My Califonia fire experience, Crest fire, vids and pics
Thread Starter
Registered User
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 2,280
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From: San Diego
I have some interesting pics of my personal experience.
This is the fire right before it hit my parents house. You can see the outline of my parents house in the right.
This is the next day, you can see my mom in this picture, thank god my parents house was saved.
Some were not as lucky.
This is what is left of my uncle's Bronco. His shed with all his tools and his boat were also lost, and it gets worse.
This is my grandpa's house. He lost everything including his truck and LS400, but some were even less fortunate.
See the car on the very right that is 1/2 hidden. Someone died in that car trying to escape. I believe people might have died in the other cars too. The death toll is at 14 now but I think it's much higher. The official total for houses lost is 1400+, but there are still houses burning. Eventhough we lost some property atleast we have our lives. I feel sorry for the people who have lost much much more.
This Monday on the 8 a little east of El Cajon. There were homes lost behind this hill.
This is what happens to aluminium in a hot fire. These were the wheels to my grampa's camper. The fire was hot enough to melt glass, and crack granite boulders which let off a sound like gun fire when they broke, I never seen a fire do that.
This is my great grandmother's old house. The walls are cement. We rented this house to a family who did not have much money. They lost everything, I'm pretty sure they didn't have insurence.
This is their pet pig. I can't imagine how a human would look like.
This is another view of the fire behind my parent's house. The mountain in the background rises 2500ft above the valley of where my parents house sits. The whole backside of the mountain was on fire, later during the night the fire came down the mountain an hit my parent's house.
Here is another pic and some video. This is taken from my grandfather's front yard around 2:00pm on Tuesday. The smoke was so thick it was like this all day.
Here are some videos I shot that same day.
Click and save
Vid 2
Vid 3
Sam
This is the fire right before it hit my parents house. You can see the outline of my parents house in the right.
This is the next day, you can see my mom in this picture, thank god my parents house was saved.
Some were not as lucky.
This is what is left of my uncle's Bronco. His shed with all his tools and his boat were also lost, and it gets worse.
This is my grandpa's house. He lost everything including his truck and LS400, but some were even less fortunate.
See the car on the very right that is 1/2 hidden. Someone died in that car trying to escape. I believe people might have died in the other cars too. The death toll is at 14 now but I think it's much higher. The official total for houses lost is 1400+, but there are still houses burning. Eventhough we lost some property atleast we have our lives. I feel sorry for the people who have lost much much more.
This Monday on the 8 a little east of El Cajon. There were homes lost behind this hill.
This is what happens to aluminium in a hot fire. These were the wheels to my grampa's camper. The fire was hot enough to melt glass, and crack granite boulders which let off a sound like gun fire when they broke, I never seen a fire do that.
This is my great grandmother's old house. The walls are cement. We rented this house to a family who did not have much money. They lost everything, I'm pretty sure they didn't have insurence.
This is their pet pig. I can't imagine how a human would look like.
This is another view of the fire behind my parent's house. The mountain in the background rises 2500ft above the valley of where my parents house sits. The whole backside of the mountain was on fire, later during the night the fire came down the mountain an hit my parent's house.
Here is another pic and some video. This is taken from my grandfather's front yard around 2:00pm on Tuesday. The smoke was so thick it was like this all day.
Here are some videos I shot that same day.
Click and save
Vid 2
Vid 3
Sam
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 7,029
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From: In the heart of the USSA!
Sam,
These pictures tell quite a story. I'm glad your family got out alive but the whole scene is very sad. Thanks for posting these. I have friends that still haven't been able to find out if they lost their home up in the hills. They haven't been allowed back in yet.
These pictures tell quite a story. I'm glad your family got out alive but the whole scene is very sad. Thanks for posting these. I have friends that still haven't been able to find out if they lost their home up in the hills. They haven't been allowed back in yet.
the earth can be a horrible place sometimes
Registered User
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 2,098
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From: Kelowna, BC
That's terrible! My heart goes out to everyone in California. We have a crazy fire in Kelowna this year (one of the biggest in North American history for lost houses), and your fire is 6 times the size, or something wild like that. Glad your family got out ok. Although, it kinda sucks that your parents house was left standing. It's good that they still have all their belongings, but now they are stuck with a house in a burnt-out neighborhood. Guess it kinda depends on how you look at it.
Our water-bombers were scheduled to fly down, and help out with your blaze, but they got overworked so much during our burn, that they are all in getting massive repairs done.
Our water-bombers were scheduled to fly down, and help out with your blaze, but they got overworked so much during our burn, that they are all in getting massive repairs done.
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Joined: Oct 2001
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From: Calgary
I do know that a LOT of Canadian "HotShots" firefighters are down there right now. We are sending our waterbombers your way, or so they've said on the news a couple times, but I dunno how many are down there and how many are still under repairs
And the Kelowna fire up here this year was so large, it pretty much covered southern BC, Alberta and a little bit of Saskatchewan in smoke.
And the Kelowna fire up here this year was so large, it pretty much covered southern BC, Alberta and a little bit of Saskatchewan in smoke.
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,642
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From: Tulsa, OK
When was the last time something like this happened in California? I can't remember it happening, but I was curious if fires were generally a problem out there. It rains enough out here we generally don't have too much problem with fires, but we do have the tornados to deal with.