April fires bring May flowers?

In southern California its always fire season and today was no exception, even though it was in the high sixty's today and it is April. I received a call at around 2pm from one of my editors about a blaze going on not more than three miles from my house. Like the old saying goes " If it were a snake it would have bit me"

As I got in my car I was amazed at the column of smoke and I instantly knew this was going to be a good sized fire. I have already been on three or four small brush fires this year, most of them had been put out by the time I arrived. This fire on the other hand was a different story, as I approached I had to go through a CHP road block and then as I got closer to the fire I realized I couldn't see a thing. The wind had shifted and I was enveloped in ash and smoke, not the best thing when you are still trying to find your bearings.

My one big goal in shooting this fire was to get images of large flames with the fire personal in the frame. I have been on many brush fires and never really been satisfied that my images convayed the intensity of the situation. This time however I really fell I got the images I have been searching for, there were a large number of big flare ups and they were at a distance I felt safe with.

The other good thing about this fire is that no one was injured and no structures were damaged. Its just like one of the residents of a house in the path of the flames said to me" Well if my house makes it through I wont have to worry about clearing all the brush around here this year" and good thing for him his house is fine and he has one less piece of yard work to do.