SAN DIEGO -- Cameras were rolling as the Harris Wildfire in San Diego erupted to life last week.

Harris Fire Time-Lapse Video:
Northern View
Eastern View
Southern View
Western View

The images were captured by four cameras, owned by University of California San Diego, atop a microwave tower on Lyons Peak, east of Jamul. The cameras are part of the university's National Science Foundation funded High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) Project.

The initial objective is to provide remote researchers with access to high-speed Internet. But the pictures wound up helping firefighters. Cal Fire and other fire crews throughout the county used the images to help them determine where to send their firefighters, according to Kimberly Mann Bruch from UCSD.

Time-Lapse Images

During the peak of the fire, the cameras captured images every minute.

Hans-Werner Braun, a research scientist at UCSD told NBC affiliate KNSD, "I was shaking when watching it in real-time, especially since just last week we had a major installation by helicopter at that site to upgrade a link.

"It felt like the whole effort was for nothing, as I thought everything would fail when the fire burned all around the tower. But everything kept running, including the cameras."

The cameras facing east, west, north and south captured the smoky skies and growth of the flames beginning on Oct. 21.

The Harris Fire has covered nearly 100,000 acres. Full containment on that fire is expected Wednesday.