United States - November 02, 2025 A 14-second video filmed on November 2, 2025, captures the early stages of the Scissors Fire, a 40-acre brush blaze in remote chaparral near Scissors Crossing in Cleveland National Forest. The fire was 0% contained at the time of filming. The footage shows a Cal Fire S-70A Firehawk helicopter, black and yellow with extended landing gear and a FLIR camera turret, hovering low over steep, eroded hillsides. Sun-cured grasses, yucca, and dense chamise and manzanita cover the slopes as the helicopter circles the fire’s northeast flank. Bright orange flames, 3–8 feet high, climb uphill through the dry brush, sending towering pyrocumulus plumes of black-gray smoke mixed with glowing embers and ash. Spot fires erupt downslope, highlighting the blaze’s potential to spread rapidly under light Santa Ana winds. On the ground, fire crews operate along a dirt firebreak road. Two red pumper trucks and a white wildland engine, Engine 62, are staffed by firefighters in yellow Nomex shirts and green hardhats, advancing with drip torches and Pulaskis. No evacuations or structures are visible, emphasizing the difficulty of accessing this rugged, boulder-strewn terrain. The broader landscape shows arid ridges of the Volcan Mountains fading into a hazy blue horizon under late-afternoon light. Heat shimmer rises above hotspots, while scattered clouds drift over ochre soils and occasional oaks.