Photo Album Page 2aa : Angora Wildfire - the first night.   This (a bit blurred) telephoto shot to flames about a mile away up the mountain was taken from "The Y" - where highways 89 and 50 merge - on the first evening of the forest fire.  It burned for four days destroying about six square miles of forest - and taking with it 250 homes and 2 fire engines.  Luckily there were no human casualties.  The whole town is built of wood and set in a pine forest - and for some time there was a very real prospect of the whole town being destroyed.   Apparently over 1800 fire-fighters were involved in containing it.   Even from a safe distance the sight was terrifying - the tops of these huge pine trees were just exploding into three hundred feet tall sheets of flame.  The whole Tahoe basin was filled with smoke for a couple of days and glowing ashes rained into our swimming pool eight miles away.

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