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I walked out the door with my daughter to get the mail. It was Sunday evening September 22, 2002 a 5:30 pm. We were getting the mail one day late because everyone had just been too lazy to outside on Saturday. As we walked toward the mailbox I looked up at the sky. My daughter pointed out the pretty colors. The colors were so different she concluded there must be a fire somewhere based on how we had seen fires change the sky on other occasions.

I walked toward the middle of our apartment complex to get a better view towards the mountains in the north. I saw a thin column of smoke. Incredibly the smoke intensified the hues of the sunset. Strokes of rich purple, deep fuchsia, burnt orange, and cobalt blue were flung across the sky forming a fantastic tapestry. As I focused at the beautiful scene before me I contemplated on the fact that something as terrible as fire could help to create something so breathtaking.

Late that evening as we watched the news we learned the fire was in the Glendora mountains just a few short miles from our home.

We awoke Monday morning to a pall of smoke hanging low in our valley. As I drove my daughter to school she took pictures of another natural yet unnatural phenomenon. I was headed east toward the morning sunrise. It was 6:55 am. San Dimas High School was in sight when we were greeted by a strange, eerie sun. It looked like something you would see in a horror story or maybe in pictures of an apocalypse. All the streets were deserted around us. A smoky haze formed a ghostly shroud over the valley and in the middle of the covering was our sun blazing as a white-hot ball of heat. The sun stood guard as a sentinel over the entire valley. My words cannot begin to describe the weird feeling this experience produced within us.

The fire continued to rage throughout the day, growing in intensity. Ash and burning sparks showered down on the San Dimas High School campus. Students who attended school that day said it was as if a light snow was falling.

That evening we found out certain mountain roads had been closed and people were being evacuated from their homes.

As my daughter was talking on the phone she happened to glance out of her bedroom window. She uttered a loud cry. From her window, she could watch the flames as they licked the mountainside. During the next 2 hours, she gave us constant updates on the progress of the fire. The personality of the fire was aggressive but sneaky. One mountain was literally capped with flames all the way across its top. However, the mountain next to it stood tall and stalwart as though, to say it was not going to be defeated. Unfortunately, the fire was devilish in the way it played with this mountain. Flames would shoot up so high from behind the mountain that they seemed to crest it. Then just when we thought the fire won, the flames would shrink back down until they had disappeared.

Flames gobbled up the mountain that had been burning for a while. My daughter predicted the stouthearted mountain would be engulfed before we retired for the night. Just before bed we all took one last look at the burning landscape. As predicted the indomitable mountain lost its battle to remain unscathed. The fire now consumed all the mountain terrain visible from her bedroom window.

At school the next day my daughter was told her teacher was now living in his car because he had been evacuated. Many of students she attended school with had also been evacuated. Several of the local schools were used as emergency shelters for the evacuees.

My daughter and her classmates were informed that her school was next on the list. If it was necessary to use the school, the students would not be able to attend classes. A discussion ensued among her friends and her regarding the situation. One student was happy that they might not have to attend school for a few days. However, this was not the case among most the young people. They were sad that so many people had been displaced from their homes and thankful their school was available to be used as a temporary shelter for them.

The Glendora Mountain fire continued to rage for another week before it was contained. Several homes were lost as well as other buildings. Thanks to the concentrated effort of countless fire fighters many more buildings were saved and no lives were lost. Stories of individual courage and neighborly kindness to the exhausted fireman abound. I am sure none of us will forget the devastation that occurred or the terror caused by the night of the reign of fire.