This is horrifying. This is hell. A blazing barrier of flaming trees. A wall of smoke. Fallen telephone wires strewn across the road.
Hell, indeed. And hell on earth as it would be.
Shot on September 12, YouTube user mulletFive narrowly escaped this aforementioned hell, documenting the Valley fire in a shocking video shot in Anderson Springs in Lake County, California. The shocking video looks like a cinematic portrayal of a post-apocalyptic world on fire, even with the burning sign that once welcomed visitors.
In response to a commenter, mulletFive explained how they ended up where they did.
“[We] did wait way too long to get out,” he wrote. “We are the last house at the very back of the Springs, down in a gulch. There was no smoke or ash coming our way, and there were no sirens or air support nearby, so we honestly didn’t know how close it was. Once we drove up out of our gulch, we realized how close it was. There were no sirens or air support because there was zero firefighting effort in Anderson Springs. (This is NOT a dig at the firefighters, by the way! There was just way too much fire in every direction, and they didn’t have the resources to send to Anderson Springs.) So anyway, that is how we ended up leaving WAY too late. In retrospect, we should have gone out for a drive to find out what was going on, but we were a little preoccupied with packing.
Goldkoron, a fellow resident, also commented: “I was there. My home burned down, most people I know lost their homes. The fire was too fast and hardly anybody got an evacuation order. When our house got the order, we were 2 minutes away from getting out of there with our dozens of pets. The fire arrived some 10 minutes later. I remember watching my neighbors house going up on flames. The look of hopelessness in my father’s eyes with the realization that his home business and our only income was about to be destroyed. Most of our belongings were left behind with pets taking priority. The winds were literally like a hurricane, I worried a flying acorn would give me a concussion. this fire traveled at like 15 miles per an hour and no one expected it to reach them from it starting so far away.”
Other residents took refuge by jumping in their pool.
The Press Democrat reports that the wildfire “[destroyed] as many as 1,000 homes and [sent] more than 19,000 residents fleeing for safety.” They continued: “Lake County vintners were grappling Monday with the effects of the massive Valley fire on the county’s $60 million grape crop as the blaze destroyed at least one winery, gutted some vineyards and forced winemakers to develop contingency plans for harvest.” All in all, Lake County is “looking like a ghost community.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, as of 9:30 a.m. this morning, “the Valley fire in Northern California has burned 67,000 acres and is 15% contained.”
Our thoughts and well wishes are with anyone affected by these tragic circumstances.
Keep up to date on this historic wildfire season with this interactive map.
