Steve Thornton
When the air tankers arrived two S-4s out of Ramona, and B-4s out of Hemet, in Riverside County Crandall asked them if they could hit the head of the fire with Phos-check. No way. We can t even see the flames for all the smoke.
Imagine a wildfire driven by winds gusting at 80 miles per hour is racing toward your house east of Alpine. In the predawn darkness, you can see the red-orange glow of the inferno over a small rise to the east. Telephone poles in that direction have already burned, leaving you without power or phone. Not knowing whether to stay put or evacuate, you call 911 on your cell phone and get the Highway Patrol, who patch you through to your local fire district. The fire dispatcher asks your address. You tell her 5201 Alpine Boulevard. But your house isn t actually on Alpine Boulevard.
Photo by Craig Carlson
3363 Thirtieth Street, San Diego. Most people in a bungalow court don’t use the courtyard, except as a buffer for privacy.
I let the front yard go and worked on building a fence in back. I got so angry digging postholes in the rain one afternoon that I had to lie down for a minute under the eave of the garage (rain falling in a puddle at my ear) because I’d started to feel lightheaded. The rain made the grass in the backyard sprout. Jane was astonished because she thought it was dead, but it didn’t surprise me a bit.