Way OT, Like it's snowing in SoCal Options

[Howard]

Fires suck, and they suspect arson. View from my back yard @2:30pm. The fire is more than 20 miles away, and it looks like Mt St Helens here.

[Kargeek]

We were up in the San Bernardino Mountains this weekend at Lake Arrowhead hanging out at my In laws vacation home on the lake. We came up Friday night, no traffic and the fires were way west of us so, we figured no problem, and we’ll have a last hurrah before I take the boat out for the season. Hwy 18 was wide open and despite all of the issues with hwy 215 being closed to the north of us, we left Orange County around 8:00PM and make it up to the lake in 75 minutes The winds were blowing from the Northwest we are east of everything so, the area was beautiful. Now, due to a four year drought and the infestation of the pine bark beetle I’d say 25% of the pine trees in the area are dead and are a huge danger to fire. We have been in the area for over 25 years and I have never seen it as bad as it is now. So, Saturday was beautiful; we stocked up on the customary food and booze steak feast and played for the day. When I took this picture we were thinking the plume of smoke behind us was from the Cucamonga fire so, no big deal we are fine, the weather is beautiful wish more friends were here. Tom and Mike in the pic are having lunch. Well, the smoke behind us was from an arson fire set in nearby Waterman Canyon. So, by 7PM Saturday night, the power’s out and we BBQue dinner by candlelight. Around 10PM I fire up a AM battery operated radio while playing cards by candle light and we find that nearby Crestline is on fire and be prepared for nearby areas to evacuate. We had to leave around midnight and crawl our way up to Big Bear and out the backside of the mountain. We could see the entire canyon with a wall of fire. Took us 4 hours to get home. The fires here in So Cal are the worst ever and let’s hope that there is an end to the destruction soon.