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Angeles National Forest on Fire in Southern CA. Photos by Meryl Ann Butler
I suddenly woke up this morning at about 6 am with an urge to get up and look around ... and out the back windows I saw the fire from Angeles National Forest, about 4 miles away. It was still very dark out, with just the brightness of the flames growing against the blackness, and I saw a sudden burst of flames in a rectangular shape ~ I wonder if that was a building ... The news said about a thousand people were evacuated, and 2000 acres have been burned. I turned on the sprinkler system, and then remembered I forgot to take out the garbage last night, so I did that, and then I got the camera.
Fires out my Window at about 6:30 am PST
Detail of 6:30 am photo
(btw, that's NOT the moon - or the sun- in these dark photos! I guess it's one of those orbs, there are several visible in the original photo).
The fire looked like it was traveling in a snake pattern. Now that it's daylight, I can t see that it had followed the top of the ridge.
90 minutes later, I didn't see very many flames, but I did see LOTS of smoke, of varying values from pale grey to almost black.
Fires Out My Window at about 7:30 am PST
The photos , taken from the back balcony, are taken a little over an hour apart, and two are clearly quick composites of two images.
The first photo was taken about 20 minutes after i got up, and the flames had subsided considerably from when i had first seen them.
The center of the first photo, where you can see the flames, is on the very far right of the third image, (that's the same tree in the yard on the right.)
The next photo was taken about an hour later. As I write this, there is still some smoke from a small area that seems to still be on fire, but the smoke is dissipating.
8:30 am
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UPDATE 12:12 PM PST
Wind is picking up, parts of Hwys 118 and 210 are closed, more evacuations, all schools in the area closed, animals have been evacuated to Hansen Dam area, one fatality. Here is a current photo of the plume of smoke that has erupted.
Plume of smoke at about noon.
More images online at click here
Update at 2pm PST: smoke seemed to die down, then suddenly there was lots more smoke behind the mountain.
More smoke around 2 pm.
