Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Title: Re: [RC]   Fires Calif. update

on 10/26/03 7:46 PM, beth glover at bgloverhrsewmn@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I was really worried about Tiffany, she is out of town I think...where are you Tiffany? She showed me the trails up there in Alta Loma. I think one of my friends who lives up the street from her..about a mile and a half maybe, we think her house is burnt up. She had just bought a ranch for her morgan horses, and the sign on the road said, "Road Closed, severe fire danger" , That was the sign in front of her house. 

I'm here, and yep, the top of the street went. I'm three blocks from that sign. My mom said you could see the houses go. All horse property up here, but I know our town and club has a great rescue program and hopefully they did their job and all the horses were saved. I'll let you all know later when the world wakes up. Thanks jet lag-I've been up since 3am with nothing to do but read the papers and cry. 

I will tell  you all the most heartbreaking thing. Well two. I guess one family the man went to wet down the roof while the wife went to rescue their 10 Arabians. She tipped over her truck and trailer and was burnt to death. Everyone else was OK, that was in SD. 

There is a home above my mom's house that my childhood friends owned. The highest house on the hill overlooking Upland and smack above Euclid avenue. For the 30 years I have lived here, that three story house had a Christmas light that stood 5 stories high. It was on the front and every year it was lit from November to January. I know that it was a clause for selling that house that the star would always remain. The fire swept about 6 miles in maybe 40 minutes. My mom and dad were in the backyard watching and saw the owners up there looking at the fire. They went in and turned on the star and the whole neighborhood cheered. One last time. 30 minutes later everything was gone. My mom said literally they went from sitting on the couch to fleeing in two minutes. It was that frightening, that fast. We have dealt with many fires here, but none like this. 

Tiffany