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BURN REPORTS

 

 


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.
 

 

 

All information put on this site is gathered for the purpose of helping those affected by the fires find information.
 Information is gathered by word of mouth, and from other media sources.

 

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