Fire Activity, ANF

Yesterday there was fire activity near Violin Canyon on the border of the Angeles National Forest and SRA wildlands of Los Angeles County. A wildfire was reported in Oak Valley and quickly grew to 10 acres. There was little access to the fire since the Incident Commander was busy setting up his command post at the mouth of the wash, so I parked my truck and went for a long and arduous hike in triple digit temperatures. This fire season is pushing me hard with 6 greater alarm wildfires in various parts of the County. It makes it difficult to cover the stories since you never know what portion of the County a wildfire may be reported in. Yesterday it was Castaic and Claremont, complete opposite ends of the County; the day before 90th street west and Ave G in Antelope Acres, a few days before, the Getty Center area above the 405 freeway, no rhyme, rhythm nor reason to the pattern, just hot, wind driven wildfires pushing up steep canyon hillsides with dense black smoke. Hiking into the fire left me short of breath, wheezing and hacking as the thick pall of the smoke once again attacked my lungs. Dennis Mackey, a USFS Engine Captain saw that I can not move as fast as I once could to cover the stories, my back is worn out and my lungs and heart, well after 28 years of this stuff, trying to keep up with the 20 year olds on the fire crews, you be the judge... So it goes, respond, don safety gear, hike, copmose, set f-stop, ISO, focus, and shoot while trying to breath super heated air and choking heat. This was a small fire, six engines and two hand crews were already battling the fire before I arrived. I could see the loom up coming over the 14 and Interstate 5 freeway inter-change. I put out the EPN alert for a potential major fire, but the crews seemed to hold this fire in check rather quickly. Bear Divide hotshots were on my tail as I pulled into the command post on Oak Valley Road west of the Old Road. The hike in was not so bad, but the hike out was pretty tough since it was 102 degrees in the canyon and I was spent. So it was time to cowboy up once again and hike out. A cool drink sure felt good while getting out of my Nomex safety gear. I was soaked with sweat, my face was beet red when I was done for the day. Time to move on to the next story, no complaints, just a job well done.