Dan Rossino and his neighbors watched anxiously as the forest fire in East Penn Township switched directions Sunday at the whim of the wind.

"It was switching directions every 10 minutes," Rossino said late Sunday night as he waited anxiously for rain. "The wind doesn't die down."The flames danced close to neighbors' homes across the street.Rossino wasn't as concerned Saturday when the planes and helicopters continuously fought the fire. That night was another story."The whole mountainside was lit up like a ski area. I got nervous," he said.He had to drive to Scranton during the day Sunday, and when he came back he couldn't get to his house because Route 895 was closed. He took some back roads and reached his neighborhood to find people in a panic."Hysteria had set in. Neighbors had things packed into their cars."Everyone was scared, he said, as the flames crept closer.As of 7:30 Sunday night, flames were still erupting from behind the Andreas baseball field."A lot of houses could have been lost," Rossino said.More than 200 firefighters from several counties worked all weekend to keep the fire from reaching the houses."Kudos to the volunteer firefighters," Rossino said. "It was a little excitement nobody wanted."Across the street, Terry McCullion watched as planes and helicopters dropped water and retardant onto the fire."(DCNR pilots) are so accurate. The planes and helicopters are good at what they do."The McCullion farm is about 100 yards from the flames."It was closer yesterday," McCullion said late Sunday. "It was really scary to watch flames shoot across Club Road. The flames were so big they just jumped and were burning behind the homes."McCullion has a 5-acre lot across the creek from his Overlook Deer farm. "That's totally gone," he said.Resident Kim Silliman said she began smelling smoke Sunday morning, shortly before her yard became a tourist attraction.People from Saylorsburg, Summit Hill, Kunkletown and even Hershey stopped with their children and cameras to see the big fire on the Blue Mountain.People were rubbernecking from Route 895, eventually causing so much congestion that the road had to be closed down."They asked if they could park in my driveway," she said.Then they climbed on the rocks behind her house. While the fire jumped the creek and licked at those same rocks, "they started running and screaming," Silliman said."People were yelling. It was unreal."The American Red Cross set up a shelter Saturday night in Slatedale but closed it around 8 a.m. after serving six residents overnight.Shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, residents in the Slatington area reported ash falling like "snow."The Beltz family, who lives near the turnpike on Mountain Road, got a call shortly after 9 p.m. inviting them to go to the shelter.Firefighters were stationed less than a mile up the road, and the air was thick like fog, but the family said the fire never came close enough to prompt leaving home. The road was later closed near Lehigh Furnace.