We spend a week each summer at Stanford Sierra Camp by Fallen Leaf Lake. We had only been there 24 hours where the fire bell rang due to the Angora Fire. The fire started over the ridge but only about 2 miles from us. This is a picture only about an hour after the fire began:
At this point, the fire is burning a few hundred acres and within about a mile of us. Luckily fire doesn’t like to go downhill, so we were somewhat sheltered on our side of the ridge. After about two hours we were all evacuated out to Tahoe City. We stopped on the far side of Emerald Bay to look back at the fire’s progress.
You can see trees bursting into flames along the Angora Ridge, flames were up to 400 feet high.
We were lucky that we only lost a vacation. Over 200 people lost their homes and 3100 acres were burned.
Dramatic images and videos from the staff at Stanford during the fire:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=angora++fire+south+lake+tahoe+fallen+leaf
http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.extrom/AngoraFireFallenLeafLakeViews