It’s been almost a week since my last post. Forgive me.
Pretty busy for us here in the photo department, with six different grass and structure fires. Welcome to summer.
If there’s news, we try to photograph it. Tuesday it was a quick trip to Lakeport for some ugly weeds on the water. In areas on the north side of the lake, the weeds have inundated some sheltered areas and coves. Pondweed can foul a boat prop and genuinely makes it difficult to fish some areas.
When I was growing up there, we’d cast our weedless lures in to the pondweed and catch a bass almost every time. I surmise the fish thought it to be some stranded varmint on top of the weeds. Easy prey. Anyway, there is no stink with the floating vegetation. With the summer heat, sometimes the smell gets pretty rank on the lake. The water is almost crystal clear, something I haven’t seen in the last few years during summer months.
A house fire out in El Verano that damaged a beautiful home was one of the six mentioned above. The work of three dozen firefighters on this fire kept the damage from getting worse and spreading to other homes.
On Mark West Springs Road a collection of area firefighters used a pulley system to haul out a woman who drove off the narrow rural road and landed fifty feet down the tree studded embankment. A yellow lab in the vehicle had small cut on the nose but came out relatively unscathed. I have new found appreciation for big rig drivers though, with Mark West closed in one direction and fire trucks on the other side, these rigs slipped through with inches to spare.
Here are some photos from the past week…
Cal Fire's Paul Mackey comforts a woman who drove over the side of Mark West Springs Road near Mark West Lodge, Wednesday June 30, 2010 in Santa Rosa while he waits for other firefighters to prepare a pulley system to bring her up safely from crash scene below the road. The woman suffered minor injuries and was arrested at the hospital for driving impaired. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010
From right clockwise, Rincon Valley Battalion Chief Robert Bisordi, Santa Rosa firefighter and engineer Bryon Reid, Cal Fire's Paul Mackey and Santa Rosa fire captain Scott Westrope are aided by a pulley system as they carry a woman who drove over the side of Mark West Springs Road near Mark West Lodge, Wednesday June 30, 2010 in Santa Rosa.(Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010
Sago Pondweed has started to infiltrate wind protected inlets on Clear Lake Tuesday June 29, 2010. This portion of the lake is near Lakeport at Rocky Point. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010
Pest humor at the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District, Thursday June 24, 2010 in Rohnert Park. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010
A Cal Fire firefighter pulls away a propane cylinder from flames of a venting propane tank at the scene of a house fire in El Verano, Tuesday June 29, 2010. (Kent Porter / Press Democrat) 2010
-Kent Porter
