Posted on 10/25/2003 9:42:06 PM PDT by EUPHORIC
What a week. Been breathing smoke since Tuesday with the Rancho Cucamonga Fire then today it gets worse! While watching FNC on my sat I noticed that it was getting darker and oranger outside. Looked out and to the east and it was obvious that now the mountains to the east were on fire! Grabbed my camera and jumped in the car and got in deeper then I wanted to!
Drove about 7 miles to where the smoke was coming from and found dozens packing their stuff into everything from cars to shopping carts and moving out FAST. Fire was moving south towards the houses you've heard of being destroyed today and I've got what are probably the last pics taken of those neighborhoods before they were overrun. The people in the pics are mostly now homeless. And WE almost got stuck behind the firelines!
We were about 1000 feet from the flames in the above pic and the homes beyond the treeline are now all gone as are some of the more distant ones in the pic.
In the following pic please note the people standing in the brush close to the fire with NO SAFE WAY OUT! We were listening to the helitanker pilots talking and from their viewpoint and in their own words those people were about to be "carbonized".
Just a few minutes after the above images were taken the Sheriff chased us out and ordered evacuations warning everyone that there were no firefighting resources in the area to help! I have no idea what happened to those nut cases standing there in the brush to get a better view of the action but I sure hope that pic is not the last taken of them.
Full sized versions of these and a whole bunch more are available for viewing on my server. I don't have time right now to organize them into a web page so the images are just in a directory where you will have to click on the image names to see them. The DSC000XXX.JPG files are the raw images from my camera and the ones with meaningful names are the better ones which have been processed and enhanced. The messed up night time pics are of a tounge of the Rancho Cucamonga fire that has intruded to within 2 miles of my home tonight. They did not come out very well at all. :(
Glad you are ok btw.
Glad you are ok btw.
Link is slow here too right now. Just started doing that about 40 minutes ago. Both inbound and outbound are slow. Images are large but not THAT large!
We are happy to be ok too! But if this SMOKE keeps up we may have to go further south to a Motel or something!
ALSO: I forgot to mention that fire just north of us is a stones throw from a FIREWORKS FACTORY AND STORAGE DEPOT. The big stuff is stored in old WWII underground bunkers but there are hundreds of tons of smaller stuff store in big wooden warehouses that probably should have been replaces decades ago.
California burns every year.
The burn season is interupted only by the rain induced, human habitat slide into the ocean.
Then California burns again.
And yet they build again.
Go figure.
LVM
California burns every year.
Yep. We have mountains. We have psychotic greenies who prevent us from properly culling the trash out of our fire prone areas. We have fires. Usually set deliberately by human cockroaches no more intelligent then the green variety of cockroach which only serves to increase the pleasure of the pyro variety of cockroach.
I hope a nice big fat pregnant-with-baby-maggots BLOWFLY buzzes into that yawning mouth of yours Mr. Las Vergas Cockroach.
Do tell; did you buy this property of your own free will, or did someone hold a gun to your head and make you sign the paperwork???
Just curious.
To put things in perspective - I live in Las Vegas. In a few short years my claim to fame will be that I live within 90 miles of the world's biggest nuclear dump - Yuca Puke Mountain.
But I moved here in 1983. No such plans at the time - at least that the public knew about.
You, however, knew that California burns each and every year. Then the rain comes and everything slides down the hill. At least I knew that. It's been on network TV since I can remember. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over...................
ALSO: I forgot to mention that fire just north of us is a stones throw from a FIREWORKS FACTORY AND STORAGE DEPOT. The big stuff is stored in old WWII underground bunkers but there are hundreds of tons of smaller stuff store in big wooden warehouses that probably should have been replaces decades ago.
Now, tell me again, why did you buy that property? You knew about the boom boom stuff??
Still waiting for the "Big One"
LVM
It seems to me that the local authorities have handled the fire (keeping it away from houses) and the related troubles quite well. It gives me hope if there is ever a terrorist attack.
When does the shaking start?
Tis the season - Santa Anna winds, etc.
Started by man or nature is not the issue now, is it?
LVM
Getting much smokier here near Rialto. Looks like fog but smells like a fireplace!
God Help our mountains. Looks like fire stretches from West of the I15 to East of the 330. Nasty.
Still waiting for the "Big One"
Not worried about the "boom boom stuff" here. I'd rather enjoy the show just as I enjoy the show everytime they test their wares. :)
I see what is going on here. Another finger waggling liberal piece of infested parrot droppings who is jealous because he has to do "special service" in the backrooms of casinos rather then enjoy Southern Cal as we do. Fires or no.
Big NEENER and don't forget to wipe your chin next time. :)
Yucca Mountain? What is the problem there beyond the typical liberal paranoia of things they do not understand. Yucca is the best place for that stuff although from your siclky performance I'd personally vote for it to be stored under your BED.
Go eat your tofu and watch PBS and continue hallucinating yourself into grandeur.
Sorry, no BLOWFLY's up here.
Or Fruit fly's, for that matter.
Hey, pal - you chose to live there, not me. Don't get bent outta shape cuz I'm not in "shock and awe" about your pic's and post. Happens every year.
We have psychotic greenies who prevent us from properly culling the trash out of our fire prone areas. We have fires. Usually set deliberately by human cockroaches no more intelligent then the green variety of cockroach which only serves to increase the pleasure of the pyro variety of cockroach.
And yet you still bought property there - ??????
Hey, I got this property in southern California - great view - located close to schools, churches, malls, everything - the ultimate dream home!!!
Never mind that little gully over there, just the San Andreas fault - it has not went off for years. no big thing.
Interested?
LVM
I just don't have much when it comes to folks that set themselves up for situations like this.
If you are more than 10 years old, you would know that the Mississippi River floods - in a big way.
Would you buy property on the river's flood plain?
Keep in mind that I live in a gambling town, ok?
LVM
Just the human variety.
Or Fruit fly's, for that matter.
Oh.... PLENTY of those.. Also of the human variety.
Hey, pal - you chose to live there, not me. Don't get bent outta shape cuz I'm not in "shock and awe" about your pic's and post. Happens every year.
"Bent outta shape?" Me? I just think you are a self centered dink. I'm laughing at yet another seismophobe that scuttled away out of the frying pan to the oven more then anything else. You apparently know little of the geologic history of your "safe haven" there.
And yet you still bought property there - ??????
Sure! Why not! I am not paranoid about quakes like you are and afraid of fires. Please note that I intentionally drove into the danger zone to get my pics rather then scuttle away to the deep desert to avoid them. Bet you were all bent out of shape over the Y2K non-event too!
Hey, I got this property in southern California - great view - located close to schools, churches, malls, everything - the ultimate dream home!!!
Never mind that little gully over there, just the San Andreas fault - it has not went off for years. no big thing.
Interested?
Sure! I'd love it!!! Where is it?!?! I'll take it as long as it is not located on bedrock AT the fault zone where surface acceleration can exceed 120G and top 2.7 Mach...
A half mile or more away on alluvium or broken strata and I'll grab it from ya!
BTW: I've studied the San Andreas from its northern dive into the Pacific all the way to the Mexican border. In fact those fires today depicted in the pics you see show properties that are RIGHT ON TOP the SAF. And THAT is what the "gully" is. :)
I guess you thought that tounge in your cheek was applicable to anyone but you? Typical liberal. Always think they know everything and have all the answers when everyone else is way ahead of them.
Here is another pic for ya sweets:
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