Ralston Fire

I was out on Volcanoville Road, north of Georgetown, Calif., Sunday afternoon for two hours trying to get photos of the helicopters hauling water to the Ralston Fire.

The photo looks across the Rubicon River canyon to the northeast into the fire. The Middle Fork of the American River is beyond the ridge. I shot this picture under a high-power electric line.

Just after 6 p.m. I drove up on a strike team as they were departing the Donaldson Staging Area. The team was composed of five CDF engines (nos. 1454, 1455, 1459, 1470 and 1493 if you're interested) from the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit.

I came up on the engines too fast to get any pictures (I too busy writing down the engine numbers). A captain from the Camino Fire Center was also at the equestrian staging area and picnic ground. He said the strike team was keeping a presence in the area for the night. El Dorado Supper Services, Inc., tanker 45E was also staged there.

Since the past 20 years of my work life has been in food service in large government institutions, I asked the captain who's feeding the firefighters. He said Growlersberg Conservation Camp was feeding those in the Volcanoville area and Mobile Kitchen Unit 45 out of the camp was feeding on the Foresthill side.

By the way, I never got any good helicopter photos. The trees were too thick to safely locate an observation point.