The Angora Fire started around 2:15 PM on Sunday, June 24, 2007 as a result of an illegal campfire. The fire burned 3,100 acres, destroyed 254 residences and 75 commercial structures, and damaged 35 other homes. At the peak, there were as many as 2,180 firefighters involved in battling the blaze. The fire has cost over $12 million to fight.

We finally talked to Rob after he had spent eight days and almost 170 hours on duty fighting the fire.

When Rob first heard of the fire on his pager, he went down to the fire station and began to prepare the engine for wildfire duty. The call soon came through and he picked up two other 'full-time' firemen and headed south around 16 miles from the fire station. When they first saw the plume of smoke, they knew they were in for a battle.

To get to their assigned area, Rob said they had to drive through a 'tunnel of fire', with houses on both sides of the road fully engulfed with flames reaching 300 feet in the air. They fought the fire for 36 hours before getting their first relief. He said they felt they were in a war zone. Propane tanks blowing up and flying through the air, electrical wires down everywhere that they had to assume were still live, and many homes had ammunition caches that were exploding ... Rob said you could hear bullets flying through the air.

Before people evacuated their homes they turned on their garden hose sprinklers, the result was there was NO water pressure in the fire hydrants so they had to rely on the occasional water tender to fill the truck's 750 gallon water tank. Since water was such a scarce commodity, they did most of their fire fighting with hand tools. He said he knows he and his buddies saved at least five homes.

Their time off was usually four to six hours and the motels and resorts opened their rooms to the firefighters ... a shower and nap was great. One of the resorts where they stayed gave the firefighters a voucher good for two nights at a later date.

Rob called it the 'fire of a life time!' He said he has never seen so many fire engines in one place. Amazingly, the only reported injury was a broken wrist when a rock rolled onto a firefighter who was climbing a hill.

Barbara and I spent a week at Lake Tahoe and Rob gave us a unbelievable tour of the fire devastated area. We were impressed at how much logging and major clean-up work that has been accomplished. Many of the damaged homes have been repaired, while so many others have to start from the ground up. The following photos were taken on September 16, 2007.

The following photos were taken from atop the Angora Ridge.

We watched aircraft dropping a hydromulch on the burned hillside. Hydromulching includes the application of a wood mulch, recycled paper and water mixture, designed to minimize erosion from major storms. A guar gum-based tackifier is also included in the mix so the hydromulch will stick to the soil. The hydromulch mixture traps moisture and creates an environment in which natural seeds can sprout, according to U.S Forest Service literature.