SoCal Fire: on my parents doorstep....story inside

Hi everyone,
I'm now able to sit down and relax for a bit it seems....its been a longgggg day

Lets recap shall we

My buddy Josh and I got the amazing hookups and we got to go watch the Red Bull Drift Tournament VIP Style, free drinks, free food, lots of girls to look at.......and some sweeeet drifting.

When I got to the event my dad called me and said there is a fire in Yorba Linda, which is where my parents live, but he said not to worry as it was like many miles away....we live in East Yorba Linda bordering Chino Hills State Park....behind my parents house is a large canyon of nothingness....
well I'm watching some sweeet drifting and whatnot and see i have a voicemail
its my dad

They had been evacuated.
Through all this my mom was on her once a year trip with her best friend to vegas, and my sister at Biola like 40 minutes away so it was just my dad.

Me and Josh left immediately and had to stop at my place on the way back to get his car, and we made some incredible time getting back....
until we got off one exit too late
it took us 30 minutes to get off the freeway at Imperial Hwy, in fact at Lakeview and Imperial Hwy, they were using freeway onramps as exits :eek: so both ways were exits, people were turning around on the 91 FREEWAY to go up the onramp to exit :eek:

Eventually we get off and at this point my dad and sister at our Aunts house a little ways and safe distance from everything, I go to Josh's since he is moderately close but more inland from hills and brush....

I go to my friend Erik's parents house.....mind you Erik had to get the **** out of his apartment complex as when he started evacuating the carport was on fire :eek:

anyway i'm at their house which is still close and we turn on Channel 11 to see my neighbors house right next door to me burning to the ground
They pan back and forth between that and a house that is on the other side of the street maybe 100 feet downwind also on fire



so i'm watching in the background as my house appears to have no flames on it just sitting on the floor able to do nothing:(

Also from the news we learned that our whole hill had no water :rant: :rant:
apparently we get our water through a series of pumps, and it burned down right away and there was no backup systme:rant: :rant: :thumbdown

so this whole time there and still right now 2AM is no water up here

so i'm just sitting there watching the news finally they break away and i dont know if anything else happened......
throughout this i'd been trying to find ways to get to my place but theres only one entrance and i could've gotten in some back trails on foot but didnt go for it then...

anyway me and erik drove around and eventually went to his area and put out a fire under a bridge with some shovels....which was satisfying to do something of value i guess.

Eventually I go back to Josh's house mind you i arrived at eriks at like 2 and left at 5 so there was a lot that could've happened in between then

Me and Josh drive up to my area and I spout some BS how I need to get up and he says ok but you have to walk
:eek: :thumbdown :rant:
we live at the TOP!!!!!!!!! 2 mile hike way the heck uphill
so i tell josh im going for it and he drives my car back....

An hour later I finally can see my house and see that it is STILL STANDING THANK GOD, although i have no idea what condition it is in....
my neighbors house is just demolished rubble.


Immediately I start to walk around and get a damage check,,,,NOTHING IS DAMAGED AT ALL
I look down the slope and see some fires though burning at our fence line,

I grab a fire extinguisher and go down there.....didnt get a shovel yet as would've been nice you will see shortly

and I took out all the fires on the slope of our house.

Now i've gone from one side of the property to another and I'm at our fence again looking at my moms garden....all is good

BAM
the thing lites up like a christmas tree
and my fire extinguisher is empty
**** :rant:
I chuck it over the fence jump the fence sprint up the slope to get a shovel and literally dive down the slope again to get to the garden,
it takes me like 2 or 3 minutes.....long time considering
But I get it all put out/.....phew

At this point things are ok, I proceed to get lots of buckets and fill them with water from the pool and place them at various locations throughout the backyard.
For the next hour I put out little hot spots and am running around balls out and killin spot fires!!!

I was kind of expecting the pool to be drained a bit, we have like a 25,000 gallon pool and I actually called the Water Department and Fire Authority to make them aware of this as they had no water and no tankers yet earlier in the day.

So I have been patrolling the area since then around 10PM on.....95% of the fires are out up here and thankfully nothing here is damaged on my property.

I'm still staying up as the hills across the way behind them are burning, however i think all the stuff around me has burned so I think we'll be ok.

Its super late and i cant take pictures but I'll be taking a lot of pictures in the morning time.

I just had to write this all down it has been an intense day!!!


D A N N Y

Holy crap .

Wow. Best wishes to you and yours.

sounds intense

daymmmmmm definitly reminds me of the sims lol

Glad you are ok.

wow. Hope everything turns out okay for you and your family.

your mom staying in Vegas with all this going on???

Damn. Hope it is really all ok.

Damn, glad your house isn't down! Pics?

Glad all worked out for you. That ****'s scary there right now!

the house on the right is my parents house that i fought for all night




more pictures here

http://s424.photobucket.com/albums/pp323/FocalFury/Fire/

k heres one more
this is why you listen to what the city tells you about fire code, this is why you want red apple iceplant......our house was all fine....the stuff beyond the fence on the right is the stuff i battled all night
you can see other peoples slopes did nothing to help

Wow......

crazy . . .

Nice house too.

that sims picture is sooo funny wow. well the situation you had was far from funny, i am very happy ot hear that your house was untouched. house fires are a very sad thing, wish your neighbors the best of luck for me