Slide Fire: October 22, 2007

We woke up around 8 am the morning of Oct 22 to the scenes in the pictures below. Dark smoke clouded the sky and we were evacuated within half an hour.

The first two pictures were taken from our driveway as we prepared to leave.
This picture was taken from Arrowbear, where we could see the smoke plume from a few miles away.
We stayed at Jarod's Grandma Lotte's house in Canoga Park while we waited for word on the fire. We ended up staying there for almost 2 weeks! On the second day we were evacuated, we heard that fire crews had to clear out of Green Valley Lake, as the fire was burning over the main road, which was their only way out. The fire burned without check overnight and we feared the worst.

The Slide Fire and Grass Valley Fire, those near us and Lake Arrowhead, burned for over a week. We weren't allowed back up to Green Valley Lake until the water and power companies could declare it was safe to return. We heard from a variety of sources that our little cabin most likely survived, but we didn't see it again with our own eyes until Nov 3.