Yucaipa Fire Photos

For those of you who don't live in the US and/or have not seen the national news stories, we've got some pretty big fires going on here in California. Two of them are right here in the town I work in, Yucaipa.

The Oak Glen III Fire started Sunday afternoon - we smelled it first. We were watching some sports on TV and smelled the smoke, and when we went outside we saw the plume overhead. It had blown over Yucaipa Ridge and was above Forest Falls. I got on the website I always go to for up-to-date information, and learned that the fire had begun in upper Yucaipa about 2 miles east of the Stater Brothers. We were naturally a bit nervous since the wind was (at that time) blowing towards us. It later shifted, though, and this fire burned mostly eastward and a bit southward. The town of Oak Glen had to be evacuated.

When I came down the mountain Monday morning to work and turned on to Bryant Street, this was the first thing I saw. Oak Glen is to the left of the highest peak (Pisgah Peak) in the center of the photo.

As I continued down Oak Glen Road, coming up the hill from the freeway were strike crews from Alpine, Lakeside, Growlersburg, and about 12 other Northern California towns. One of the helicopters was from Mendocino.

From a different angle, this is the Oak Glen III Fire burning all around Pisgah Peak and towards Oak Glen.

Monday afternoon, Ingrid and I were working in the office. Jimmy called her and told her about a new fire - at first I didn't believe him - but as soon as we walked outside, this is what we saw. This is the beginning of the Pendleton Fire, about 2 miles southeast of the Oak Glen III Fire - and this one was apparently started by arsonists. Since Ingrid lives in upper Yucaipa, and this fire was burning towards her home, she left immediately.








I soon followed, and as I got to the top of the wash on Bryant, this was the view I had of the Pendleton Fire from the south.

I stopped at the Stater Brothers parking lot to take some photos - the flames were really high but I didn't capture any from here.

There were seven helicopters, a DC-10, and a 747 (from Canada) on the air attack for this fire. The helicopters were getting their water from the lakes at Yucaipa Regional Park as well as Crafton Hills Reservoir.

My friend Kate's husband Roger took this last night at 7:00 as the Pendleton Fire came down the ridge towards them. They soon evacuated.

My friend Aimee took this one at about 8:00. The Pendleton Fire started over on the left side and burned towards the right. Pretty scary. About this time we got the phone call from the District saying school would be closed today.


If you'd like to see some more great photos of the two fires go here:

Rimoftheworld.net