Photo essay (King Fire)

For my photo essay I did the King fire that is by Pollock Pines, in the El Dorado National Forest.  My dad lives in Placerville, where the fire base was located, so I was able to get some close pictures of fire trucks and things for the fire. I was also able to meet a few people that were working on the fire. Most of the firefighters were not from California. I talked to someone from Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nebraska. For most of the people that were from out of state working on this fire said that this was the biggest and hardest fire that they have ever worked on. This fire has effected thousands of people in that area, not including the firefighters.  The fire has burned 97,717 acres. There was 12 homes and 68 other structures destroyed. Our barn is part of a fire rescue area so we take in as many horses as necessary during the fire, so they have a safe place to be. For this fire we had 15 horses come into the barn. Star and dust came from the same place, where they are best friends. Star is a therapeutic miniature pony, that goes around to different homes and places to visit people that may have disabilities. And dust is a pure 18 hand thoroughbred race house. It is kind of crazy to think that not only humans but animals were also effected by the fire. The fire started September 19, 2014 at 4:49, they believe it was arson. Half way through the fire it was named a federal fire and people from all around the country came and helped with the fire, there was over 5,000 people working of the fire , that includes support staff, firefighters, red cross people, police man and other helpers. The conditions and the location of the fire also made it very difficult. The terrain was a lot of rocks and it was very steep so it was hard to work on the fire. The conditions of the area were also very bad, it is very dry and hot so it made the fire hotter and able to move quicker. The fire was also near an old water way, that was wood, so they had to have some fire people stand by the water place to try and protect it from having the water gate damaged or broken. I found it very interesting that I was so close to the fire but yet so far away. The air quality was not very good and I rained ash a few times.

 It crazy how everything is affected by the fire.  They used a lot of different techniques to start working on the fire. One of the pictures that I took should be a VERY large bucket looking thing, and someone explained to my stepmom and I that those buckets were for fire retardant. They take a truck of water and a truck of fire retardant gel and mix it together and fill that bucket with it after is connected to a helicopter. The buckets that are connected to the helicopter can hold anywhere for 70 to 2,600 gallons, and they can weigh anywhere from 15,000 pounds to 300,000 pounds. Another picture I have in there is one of a place that is burned. This picture is not of the fire exactly but where they did a controlled burn to create a fire line so the fire does not spread, in this case, over to the other side of the freeway. They do this so that when and if the fire gets to that location it doesn’t not do further damage. This is a very important in having the fire not further spread. They also just walk around protecting the homes that are at a higher risk of catching on fire. Today the fire is at 98% contained. Sixty-six fire engines, forty-six fire crews, and 5 helicopters are still fighting the fire today.