over 2,000 homes now gone,
just ash upon the ash.
Crying families in the rubble,
insurance keeps the cash.
Ash so thick it makes you sick,
I couldn't go to school.
I dreaded sweeping, some dreaded death,
it made me feel a fool.
And when the final Pheonix fell,
and could not be reborn.
We heard of over 20 dead,
and everybody mourned.
The funny thing about the fire,
I watched safely from a hill;
It left some countless numbered people,
with an icy chill.