Covering the Grand Prix fire started on...

Covering the Grand Prix fire started on Friday, Oct. 24. The Inland

Valley photographers had left for a conference, leaving no one out

there to cover the fire. On my way in to the office that day,

Managing Editor S.J. Cahn called me and asked if I would be

interested in going to the fires. Knowing that this could be a big

deal, I jumped at the opportunity.

I spent the rest of Friday in Rancho Cucamonga, trying to get

close to the fire lines where the action was. Unfortunately, I was

striking out. Without a San Bernardino County press pass, my access

was limited. By nightfall, the fire appeared to be controlled from

Rancho Cucamonga. A few hot spots glowed in the hills as I left the

area around 8:30 p.m.

Overnight, the winds picked up and helped the fire grow. By the

next afternoon, strike teams were being assembled throughout Orange

County and being sent out to help.

As Saturday night came upon, the Grand Prix fire was raging toward

the west. Scenes of homes and brush catching fire filled the

newscast. By that time, the Old fire had started its destruction in

the San Bernardino area. I told myself I was definitely going back

out Sunday morning.

With the Grand Prix fire ripping through Claremont and heading

toward La Verne, I knew my beat shot was going to be in the hills of

the La Verne/Claremont border. After a couple of hours of trying to

get to the front lines, a La Verne police captain came through for me

and let me in to an area that had been evacuated. Lucky for me, it

was an area the fire was heading into, next to some

multimillion-dollar homes the fire department didn’t want to loose.

Fire crews from La Verne, Monrovia and Los Angeles County went on

the offensive there in Marshall Canyon. The crews set up their lines,

lighted successful backfires, and made aerial water drops, killing

the fire’s progress in that area.

This shot was from early on in the attack, from the entrance into

Marshall Canyon. The firefighters are walking along a hiking trail in

the canyon while a wall of flames burns next to them. In less than

two hours, the firefighters had knocked down the blaze and saved the

area. Unfortunately, firefighters couldn’t save all the homes, but in

that area, they did.

-- Mark C. Dustin, staff photographer