Abbotsford, Mt Lehman Rd. Mill Fire

[turbozig]

After a wonderful meet yesterday at Graham's house in Langley, met 9 other Corvette owners that day. I had made plans to go with James from the forum, to go for the day up to Whistler for a cruise. We went for the day from Chilliwack, then to West Vancouver, met up with James, then cruised to Squamish, Whistler, and then Pemberton and then headed back to Chilliwack for dinner. On the way back, at about 5:50 pm, I was passing the Mt. Lehman turnoff and watched a huge fire build to the right of the highway as I was passing. The smoke billowed as I approached for about 10km, not expecting to see the highway grass, trees and bush on fire as I passed. I have all the video on my PDR, but am unsure how to post video yet. As I was passing the fire, huge 2-3 inch flaming embers are floating and a couple landed on my car as passed. As soon as the traffic finished rubbernecking, we all sped up quickly realizing the extent of the danger beside us. Thank goodness the woman behind me braked within inches of rear ending my car while videoing the episode on her cell phone. Made it past with a minute or two of them closing the highway 1 in both directions due to all the grass, brush and trees ablaze. Here are some pics of the video of my PDR.

 

[ddgermann]

Real life drama man. Driving toward it too. Hope your car did not get scorched from the embers. People cellphone video taping while driving are a menace....except Mike of course as he is clever enough to do it when not in traffic.
Saw some vid on the weather network today of a kid (20 YO) caught on camera lighting brush fires in Nanaimo a week ago.
Glad you made it through ok and did not get rear ended by the spielberg with the cell phone.
D

 

[nascar03]

Holy Moly...Hell Fire and Brimstone..!!
I'm glad you are safe man.
It's hot & dry out there.

I'm glad you guys got a way to Whistler.
I can't wait to see some video and pictures of that part of your trip.

Graham

 

[turbozig]

Unforunately I don't have any video directly from the right passing by the area, it was much more surreal than the pictures show. No videoing with my phone as I drive. I cannot imagine what the BC fire residents are going through, so incredibly sad. Hopefully many new fires don't spark up due to this fire. Just as I passed by, I heard a loud explosion off to the right in the distance. I really hope no lives are harmed or lost in this fire. It made driving by in a plastic/glass car kind of unnerving. Good thing it has gobs of torque however.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Scary stuff, amazing how quickly it can get out of hand. The was a fire in Arizona a week or so ago on the edge of a lake. A guy in a jet boat was hustling around in circles adjusting the jet nozzle to heave water on the water, it worked.

That trip to Whistler is just beautiful and I hope you enjoyed it.

What an adventure.

 

[turbozig]

Scary stuff, amazing how quickly it can get out of hand. The was a fire in Arizona a week or so ago on the edge of a lake. A guy in a jet boat was hustling around in circles adjusting the jet nozzle to heave water on the water, it worked.

That trip to Whistler is just beautiful and I hope you enjoyed it.

What an adventure.

I saw that on the news, quick thinking on his part and very creative.

 

[MikeysZ06]

I think all of western Canada is drier than a tinderbox. Sad to see people throwing butts out their window last night in K Country. Chances are good this fire is probably the result of that.

 

[turbozig]

They were able to put the fire out and no lives were hurt. It appears it started from a propane tank explosion. Kudos to all the firefighters.

 

[C SEVEN GS Bob]

Scary drive! We were thinking of going to southern BC for a couple days through Crowsnest but rethinking our plans due to potential poor air quality. Us "elderly" folks are supposed to be cautious about what we breath.
Bob