Things Not Usually Seen From My Back Yard (OT)

4:30 P.M., circa one mile north of my back yard. Oog! Note bulldozer and firefighters climbing fire road at lower right.

Crafton Hills College students evacuate the school in some haste. The flames were closing on the school at about 20-30 MPH, pushed by a stiff Santa Ana wind.

The attack begins in earnest: One spotter plane, one borate bomber, three water-dropping helicopters (two hidden below ridgeline), one bulldozer, and around 100 firefighters on the ground.

The Big Dog -a Douglas DC-10 jumbo jet converted for fire-fighting- shows up to look over the situation.

This sequence shows a single DC-10 fire retardant drop from beginning to end: 12,000 gallons of bright red borate solution delivered in about ten seconds over the distance of around a mile.

Watching a 180 foot long Jumbo Jet come within a fuselage-length of the ground at just above stalling speed in order to hit his target accurately will instantly give you a whole *bunch* of respect for the flight crew!

The fire is still burning tonight, but the wind has dropped to almost nothing and that last drop by the DC-10 managed to stop the flames short of the college.

They'll be hitting it again as the sun is up tomorrow morning.

~Pete