(eerie violin music) (josh gallagher) we were sitting at the breakfast counter my daughter saw a small pillar of smoke rising in the distance. we didn't think anything of it because there'd been other fires that had occurred. i thought, oh no... i thought please - maybe it was a wall of fog because occasionally, to the south, you'll see a wall of fog say, over yuba city. at that point, i was getting the kids out to go to school, and as we're walking out to the car, the phone's ringing and it's the school calling to let us know that school's been cancelled that day because of fire in the area. and that was 7:45 in the morning. (eerie music and wind) (eerie music and flag flapping) so we came back in and turned the news on and they said that the fire had broken out in pulga which was about 25 miles from where we lived. so we didn't panic right away. we thought, well, that's 25 miles - they'll be on it pretty quick. (tv static) (tv announcer) covering northern california. you're watching action news now, breaking news. (news anchor) to bring you up to speed, in case you are just joining u