How did you fare in the fires?

Also, I "googled earth" your place and compaired the satellite photo w/picks from your playday photos, taken by Garlic Peat(?) from the hilltop. Kinda Cool.
I was trying to get an idea of how much brush you had around you. Any idea how long ago that satellite photo was taken?

Hope all is okay...sl

The woman and I showed up at Carl's about 7pm and she helped move horses and I made a motocross/fire break around the back side. About 3am we had to leave because the fire had reached the ranch. We went and got a room and came back in the afternoon but the Sheriff would not let us in. Most of the grass has been grazed so hopefully they didn't have any problems.

My travel trailer and D4 are still there and I haven't heard from Carl. So hopefully no news is good news.

keep us posted please

thansk
KoO
Published Author

Yup I'm good. I spent all nite on fire watch, about 30 hours, most of it sneaking around in the shadows for fear of being evacuated.

We started evacuating around 6pm Saturday, about 70 horses and a few small animals. They were moved to other local stables and the fairgrounds.

Then I stayed onsite and monitored the fire's progress and suppressed it where I could, using a water truck and MikeMc's awesome D4. Sorry I didn't get any pics of the D4 angle dozing right over the flames but I was a little busy at the time. There were no firefighters, they were busy protecting homes etc. It is quite an experience being so close to such a powerful force.

I stayed until the main body of our branch of the fire was out, around 11 am, and I think my efforts were successful. If you can find a satellite photo of the area you will see almost 30,000 acres of charred brush surrounding the 200 acre unburned island that I protected.

Thanks Mike for your efforts on the firebreak. Thanks also to Cupcake who jumped right in with a bunch of people she didn't know to lead and load horses. And you were just trying to get away for the weekend!

Here is a shot of the Playday area with the FD backfiring the very last piece of the Chino Hills front. About an hour earlier I watched the the last bit of the fire I had chased all nite go out, at the back (SW) gate.

Very relieved to hear your efforts plus Mike's saved Heaven's Ranch, Carl. Was worried. I first spotted the smoke about 10 AM on Saturday from my place in Monrovia 22 miles away.

The left plume is from the Corona fire—the right plume from the Yorba Linda fire that later burned through Chino Hills.

Early Sunday morning the 6 AM TV news had a video clip showing flames lapping around the bases of a pair of hillside water tanks near Pine Road. I brought up a Google Earth satellite photo and calculated that was about 2 miles from Heaven's Ranch headquarters, and from the wind direction, the fire must have already passed through the area of the ranch sometime during the night. That was an eye-opener—until then I hadn't realized the proximity of the fire to you.

Sure glad all the horses, structures and your old iron survived.


- Richard