I've evacuated from three of these forest fires while I lived in mountains near where this particular fire occurred.

Even in the middle of evac, it was hard not to find some strange beauty in them. The last fire we rushed out of was literally at the last second, we ended up evacuating with the firemen as they retreated to setup a new fire line and gave up our little neighborhood for time to trench in the new line. We were busting ass through some nasty smoke, and basically just following the firemen who were on foot and the handful of trucks that were working higher up the mountain, because the road (the 330 for locals) was burning in multiple places, making it impassable.

On our way up out of the thick of it, the trees overhead were burning, it was starting to light along some of the homes' roofs around us, and I still remember the (hopefully) only 'firenado' I've ever seen in person was just off the road. We eventually got above it and regrouped with family that had gone ahead of us while we finished the last of the packing before bailing. We had a brief moment to appreciate it from an overlook on the 18, and just watch the burn tearing through. We said what we thought was our goodbyes to our house and booked across and down the 18.

Less than an hour before that, the fire had been nothing but a distant concern churning up smoke miles away, putting out an incredibly pleasant smell of burning pine, and laying down a sheet of ash. The place almost looked snowed over, and smelled of a warm fireplace fit for such a snow. It was peacefully surreal.

The police had barely issued a voluntary evac before they had to come back through the area and advise everyone it was mandatory. It wasn't another ten minutes past the upgrade to mandatory that fire crews started appearing.