Cave Fire

[SBitz]

Here a pic from Cathedral Oaks@154 about 7:10.  Updates welcome.

[SBitz]

Another pic showing two helos, one dropped water on the East flank and the other on the SW corner near Salvar Bridge.

[SBitz]

7:40 pic of the fire in the hills above the NE corner. First a blurry shot with a helo, then a clearer pic on manual exposure.

[topix]

Long time no post...but evacauted due to the fire.  Thanks SBbitz for starting this thread.  We are a block below Cathedral Oaks and near Turnpike.  Saw the fire just begin around 4ish and seemed like it would stay at the peak (a half dozen fire trucks could also be seen at the ridgeline keeping it in check), but around 6 pm the fire broke and made a run down the hill...moved quickly 15 minutes due to the wind.  Then another 30 mintues and lots of spotting all the way down the slope.  Ash was raining on our house by 7pm, and let's just say that we're REALLY looking forward to the rain on Wednesday. 

[SBitz]

Looking at gMaps my guess on the location of that easternmost flare is about here:

https://goo.gl/maps/vAHpSfQGfFN9pzBLA

Judging by the glow there's a fairly continuous line West from there down in the SM Foothills open space area. Wind is picking up, from the East so it may help since embers would blow toward the already burned area. If it changes to blow from the North, we're ready to evac.

[DS]

Thanks for your posts and photos. It's hard to get information on where the fire is currently! I agree with your analysis after watching the IR helicopter video floating around on twitter.

[SBitz]

Two more pix. Wide one shows new East flare over to Salvar Bridge (red lights are fire vehicles). Zoom pic of the East flare area is the 2nd pic.

[SBitz]

You may need to scroll these two pix horizontally to see the Eastern parts. The two arcs of white lights are homes on La Vista Road.

[SBitz]

Another wide shot. Quite a run back up the hills lately.

[SBitz]

Here's an update pic from the same vantage point as an earlier one showing the area from Salvar Bridge at the left, to the area above upper Cieneguitas. The arc of lights is the one on the right in the earlier pic, the one on the left is turned off and it looked like a fire truck escorted an evac vehicle.

[SBitz]

This is a zoom pic of the fire cresting a higher ridge toward the left of that latest wide shot.

[SBitz]

Looks like there might be significant burning at the left side of this pic, apparently burning toward Foothill along the East side of 154.

[SBitz]

Caught this jumbo jet drop below Painted Cave at about 11:50am. They've been going at the top of it with several fixed wing aircraft dropping PhosChek at the top and helicopters dropping water at the bottom and some higher hotspots. Hope they can knock it down before it gets to the top of the mountain.

[SBitz]

Painted Cave helicopter water drop, about 1:10pm.

[SBitz]

Those of us in town can pretty much see what's going on, and that attention is currently on Painted Cave and stopping the fire at the mountain ridge (Camino Cielo). In case it may be helpful for people evacuated or friends & relatives afar, here are a few more aerial attack pix. First is a flare in context with the Painted Cave community. Next, the "jumbo" jet dropping PhosChek next to the hotspot. Then a jet jumble with two more that had been waiting for the jumbo to drop (lead route marking plane top, next drop plane following at right, and a jet beyond the ridge waiting to go after that.

I'll be offline for a while, possibly including a nap since I'm a bit fuzzy on four hours' sleep. Please feel free to post comments, observations and pix. If you're not yet signed up here, thanks for your patience in my approving your Join request so you can post.  I'll probably be back about 5pm.