San Bernardino National Forest - Sheep Fire

Ryan Vaccaro and I met at 138 and I-15 and went up to Lone Pine Canyon Rd. and Sawarthout Canyon Rd. The fire was buring in a easterly direction and was still south of Lone Pine Canyon Rd. Winds were steady at about 20 to 25 mph. We tied in with Jeff Zimmerman and a few other members of the EPN. We observed the fire make strong, wind driven runs on both sides of Swarthout Canyon. The wind changed directions and began to push the fire north up Lone Pine Canyon. I managed to get a few photos of a CALFIRE engine strike team trying to hold the fire south of Lone Pine Canyon Rd. It ran right past them. The fire was burning north up Lone Pine Canyon and also to the east. The eastern progression threatened BDF Station 33 at Mormon Rocks for a short period of time. That was the same time the ICP was being relocated to Station 33. A USFS strike team fired out around the station/base camp and migated the threat.

At 23:00 I left for the night and the fire was 2.5 miles south of Clyde Ranch, but burning well and still pushing north towards Wrightwood. I spoke to Ryan again Sunday morning about 05:30 and he let me know it had made it up the canyon alomost to the top. I went back to the fire and picked Ryan up. We went to the head of the fire and saw that it was continuing to push north at a fairly rapid rate occasionally spotting well ahead of the main fire.

When the fire reached Helicopter Hill at the top of Lone Pine Canyon, an all out offensive was put into action. We saw over a dozen dozers, strike teams of engines, hotshot crews and of course plenty of chiefs all working together to keep the fire off of the structures. The dozers were cutting a wide line on both the east and west sides of Lone Pine Canyon Rd. at Helicopter Hill. As the dozer line was progressing the engine crews drove along portions of the line to act as the holding team while the hotshot crews fired out just ahead of the main fire. As soon as the marine layer lifted, aircraft was launched to assist the ground crews. I saw helitankers, fixed wing and drops from Tanker 910. The fire got to within 100 yards of homes