31 replies to this topic

[publicityguru]

System is not letting me upload the other photos even though the files are tiny, but the fire seems to be done now.

[OceanGirl]

Is/was there another fire?? I was just out in town and there was another fire over across the river somewhere- towards the Greenback/Madison split it looked like from where we were........but I am always wrong as to where they actually are!! They can be tricky to locate from a distance but the helicopter flew over the 24 Hr. Fitness/McDonald's parking lot when we came out to the car.

[publicityguru]

Glad there was something on here about it.......I drove around in a neighborhood I didn't know to get a view of it.......from my vantage point, I thought it was a control burn cuz I could see a line of fire and the helicopter there. Glad they got it under control.

I wondered whether it was a control fire, actually.
But how come they'd burn such an enormous area? Construction purposes?

[Gina99]

I wondered whether it was a control fire, actually.
But how come they'd burn such an enormous area? Construction purposes?

Why would there be so many fire trucks/ sirens if it was controlled?

[stacycam]

It was not a controlled-burn. I was there shortly after it started, before any fire trucks arrived. No idea what started it, but it was not intentional. When I first drove past the fire, there were just a few cars checking it out. About 30 seconds later, the first fire truck pulled up.

I watched it from up close for about 1/2 hour. There were some pretty gnarly flames. I'm glad it was in such a good place, away from homes. Pretty scary.

[ER2002]

The back of my house faces Golf Links and I didn't even realize there was a fire until after I saw all the people watching from down on the street. I was planting flowers all morning and since helicopters fly over all the time I didn't even think to look around to see what's up.

At first, I thought all the people outside of their cars on Golf Links were looking at the drainage ditch there.

I just went outside and counted six plumes of smoke still coming up from the area more dense w/trees. I can even see the flames from here.

The helicopters are still going back and forth...maybe they're picking up more fire retardant and trying to stop the fire from the brush...?

I moved here from Philadelphia not too long ago and have never seen anything like this in my life except in news reports on TV.

That burned area is scary-looking.

Are these fires common? Do they ever spontaneously occur around here, or are they always due to human error?

The open space behind my house is so dry - I hope it doesn't start burning-up.
Interesting to watch - never seen this sort of thing up close 'til now. Amazing how quickly the helicopter could load up water and dump it. Maybe there are 2 helos? Two planes circling overhead - presumably directing the action below.
There are two helicopters and there was also some sort of crop dusting plane but I think that left.
The two helos are taking turns now.

I could also see some fire engines and volunteer fire vehicles from where I am in Empire Ranch.

Publicity Guru, howdy neighbor....looks like you and I live on the same street on opposite sides of "the" street. My house backs up to the nature preserve and definitely was in my thoughts as I watched the progress of this afternoon's fire.

[Folsom4Now]

Publicity Guru, howdy neighbor....looks like you and I live on the same street on opposite sides of "the" street. My house backs up to the nature preserve and definitely was in my thoughts as I watched the progress of this afternoon's fire.

Wow by now I hope its completely gone, I could see the smoke from Folsom/Cameron Park today. I was going to ask if there was more than one fire since there was so much smoke!

[DalOwnerX3]

Isn't that where Humbug the Bear was spotted? I wonder if it's related.

[Deb aka Resume Lady]

Isn't that where Humbug the Bear was spotted? I wonder if it's related.

Do you think he was setting off fireworks?

[4thgenFolsomite]

speaking of wildlife, if you live around that neighborhood of the fire, be a little more alert to snakes in your area. They also get displaced after a fire and move in a hurry someplace they wouldn't usually go. Just keep an eye out.

[redman]

My wife and I drove over there Saturday and watched the firefighting operation from the golf course. It was very interesting to see. One of the helicopters was a large Sac Fire Huey with a suction hose dangling below. It was doing this fast-paced repeated loop where it would dump water on the fire, circle back and drop altitude quickly, then hover over a small pond on the golf course and draw water. The pond was very small and I was surprised the copter used that as a source. I wonder if that pond was designated as a fire water source or if they just improvised this routine after the fire broke out.

There were two guys in flight suits standing around the pond keeping bystanders a safe distance away. They chased off one guy in a golf cart who came around the corner and probably didn't expect to see a huge copter hovering a few feet above the pond. Wonder what would have happened if a golfer at the previous hole drove a golf ball into the copter as it was hovering.

There was a home and a lot of trees very close to the pond, so this copter was cutting it close every time it came in for water. Again, fascinating to watch.

The other copter was smaller and had a dangling bucket. It had to go to Folsom Lake for water, so it took longer for that one to do a loop.

[bordercolliefan]

The t.v. news said that one helicopter was getting water from a "wetland area." It said they don't usually get water from Folsom Lake because there are too many boaters on the lake for it to be safe. Also, the route back from the lake passes over too many houses, and a water bucket dropped on a house could be disastrous.

Upon hearing this, one person interviewed expressed "concern" that the fire department would draw water from a wetland area -- thus disturbing frogs and other organisms. She said, "The firefighters put out the fire, but at what cost to the wetland??"

I thought... where do they get these people???

[Dave Burrell]

Do you think he was setting off fireworks?

he was probably having a smoke - literally!

[GaryD]

Wonder what would have happened if a golfer at the previous hole drove a golf ball into the copter as it was hovering.

I've always played that if you hit a helicopter you play the ball where it lies if you find it - or get a free drop if you can't find it....

[erfamof4]

Have they determined what caused this? My family lives right over in that subdivision and heard it was caused by kids playing with fireworks? Just wondering if there was any truth to that... We were coming home from downtown (Sac) on Sat and could see the plume of smoke in Rancho Cordova....had no idea it was coming from right in our own neighborhood!!!