The OTHER So Cal sun rays :-(

Nikolai

Only a few days ago I was admiring beautiful sun rays shining through the clouds



Today I have a bit more grim reason to share some other sun rays - fire is getting close to our homes:-(













Our hopes are with these guys now:








The rest from this morning:
http://nik.smugmug.com/gallery/846000

DavidTO

Nice shots. I'm jealous that you had the time to take pics like that, mine were all during my commute.

You guys doing OK? Pretty smokey out in T.O., eh?

Nikolai

T.o.

DavidTO wrote:

Nice shots. I'm jealous that you had the time to take pics like that, mine were all during my commute.

I dropped my youngest off the school and decided to "explore" a bit. Most of the pics were taken from the Lang Ranch Pkway and Alberson Fire Rd. I was lucky enough to get in early - when I was pulling off, the whole Westlake Blvd was closed..

You guys doing OK? Pretty smokey out in T.O., eh?

So far so good. It was relatively quiet windwise, but weatherman keeps telling that it will be a hot (100) windy (30mph) day.. Hope he's wrong :fingerscrossed

Nir

Nikolai wrote:

So far so good. It was relatively quiet windwise, but weatherman keeps telling that it will be a hot (100) windy (30mph) day.. Hope he's wrong :fingerscrossed

I hope so too! Keep us updated.

Nikolai

Thanks, Nir

Nir wrote:

I hope so too! Keep us updated.

I will!

Thwack

Your firetruck pics could be posted to the firetruck thread if you have time...

http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=12287&page=10&pp=10

I hope your house is spared!

Higgmeister

Hi Nik,
Nice (if you want to call it that) series of a terrifying yearly event. What many people don't realize is that when the fire reaches the gullies and burns the poison oak, it can be life threatening to those that are allergic to it. Poison Oak is very prevalent in the gullies along the hillsides; not a good thing.

Stay safe and hope noone gets hurt or loses any property,
Chris

Nikolai

Thanks Chris!

Higgmeister wrote:

Hi Nik,
Nice (if you want to call it that) series of a terrifying yearly event. What many people don't realize is that when the fire reaches the gullies and burns the poison oak, it can be life threatening to those that are allergic to it. Poison Oak is very prevalent in the gullies along the hillsides; not a good thing.

Stay safe and hope noone gets hurt or loses any property,
Chris

Yeah, that poison oak/ivy is a threat of its own.
Many of us here alreayd had troubles breathing..

Hopefully they will keep it contained and don't let it swallaw any lives/houses..

Wind is also relatively quiet - no gusts yet..

Onrey

Nik, those are very nice shots, BTW that is what I do for a living here in Alabama, I have been on many fire details out west, Washington, Idaho, Oklahoma, Nevada, Texas, Kentucky and Florida in 1998 and of course all the fires I have in my Region of Bama. Lots of long hours traveling getting to the fires your assigned to, little sleep, then they say were going on the fireline at 6 am, so we get up at 4:30-5:00 am to eat /prepare our gear ect, then we get your not going in till 8-9am we call that the "Hurry up and wait" we could have gotten several more hours of much needed sleep! We get to the fireline discuss the attack plan, make sure orders are clear and we understand them, then we start digging fireline, 20 men divided into 4 five man squads, each man digging / clearing a little bit of debri/dirt and move on, then next guy does the same, after all 20 men pass thru you have a nice 2-3 foot wide fireline dug down to mineral soil, all awhile keeping an eye out for escape routes and new saftey zones if needed. take breaks and drink lots of very warm sometimes hot water. They do feed us very well however I have ate the same thing for 3 days straight, Breakfast was Roast Beef Sandwhich, Lunch was Roast Beef sandwhich, Dinner was? you guessed right Roast beef sandwhich, all 3 meals for 3 days ROAST BEEF SANDWHICH, or there was the Burrittos we ate for 2 days straight, I'll skip the details Most the fires I have been on out west has been very remote, so remote that sometimes we get "Spiked out" in an area so remote they have to chopper us in and chopper all our supplies to us aswell, Showers ? no way in hell,its amazing how long one can go without a shower/ bath and no one complains that you stink becouse they stink just as bad, most times they wont even let us bath in a river/creek ect, might disturb the fish ect, one time they wouldn't let us skip a stone accross a river for fear of hitting a fish . Weve seen Water tankers crash into mountain sides, had fires blow up on us and have to call in fire retardant drops directly on us to keep from getting burned up. I have litteraly ran from fires down 40-50% slopes at night, that wasnt very pleasant.

Nearly every wildland firefighter has similar stories and yet if called upon we would not hesitate to do it again, its very rewarding and I'd be there today if called upon.

I hope I didnt hijack this thread, but the photos Nik posted I felt it was an excellent time to detail a "A Day Of A Wildland Firefighter" from first hand experience. Ya'll stay safe out there and if you are thinking of Building a house in the mountains, Please provide defenseable space around the house/property for fire fighters who will at some point need it to save your house and possibly lives.

thdizzy

Onrey wrote:

Nik, those are very nice shots,

Very nice?? Those were the best shots posted of the fires out here.

Nikolai

Brad,
We're honored to have you here at dgrin!
Not many people's professions include a fair possibility of (a very painful) death as "an occupatinoal hazard". Rest assured you job is one of the most respected in the country!
I bet if you only could afford to be a "lil distracted" in the line of duty, having a simple P&S in your back pocket would allow for the shots none of us would never be able to get, even with the most powerful optics.
Because that's what "being in the line of fire" is all about!
If you ever down here in SoCal, make sure to call and we have some !

erich6

We salute all firefighters and thank you for continually putting your lives on the line to save others.

Nik, good journalistic photographs here. I also think you did a good job showing the red sun and relating that to the fire.

Erich

Nikolai

Erich,

erich6 wrote:

We salute all firefighters and thank you for continually putting your lives on the line to save others.

Nik, good journalistic photographs here. I also think you did a good job showing the red sun and relating that to the fire.

Erich

Thnaks a lot!
I wish I had a better lens (USM + IS). I missed a few good shots simply because I could not focus fast enough, especially on the choppers... And shooting 300mm (with 20D's 1.6 crop factor it becomes 420mm) handheld w/o IS was also a big issue, so quite some of the shots got a bit mushy..
Anyway, what's been taken has been taken:-)
Glad you like it!

Phil U.

What a difference a few days make eh? Hope property is spared and everyone stays safe.

Nikolai

Phil,

Phil U. wrote:

What a difference a few days make eh? Hope property is spared and everyone stays safe.

You don't say.. If only that rain we had on Monday actually went on like yeasterday..
Anyway, the situation is improving, no more properties are in danger anymore. It is still smoking hard though..
Cheers!