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Day 1 - September 28th, 2005, 6:11pm. 

The fire has been burning a little over 4 hours.  The smoke is clearly visible toward the Chatsworth area.  It has grown quite a bit but appears to be somewhat under control.   Authorities are alerting Chatsworth and Bell Canyon Residents they may have to evacuate.

A spotter plane carrying the fire retardant gel, phoscheck, heads toward Chatsworth.  The smoke is billowing higher and truly dwarfs the plane.

It's getting toward dusk and the smoke is traveling westward, getting quite a bit heavier.  It reminds us of the 2003 Simi Valley Fire.

The smoke adds an almost prehistoric glow to the horizon.

The glow of the smoke makes for a beautiful sunset through the palm tree in front of our house.

Day 1 - Evening, just before 9:00pm.

We look out the window and notice the horizon to the North glowing in the darkness.  It's eerie and hard to tell where the fire is so we venture out to Mont Calabasas, about 1/2 - 3/4 mile down the street for a better view.

Within a half hour, the smoke is brighter on the horizon, and the glow has broadened toward the North.  Several people have joined us on the hill, including 2 off-duty fire fighters monitoring the situation.

The Fire Fighters tell us they expect the fire to travel west along the ridge toward Oak Park and Agoura, that if the winds stay as they are, we have nothing to worry about.  Several people stop and ask if they're going to evacuate.  Not yet.  They advise us not to worry if we only see 1 or 2 fire trucks head in, but if we see a whole line of them, it's time to pack our bags and go!

We return home and decide to pack a quick-grab emergency bag... Just in case.  Looking out the window before going to bed around midnight, we see fire fighters beginning to stage other companies across the street.  We decide to sleep with the windows open a crack to hear if sirens or police cars get active.

Day 2 - September 29th, 2005

We wake up to a lot of smoke in the morning.  From the balcony we could see an occasional puff of flame on the horizon but it appears to be on the back ridge.  We call our friends who live a mile down the street, at the end of the road.  They were evacuated at 4 am.  We decide to pack a little more and load up the car.  Turning on the news, we find out our area is under a voluntary evacuation.
We decide to stay.

Day 2 - September 29th, 2005, 3:10pm

We watch the news coverage of the fire with one eye and keep the other eye on the hills!
We learn the fire has indeed spread west to the Oak Park and Old Agoura Hills area.
The smoke flares up and then backs down all day long.
 Around 3:00pm, the Santa Ana Winds change to an On Shore Flow. 
Ten minutes later we see flames cresting the mountain top behind Mont Calabasas!

By 3:20pm the flames are growing higher!

By 3:26pm,  a dense smoke begins to block out some of the flames.

The fire is covering more of the mountain top...

There's now a solid ridge of fire coming over the top!

It appears to be spreading across the entire ridge.

Flames are getting larger!

By 3:41 pm, a solid fire line is clearly visible, advancing toward Mont Calabasas. 
We wonder where the fire trucks and news crews are.
(There's a fire station less than 1/4 mile up the street from us!)
At this point, the fire has burned over 10,000 acres and we are seeing just a small portion of a 15 mile wide fire line!


 

Flames continue to Advance...

Now the fire begins to create its own weather, including a fire tornado!

3:49 pm and help arrives!

It's so smoky, you cannot see Mont Calabasas from the ground!

By 3:59 pm, the flames have advanced further on both sides of the mountain!  This is the view on the left of Mont Calabasas.

This is the view on the right.

4:23 pm — Flames continue to march down the mountainside and have engulfed several oak trees.  The smoke is getting blacker and it's hard to see.  Soot is falling from the sky.

4:37 pm — It's hard to tell if there are still flames through smoke.  The windows are closed but we greet friends outside who have already been evacuated.  It's hard to breathe.  The dark smoke on the left concerns us.  It looks like the fire is headed this way!
 

4:50 pm — The wind shifts and we can tell the flames are still there.  A friend of Mark's sees the wildfire on Atlanta news and calls to see what it's like in our area.  Mark only half joking tells him, "Armageddon." They haven't told us to leave yet but we're getting ready.

5:14 pm — Looking West instead of North, the sun sets in an eerie smoke.  For a moment it is quiet, quiet enough to give you goose bumps.

5:19 pm — A Water dropping Helicopter headed North toward the flames breaks the silence.
 

5:20 pm — The helicopter drops its load on the burning mountainside.

5:21 pm — Some of the flames are out but others continue to advance down toward Malibu Canyon Apartments.

5:23 pm — More water dropping helicopters join the battle against this monster wildfire.

More choppers come and go out of the smoke with life-saving water...
 

The sun is setting rapidly as the battle continues...

More than 20 police officers appear after evacuating the area just down the road from us.
 

5:47pm — Some of the smoke and flames have cleared, however this column appears to be advancing toward the west, closer to our ridge!

6:07 pm — For a moment the smoke lightens and we breathe a sigh of relief until a brigade of almost 20 fire trucks speeds down the road with sirens blaring.
 

Within moments we find out why... The flames are headed this way!
 

The fire rapidly approaches this new equestrian home, less than 1/4 mile from us!
Firefighters are there on the scene!
 

6:26 pm — The flames get higher and closer. 
We decide it's time to leave!

 

As we get Tiger and Crystal in their Sherpa bags, a fixed wing aircraft carrying phoscheck arrives on the scene, barely visible through the smoke.

The aircraft first circles and surveys the scene, then heads back toward the horse ranch...
 

We were in the car with the kitties,  cameras packed, when the plane came through. 
Thanks to Kitty of CA and Ed of Aberdeen for this AP photo...
This is actually what we saw while waiting at the stop sign!
By this time the police had barricaded the road and no incoming traffic was allowed...
That was fine with us! 
We headed for a nice meal at the Soup Plantation and a night at the Holiday Inn Express in Camarillo...

 

Day 3 - September 30th, 2005.

We returned home the next morning, just before 10am.  The entire canyon was filled with smoke and it was snowing soot.  The winds picked up a bit and blew some of the smoke out so you could see the blackened mountain tops of Mont Calabasas to the North of us.

It was odd.  At first it felt like there was just a cloud casting a shadow but it didn't take long before we realized the hillsides were completely burned up to the green belt of Mont Calabasas.



 

All the natural areas appeared charred.  Even the ridges in the far back were blackened.  It's amazing how close the fire came to the homes, but none of them in our area of Calabasas were touched!

10:18 am — I went outside to sweep off the balcony and the wooden swing my Dad made for us but it's still snowing soot.

Although the sky is clear in our area, water carrying helicopters continue to fly back and forth dropping water on other parts of the fire.

We looked out the kitchen window to West and were ecstatic to see only a minor burn area at top of the mountain. 

Before we left,  I prayed for God to spare the Horse Hill  (the horses were already evacuated).  I couldn't stand the thought of looking at my saving grace in ruin every day or those horses having no place to go or food to graze on. 

I felt such joy and gratitude when I saw He had granted my prayer.

Looking out the living room window to the Northwest, we soon discovered that the flames had stopped less than 1/2 a football field away from our apartment!

That's a little too close for comfort!  Thank God, literally, as well as all the Fire Fighters, that all the homes were saved in our community!

Mark left for work and I donned a breathing mask and my camera, heading out to take some photos of the aftermath.  

The Horse Ranch was miraculously saved.  You can see the charred mountainside behind it.  The red grass in the background is where they sprayed phoscheck to stop the fire from advancing!
 

The folks at the horse ranch planted pumpkins along their fence. How beautiful and full of life they looked in this desolate surrounding!  But a closer look reveals this beauty is actually spotted with phoscheck.

This is the sign at the entrance of the trail next to the horse ranch.  It, too, is covered in phoscheck. 
Smoke still smolders in the background.

 

There are many hot spots on our mountainside that are still active.  What a contrast between the green of this tree and the blackened ruins behind it!

News crews park along the street on Thousand Oaks waiting to make their reports.  Our mountain was the last hillside to burn in this area.  You can see that at least 3/4 of it was charred.  The only area that was saved was the "Horse Hill" in front of our kitchen window.
 

Fire trucks were still very active checking on hot spots and responding to other parts of the fire.

Here's a view from the next ridge, looking back toward our home. 
It's hard to believe how much has burned!
 

Phoscheck (the parts you see in reddish brown) and an active green belt around Mont Calabasas saved these million dollar homes but did nothing for the beautiful ridges behind this gated community.

 

I had the opportunity to speak with the gentleman who designed this greenbelt.  He was thanking God that his plan worked and helped save the complex. 

You can see the fire burned right up to it.  He came out at Midnight on Day 1 and ran the sprinklers for 12 hours straight until noon of Day 2.  It definitely helped!

 

Looking North into the Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space, I can't believe every hillside is charred!  Or how close it came to the apartments!

 

Everywhere I look, the flames have taken out the vegetation and beauty of the land.  Ashes, soot, and smoke seem to prevail...

...Along with the vultures!

Normally we see a vulture or two soaring overhead amidst the hawks, crows, ravens, owls, and occasional eagle.  Today there are vultures every where.

There were also a few tumble weeds rolling around in the ash and soot.

During the 2003 Simi Valley fires, we lived directly across the street from this oak tree.  I can still see it from our new apartment down the road. In 2003, I used that tree to judge how close the fire was getting by the amount of smoke behind it...
 

Today, the entire hillside and the oak tree itself have been burned.  That tree represented such strength and beauty to me, I cried when I saw it like this.  But I also rejoiced because even though parts of it were burned, my oak tree, along with many others, will survive!

I walked and photographed for over an hour.  It was still hard to fathom how much had burned and how little was left.

Almost as remarkable is the fact that with all the power-lines engulfed by flames, no one lost electricity!

You can see the bottom of the power line unit was charred.
 

Amazingly, this hawk's next which was active 2 years ago was spared!

Before we evacuated, we spoke with some neighbors.  The wife wanted to leave, but the husband was convinced they should stay because as he put it, "Fires follow rules... And this one won't come this way..."  I told him that people may follow rules but fires don't.  Looking at how it burned right through this fence is a great example of how fire will do what it pleases—not just what we want it to do!

 

The horizontal line across the middle of the mountain side reveals the hiking trail.  If you look closely, you can see a few tumble weeds are still clinging to the hillside!

Many fire fighters continue to work in the area, putting out dangerous hot spots, surveying the damage, and doing other clean up.  Residents are grateful and bring them water and Gatorade.
 

This is the back of Malibu Canyon Apartments, at the entrance of the Las Virgenes Open Space.  You can see how close the fire came...
Some of the leaves of the trees were charred.
 

Hills on both sides of Malibu Canyon burned...

 

This children's playground made an ironic contrast to the decimated mountainside behind it.

This oak tree stood proud in the middle of the ashes.  However, the following day, firefighters had to cut open its trunk and flush it out with water as it was burning on the inside. 

It is quite possible it will still live!

 

This area used to be a marsh.  Many different types of frogs were found back here including the red-legged tree frog.

More of the marsh covered in so much soot, it almost looks frosted. More than one person said it felt like you were on the moon with all the white and silver ash coating everything.

 

This was all that was left of the marsh's bountiful cattails.  When I got home I realized I should have collected it to plant the seeds in the spring.  When I returned the next day, it was gone already.

I guess we won't be hiking the trails for a while...


 

Smoke still looms in the background.  A firefighter tells me not to worry, it's in Simi Valley and they have it contained.

As heart-broken and sickened as I felt at the loss of our beautiful natural areas, I was happy to see these ground squirrels foraging for food and carrying on as normal.
 

This was my last bit of hope and inspiration before heading home.  This butterfly (actually an Alfalfa moth) has obviously seen better days but still carries on, sipping the sweet nectar of these vines... a wonderful sign of growth and transformation!

— © All photos on this page, with the exception of the Phoscheck Dropping Plane # 21 were taken by Mark and Jeanette Pintar and are copyrighted as such.  You may share them with others but please ask permission to republish.   
E-mail pintar@mindspring.com with your comments or for publishing rights.

Topanga Fire Statistics as of 6:00 a.m. on 10/3/05 from the City of Calabasas website:

• 24,175 acres burned
• 85% containment (full containment was achieved by the evening of 10/4)
• 1,594 firefighting personnel assigned (Down from over 3,000.)
• 3 single family dwellings destroyed and 1 residence damaged
• 3 commercial buildings destroyed and 2 damaged
• 7 out buildings, 4 RVs, 1 travel trailer, 34 passenger vehicles and 1 motorcycle destroyed
• 13 firefighter injuries total
• All evacuations have been lifted
• Evacuation shelters have been closed
• All roads are open and have unrestricted access
• Total fire suppression cost to date:  $9,313,357

For photos of the fire from the City of Calabasas, please visit http://www.cityofcalabasas.com/firephotos.html

UPDATE:  01/25/2006



This photo was taken in December 2005.

What an AMAZING RECOVERY!

Every where you see green is where the fires had burned!