Cape Horn Aftermath

These two pictures are of a peek-a-boo look at the luxury home and the lot next to the house where the fire reached the road.

The third and fourth pictures show where the fire crowned and crossed down to the water.

That the fire only got away once was either a miracle or a very highly trained and dedicated group of expert fire fighters, or perhaps both.

Charts, statistics and press releases just do not tell the story of this fire. I drove out this afternoon expecting to see massive damage. Certainly, up hill where the fire really took off was harder to control and even harder to get pictures.

After driving to the end of the road, except the gated community, of which I did not want to intrude, one thing stood out all the way to the end.

With only one crown fire that crossed the road and would have caused all of the homes that were consumed to burn, all along the road there were burn patches where they held it from crossing Cape Horn Road.

Time after time the fire would creep up to the uphill side where some very nice homes sit. They are all still there. In one case, a luxury home on a large tract with a blacktop driveway curving up to the house was framed by trees along the way. It appeared from the road the the fire had knocked on their back door, only to be refused by the firefighters.

The lot just to the west burned all the way to the road, where once again it was turned back.The one place I referred to as having  crossed the road and burned down to the lake, is just a block or two east of the slide area.

With nice homes lining Cape Horn Road, not one of the uphill homes were sacrificed. The pictures  I took are not spectacular, because they show where the fire wasn't allowed to spread.