I spotted the first puffs of smoke as I drove east along Santa Monica (Old Route 66), on the way to pick up a big print job in Hollywood. By the time I'd loaded a few hundred pounds of post cards into my VW Beetle the fire had clearly gotten out of hand. With all that extra weight in my car I decided it was no time to be chasing fires; I went directly home. The cover photo from the next morning's L.A. Times inspired this painting. As it turned out, the fire had been started by a couple troublesome teens visting from the midwest.