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. :(
They say they see the red sky.
I said to to them, leave, come to Western Pennsylvania.
We have clear skies and an array of stars.
They told me they love California.
They say they will stick it out.
We will have an annual get together in Myrtle Beach in March.
Six parents and nine children.
I can't wait.
Tis the season - Santa Anna winds, etc.
Started by man or nature is not the issue now, is it?
Santa Ana Winds FYI...
Only a drug scrambled mind left wing could concoct nonsensical babble like that. "It does not matter because it is the season"...?
GIVE ME A BREAK. Do you even believe that drivel yourself?
Guess I need to keep repeating the mantra "considerthesourceconsiderthesourceconsiderthesourceconsiderthesourceconsiderthesource"...
Outrageous.
OOPS. Make that "Only a drug scrambled left wing mind"... :)
I hope a nice big fat pregnant-with-baby-maggots BLOWFLY buzzes into that yawning mouth of yours Mr. Las Vergas Cockroach.
and....
Big NEENER and don't forget to wipe your chin next time. :)
and....
Go eat your tofu and watch PBS and continue hallucinating yourself into grandeur
and....
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.
I'm wasting time here. I did not scuttle anywhere - I've been here for 20 years and, yes, I fully realize and understand the geologic area I am in.
Pay attention to those two words I used - "realize" and "understand".
You are the one that bought property in the "flame on" area, not me.
And now, you post pic's (extremely slow loading, by the way) and print words that try to excite others by the dramatics of it all.
I'd bet that, given the opportunity, you would buy a ticket to sail on the Titanic. Knowing the history.
Oh. Ah. California is on fire again. By Jan / Feb we will be seeing rain pictures of ninnys, not unlike you, that bought houses on hill sides and are now sliding down the slope into the gully at the bottom / ocean, etc.
And bitching about it.
Get a clue. Better yet, get a ticket for the clue bus.
Again, big YAWN.
You need to get beyond that Kalifungus mentality of yours and recognize that it was YOU that made the choice to live there.
No amount of bitching at me / flaming me can change that, can it?
Good luck.
LVM
No, I'm really not that negative at all.
No, we don't have drive by "shootings" in this area.
My point is this - why, knowingly, put yourself in a bad situation to begin with?
If I lived in Nebraska / Iowa and got nailed by a huge earth quake, I'd be surprised. So would a lot of other folks.
If I bought property, next to the Missippi River, and got flooded out - I would not be surprised. Neither would anyone else.
This individual decided to locate in a known fire prone area. Numerous fires over the years. Year after year. Yes, the fact that this one is suspected arson flat out sucks. But that does not take away from the facts that 1) this area burns - repeatedly. Over and over and over, 2) bad time - Santa Ana winds.
It is like living on the east coast - Virgina - South / North Carolina - Florida. You know the risk of a hurricane.
Maybe I presume too much. I just figure that common sense would prevail.
LVM
Bull shit. You not only have people shooting each other, you have riots too. LOL, weak little riots anyway, in the neighborhoods just north of that giant tourist trap in the desert. Vegas is one big tacky amusement park.....
Like you, it's a little to loud for me.
LVM
Yo, skippy - don't let your aligator mouth overload your sized pea brain.
Oh, never mind. I see you have already done that.
LVM
Kind of. Did you read all my posts - like the one that I mentioned living on the east coast?
I used to live in tornado country. Don't plan on going back.
I'm not hard on anyone. I just took exception that 1) California burns every year. Watch the news. 2) This person made a big deal out of "all of a sudden" finding out that they were located close to a munitions dump of some sort.
You can plot where the fire prone areas are, from history. They have done that, they do that. Just like flood prone areas.
Why would anyone move into an area like that?
Must have that "gambling" instinct.
The bitch when it bites 'em.
LVM
We've got your number.
Don't forget to wipe that chinny chin chin sweetie!
For the record you are the tenth idiot I know that ran to Vegas to hide from the quakes.
Guess you runners like explosive Volcanoes more then quakes eh? Problem is you've NOT escaped the quakes...
You are in the middle of a zone that gets HAMMERED quite regularly. Time to bolt to the East Coast!!!! Whups! They get the big ones TOO! Gahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
Lets see... You want no earthquakes? Mmmm.. Try dead central California a little north and west of the center of the state on top of the Batholith. You will get a few jiggles from time to time but that is about the most local quake free zone in the USA.
Vegas? Hehehe... You are NOT safe. Look HERE see all those brown wiggly lines in Nevada? Those are active earthquake generating fault lines. Compare that to California on the same map.
Ready to move back now arrogant one?
What's this, vegas ghetto talk?....
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