Shell Ridge

Some of you know we live atop a hill on a main drag through the area. When we leave home, we have a pretty good view of most Pleasant Hill and parts of Walnut Creek. Well today, around 4:30, we headed out to do our payday grocery shopping night. Once we headed down the hill, we saw the smoke. Judging from where it was, we knew right away it was Shell Ridge that was on fire. There were 2 news choppers up in the air, and after not too long we found the station and had confirmation. We were now headed away from the grocery store and towards Shell Ridge. We had a car full of very upset kids. Emma was in tears, worrying about the baby frogs she held up at the pond. Sophie was upset about the beautiful Gopher Snakes. Bubba wanted nothing to do with driving towards a fire : ) We headed to the trail head that we started our last hike at. There was a crowd of people, and an all out assault on the fire underway. I have never seen such an attack from the air. There were 4 air tankers circling and dropping retardant, and 2 choppers dumping water. The helicopters were picking up water at Heather Farms, that would have been a sight to see! We also saw 6 trucks headed up to the command center, and 2 tractors. It was sad to watch the exact area that we had made memories with the kids not even a month ago go up in flames. As of now, 180 acres burned. The ridge we hiked is completely black. So sad. There are more pictures here from the fire, and before pictures from our hike are here under May 15th. All of these pictures up on the ridge and the area we looked down on are now burned area. It burned right down to the back of the school, which is where they set up the command center. We aren't sure how much of the valleys and wooded area burned.