Foothill Ranch & Saddleback Fires, October 2007 Part I
I was coming home from a dinner in Koreatown in Westminster last Friday night; we were out with our neighbors and had some great food... another story for another time... on the way home we could see what was obviously a terrible fire raging on one of the hillsides out ahead of us... we were just getting on the 22 freeway, heading back to the 5, so it wasn't evident yet where the fires were burning.
As we came into Irvine, heading south on the 5, it was clear that the fires were a lot closer than either of us had thought... they were raging along the hillsides that abut Portola Parkway... just as quickly as we were able to make out where the fires were, we were plunged into a stinking cloud of ash and smoke billowing across the freeway. We broke out of the smoke near Sand Canyon Road and we could make out the fires clearly, so we pulled off to get a little closer.
Apparently, we weren't the only ones thinking about getting a closer view, as the cars started lining up on the side of the road to watch the fires blaze. I don't think anyone knew then that the fires would get as out of control as they ended up getting. They are still burning on Saddleback at this very moment, almost ten days later, despite the change in the weather for the better over the past few days.
I didn't have my camera with me that night in Irvine, but I started carrying it later in the week, documenting what I could when I could. Here are a few photos from the past week.
