Topaz Ranch Estates (Tre) Fire

Tre Fire viewed from commercial flight May 22 6:45PM

5 minutes later, another angle

The TRE (Topaz Ranch Estates) Fire started at approximately 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22. The fire burned in cheat grass, sagebrush and pinyon pine/juniper on mostly BLM public lands, one mile north of Nevada State Route 208 and three miles east of U.S. Highway 395 near Topaz Lake (about 60 miles south of Reno, Nevada). On May 26, full containment was achieved with the help of cooler weather and some precipitation.

Incident Information [inciweb.org]

After the Fire

While the Pacific Northwest was drowning in the river runoff from a deluge of warm rain and the resulting snow melt, Southern California was undergoing Chapter 2 of its fall fire season. They sure could have used some of that rain.


Fire swept through here, burning this tree and everything around it.


A wider view.


Remains of a motorcycle that was parked outside a gated mobile home park.


Peering over the wall at what's left of the mobile home park.
Click to enlarge.


A closer view.
Click to enlarge.

San Fernando Valley Wildfires

The fire flares up as fire crews work the line.


A helicopter makes a water drop.


After the fire. At another location that burned the night before, the fire burned all the way up to the roadway. In the hills above, it still burns. After we left we could see that it flared up again.
Click image to enlarge.

Incident Information

NASA MODIS Satellite Imagery

Southern California Firestorm: Ground Truth

Beginning on October 21, fierce winds fanned the flames of at least 11 large fires in Southern California. After a long dry spell there was plenty of fuel for the fires to consume. As of this posting, the winds continue to blow and the flames continue to spread, threatening many residential areas. As of this writing, some homes have already been lost but many more are in danger.

Incident information

NASA MODIS/EOS Satellite Imagery


Smoke billows from the Castaic fire; the sun filters through.


A wide view over the lake.


A closer view.


Smoke starting to fill valleys and canyons in the Santa Clarita area.


Smoke from the Agua Dulce fire seen from highway 14 looking across Vasquez Rocks County Park.


The view from the slanted rocks in the previous image.


Amidst the chaos, a tranquil scene.


Down the road, flames can be seen on the hillside.


A little closer, it becomes apparent just how huge this one fire is. And how close to neighborhoods.


Helicopters of various descriptions work to protect homes and fight the fire.


A Sikorsky Sky Crane rigged with water dropping tank.


Closer up under a tank-equipped chopper.


Off to the fire they go.


The winds are blowing so strongly that it's difficult to stand; harder still to hold the camera steady. Even on a tripod or braced against a log fencepost, with image stabilization at 1600 ISO, it's hard not to get some image blur. The effect of these gusts on the fire is at once amazing and frightening.

Zaca Canyon Fire

Zaca Fire, Santa Ynez area, Southern California
Incident Information [California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection]
EOS Satellite Imagery (August 7th) [NASA]
MODIS Satellite Imagery (August 8th) [NASA]
MODIS Satellite Imagery (August 14th) [NASA]
EOS Satellite Imagery (August 21st) [NASA]

Sunset over Santa Ynez Valley

Sunset over the Santa Ynez Valley. A large canyon brush fire was burning in the Zaca Canyon / Figueroa Canyon area. The wind shifted several hours before this image was taken causing the smoke plume to flow toward the coast. The dark band in the middle is that smoke.

Check out this high altitude aerial of the fires.

Sunset through smoke from the "Day" fire

The sun sets through a thick blanket of smoke on the horizon from the huge "Day" fire burning in the Los Padres National Forest north of the Los Angeles area.