Cell-phone photographs of an inferno

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Lake Forest:

As flames roared down a gully narrowly seperating Foothill Elementary School and Whiting National Forest about 5 p.m., as many as 50 spectators stood within 30 feet of the fire taking pictures of the inferno.

One man wearing a bandana posed for his girlfriend as black smoke and embers rose skyward amidst the popping of dry bush burning next to the school.

Trisha Wuich, 32, creative arts coordinator at nearby Saddleback Church, had spent the day watching the fire from her office window. Her curiosity got the best of her, however, and now she stood within feet of the conflagration, taking cell-phone videos to send to her husband.

‘I probably shouldn’t do this,’ she said as ash darkened the late-afternoon sky. ‘But it’s natural curiosity. I called my husband and said, ‘If I’m dead it’s because of curiosity.’ We were watching flames from a distance, and all of a sudden separate patches jumped together. It came out of nowhere; your eyes started to water and your chest started to tighten.’

Suddenly an Orange County sheriff’s deputy appeared and ordered the gawkers to leave. ‘Adios, sayonara, bye bye everybody,’ he said.

As the throng departed reluctantly toward the Ralphs grocery store on nearby Portola Parkway, a fire engine arrived with its lights flashing to knock the flames down.

-- Duke Helfand