Going Through Fire and Smoke to Rescue Pancho!

Today I had to battle smoke and fire to pick up a beautiful dog named Pancho (we've renamed her Princess) that we rescued from the Camarillo shelter. She was due to be killed.

I was driving on the 101 near Agoura Hills when I saw black smoke billowing across the freeway. And being a woman, I began to multi-task, and quite well, thank you very much.

I starting taping the fire while talking to Jane, Critters in Need's founder, on my hands-free cell phone. Jane was watching the fire on TV while I was driving through all the smoke.

And that's when Amanda (who got Princess out of the shelter and who is pictured here with her) called me. She didn't know about the fire yet.

Then we hung up and I switched back over to Jane. That explains my conversations that you hear on the video.

The brush fire, located by the freeway near Agoura Hills, started under suspicious circumstances. It even jumped the freeway.

The smoke covered the freeway and it was hard to see and breathe. The orange smoke filled my car, even after I turned my A/C off. Helicopters whirled overhead and dropped water on the fire.

Traffic slowed to a crawl.

Finally I passed the point of origin and saw the flames. And the KCAL 9 news truck. :-)

Princess and I had to go back to Orange County via PCH. Forget about getting back on the 101!

The fire, which burned within 50 feet of about five homes, was 80 percent contained Tuesday afternoon with the help of about 250 firefighters and six water-dropping helicopters.