Flat out, an emu can run 30 mph. Few things will make them do it. One of them is a forest fire.
Mike Blake discovered this Monday shooting the Border Fire that has blackened 6,800 acres of San Diego County since Sunday. The bird had fled a ranch and wandered onto Highway 94 in Potrero, California. Firefighters tried to shoo it off the road, but the ratite was having none of it.
Blake, being smarter than an emu, wasn't sticking around. He'd been up the road a bit when wind-whipped flames jumped the road. He was speeding away when he turned a corner and saw the emu charging toward him. Now, most people would totally bungle the shot. But Blake's a pro. He shoots for Reuters. He pulled over, whipped out his Canon EOS-1DX, and started firing. The emu zipped past and dashed towards a field away from the chaos. "It all happened in a few seconds," he says.
With that, it was gone. Blake saw the bird later that day, wandering about and looking confused. The local San Diego County Department of Animal Services says there's an emu among the dozens of animals it is tending, but can't be sure that its emu is the one Blake saw. After all, the thing was moving pretty fast.
