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California Slide Fire: Three videos from my Journey back to my home on October 23rd 2007:

I will post more pictures later today (11:15 am -- pix are now posted at the end of this article).

First, here is a

map of the 'Slide Fire' as of Oct24'07, 2am . You can see the village of Arrowbear Lake, bottom right, surrounded on most sides by fire.

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On my way. This part of the trip took ~5 hours ... dirt roads and only about 5 mph

Slide Fire video 1 - taking the 1N09 the back way to get into Running Springs, CA via Rt. 330N

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Almost there ... now I just have to speed through some fire... no joke.... to get through to Arrowbear.

Slide Fire video 2 - Coming off the 1N09 and heading up Rt 330 N. This video cuts off because not only did the smoke get thick (you can't see it clearly in the video but as the elevation increases, it gets darker and smokier); but also, about 1 minute after I turned off the camera, there was fire on both sides of my car -- you could feel the heat radiating thru the windows!

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Finally, I arrive home to get some valuables and spray my yard and home with H20 (yes, I knew it wouldn't help).

Slide Fire video 3 - Behind my house in Arrowbear just east of Rt.18. Although in the video I say the fire is only about 0.5 miles away, the fire is actually 1, perhaps 2 miles, west of where I'm standing.

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Finally, here are pictures taken from 7p to 11p on October 23rd 2007 from the hill behind my house. These are all facing west. The Santa Anna winds are blowing from east to west (luckily) as the fire is moving from west to east. You can see that the fire gets progressively more intense as night falls and the fire comes over the ridge east toward the village of Arrowbear Lake, CA.

10.30pm Oct 23'07

To give you a sense of what it was like where I was standing -- only a mile or two away from hell itself ... and only a possible few hours from the flames coming over Rt. 18 (just 100-200 ft. below where I am standing) and taking over my back yard -- I give the following description of the night:

When I was taking the above pictures, there was no electricity (turned off for a 'Declared state of Emergency'); a cool Santa Anna wind was blowing in from the east; and the red & yellow colored leaves of fall were falling down quietly from the trees; sardonically, or perhaps emblematically, at about 9pm PST an owl flew into my yard and perched on an Oak tree above my head ... he came directly from the west, fleeing the inferno. The sky above me was crystal clear filled with stars and an almost Full Moon.

- Professor Gary

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Gary Plourde is an independent author. He writes about Traveling, Sailing, Inventions and the Patenting process. Patent your new idea and explore an opportunity to generate revenue for your business, scholarship, study abroad, or sabbatical.

Labels: California Slide Fire