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Inland Empire Burn Reports
Snoozer from SoCalMountains.com shared this experience:
I had the fortunate
experience to see my home standing intact today after
being told last night, by a very credible source, that
there was a strong possibility that it had burned to the
ground. I feel so humbled to have had the opportunity to
see first hand that our life was not in the shambles
that we had thought it was last night, and I believe
that I owe it to the community to share with you as much
as I can, in the hope that I can bring some peace of
mind to as many families as I can.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I first turned
onto Live Oak off the 330 earlier today, but it
certainly wasn't what I was seeing. Of course there were
a few structures below my line of sight both on the east
and west downslopes of Live Oak that were emitting
smoke, and were probably having some problems, but as I
progressed north I couldn't help but to be amazed that
almost every house I could see while driving up Live Oak
was intact, thanks in no small part by the many
hard-working firefighters I came across. I didn't notice
a single house damaged by fire despite my worst fears,
especially after hearing the scanners and reading the
many comments on various web sites reporting on the
fires in RS.
When I turned east onto Valley Oak, my hopes were raised
when I couldn't see any burned brush nor smoke in the
area. Sure enough, I didn't see any signs of fire
enchroachment on any house on Valley Oak. I quickly
surveyed the surrounding area, and from what I saw, it
appeared as though both Summit Dr. and many parts of
Allview appeared to have excaped the fire's wrath. I
then returned to Live Oak and proceeded North, and
turned left onto Willow drive. I saw a motorcycle that
was standing upright in front of a severly damaged
house. I couldn't see any other structures on Willow
that had damage and I didn't go all the way around the
loop to Poplar St. because of a tree that was across the
road.
Driving towards town on the 18, I saw a cluster of homes
on the left that I had previously seen on TV (not sure
exactly what street they were on but it could have been
Valley Ridge dr) that were severely damaged. Other than
those houses, it appeared as though almost every
structure visable from the 18 was intact including the
Village market and The Covey building. I had expected
the Firehouse and Highway Patrol buildings to be gone
based on what I was hearing and reading on the internet,
but they appeared to be intact.
I Turned off the 18 on Wagon Wheel Dr. and returned to
the 18 on Deep Creek Dr. Again, from my line of sight, I
didn't notice any homes that appeared to have been
burned, but did see lots of smoldering smoke in the
downslopes and there could have been some structures in
trouble down there.
Proceeding into town, it looked like everything was
intact and I didn't come across one business structure,
during my entire travels, that appeared to have
experienced any fire damage. I made a loop around the 76
gas station and passed the firehouse, taking Hunsaker
Way to Hundsker Dr and then back to the 330. again, I
didn't notice any damaged structures and no smoke.
The most severly damaged area I noticed was Fredalba,
which got a lot of attention on the scanner within the
past 24 hours . While I had expected severe destruction
throughout the entire area, I was surprised that the
damage I saw was limited to about half a dozen homes in
a clustered area. I also saw lots of electrical wires
across the road and there were lots of firemen in the
area.
I traveled Old City Creek Dr, north of the 330, from the
330 to the 18. I saw some power poles down and lots of
smoking brush. From my viewpoint, I didn't observe any
severely damaged homes. This area was also getting
attention from a lot of fire fighters.
To summarize my observations, I saw an awful lot to be
positive about and the good far outweighed the bad.
Don't get me wrong, it's no walk in the park up there
and there's plenty of destruction to go around for
everybody to worry about, and some folks have
experienced a real tragedy. But I was very optimistic
that a lot of families are going to be as surprised as I
was, when they finally get to see their property. Of
course my comments above are my personal observations
only and not intended to be a statement of fact about
the condition of any particular property or structure
mentioned in this post.
And finally, a word about the firefighters I came
across, some who I got to spend a few minutes with.
These guys and girls are real hardliners when it comes
to protecting our properties. They are commited
individuals who put in long hours and endure extreme
conditions so that we may enjoy our homes. I can't say
enough about the many firefighters I saw climbing up and
down steep slopes, just to get at a smoldering pile of
brush or debris. Some I talked to came from far away
places just to help out.
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