It appears the silly bastards who started a fire on the mountains above us, by doing some ritualistic sacrifice of a goat a couple weeks ago, must have thought they didn't get the job done. This time it appears they had to bring the BBQ to finish the job but instead they've burnt down the entire mountain.
Sunday afternoon in the 106 degree heat, a plume of smoke started rising up near Glendora, a town about 3-4 miles North of us. The fire started quickly and the smoke billowing off the mountain was growing larger by the minute. The neighborhood was a buzz with the phrase "Fire on the Mountain" as we looked out our patios and pointed toward the plume. It didn't look like it was much worse than the earlier fire. However within hours ash and smoke was covering the entire valley and the LA County Fairgrounds. Every extra fire truck, forestry fire fighter and conservation fire crew was running full tilt toward the mountain. The news was reporting it was about 4,300 acres and over 1000 fire fighters were on the mountain. Oh damn it was going to be a long night.
By Monday, the plume was in multiple places along the ridgeline and growing. However it was beginning to move down the mountain toward houses and cabins of friends of ours. It was raining ash over our yard and beginning to look like Pompeii. A phone calls were in order, Do you need help? We can take both trucks and move your stuff out. Yes. Do you need help moving out the horses? Again the answer was yes. We hooked up the trailer and loaded the trucks up with water, towels and blankets.
Most of Monday we moved horses and livestock to Industry and Chino. The most of the horses were more than happy to get out of the smoke. It was a long day. By 7 PM I realized I hadn't eaten when a sheriffs shoved a ham sandwich in my hand and told me we needed to get out of the canyon, because the wind had changed direction and was headed our way. We threw the belongings of our friends in the trailers and headed out with the sprinklers running and the fire choppers heading in to start the water drops on the property. I felt like I was in the middle of a bombing run.
By the time we got off the mountain we decided to group over at another friends home and eat a real dinner. From their patio about 3 miles from the fire and a mile from us we got our first glimpse of the real scope of the fire. The fire-line stretched along a line including Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Claremont. It was the longest stretch of fire Doug had ever seen since they moved from LA to the valley when he was a child. The last time the fire had burned up there was when he was in Kindergarten about 1960.
By this morning the fire had grown to over 10,000 acres and it was obvious the crews couldn't get a handle on it yet, despite the backfires and the water drops. The temperatures were all ready climbing over 80 degrees. We had to go check on the livestock and horses while the kids unloaded the trailer into the garage. While we were out it was officially announced the Angeles National Forest was completely closed to the public for the rest of the fire season. They also are trying to declare it a disaster area.
We drove up the canyon tonight to check on friends who lived on one of the back canyons to find they'd had a water drop slightly miss and hit their house. While their were a few broken tile, everything was still standing and okay. The fire had come within 20 feet of the house.
By the time we got off the mountain we decided to group over at another friends home and eat a real dinner. From their patio about 3 miles from the fire and a mile from us we got our first glimpse of the real scope of the fire. The fire-line stretched along a line including Azusa, Glendora, San Dimas, La Verne and Claremont. It was the longest stretch of fire Doug had ever seen since they moved from LA to the valley when he was a child. 
