fire was expected to break out at the other end instead of this one the force that remained near loyalton was much lower than yesterday. so the firefighters here had their hands full. >> we've been here about three days now. worked a double the first night. >> if you had known what this was going to be like would you have done it any way. >> certainly. >> back up, back up. >> sometimes the strategy was to stop the fire before it reached the house. >> reporter: sometimes to let it run through except the house. at least the fuel that was allowed to burn will not burn again. it's close to the house now as you can see but people are already tied up trying to do a backfire to stop this one. there just isn't enough people to be in all these places all at once. once again the fire crews won the individual battle saving one home at a time. but would they win the war? after all these were just spot fires breaking out in advance of the main fire just across the hill. and then at noon there it was. cresting up on the mountain and looking down. this was not a spot fire anymore, this was big daddy him