Unbelievable.

stepping out my backyard just 2 minutes ago I can see the red horizon over the hillside and ashes cascading from the reddish black sky onto my deck.

200+ homes are gone already and these fires show no sign of stopping due to the dreaded Santa Annas.

If we can find our digi cam...

How far are the fires from you? Have you gotten an evacuation order (would you leave if you got one?)

Who else around here is in Southern California? Aquilla?

I'll keep you in my thoughts. Be safe.

I can only hope this doesnt get worse...
Stay safe.

Stay safe SoCaliente_1. Get out if you have to.

thanks for the concern guys the skys around our area were actually red! Ash was everywhere. It's been the burning ash and these terrific winds that have been the cause of the fires jumping freeways and neighborhoods randomly.

we haven't gotten an evacuation call yet but the cars are packed just in case. the fires have been running in a north - south line so far. the winds being the biggest factor in the speed and spread have seemed to die down a little. If the wind changes during the night and heads west, the communities of Rancho Santa Fe and Fairbanks Ranch will be in the path before ours.

we'll have to watch and wait

The fires are really bad this time around. Reports are that over 850 homes have been lost and they are no where near containing them. Personally, I think I'm fine, no fires close to here, but my ex-wife (and my daughter's mom) lost her home yesterday in the San Bernadino fire. I wish she had given me the things I asked for her to give back to me when we separated, but that's the breaks I guess. Reports are that most of the fires have been the result of arson, and that's really sick. People's entire lives are going up in smoke, and someone did this for fun? What in the world is the matter with some people?

Edited to add.....

Right now I'm thinking the sentence for arson should be life without parole.

Oh dear, I hope you guys are ok and that it doesnt get too close to you

California seems to get its fair share of natural disasters anyway doesn't it? I don't know how you cope with it

My sympathies. Wildfires are terrible things, most scary natural event I've experienced next to being in a tornado. Saw a report on the California fires last night, poor woman who has lost two homes to fires. That's hard to imagine and must hurt like hell.

We've had our share of arsonists in Colorado, too. Also the stupid human trick type of person (charcoal grill, flipped cig, burning a letter). Yeah, throw them in the slammer and chuck the key. But it doesn't bring back homes.

When the Haymen fire burned near here, we got a plume of smoke and ash come drifting our way, enveloping the house, stinking like devil's breath. Pets and irreplaceables went to Denver. Waiting and hoping for colder weather, less wind, maybe some rain.

Good luck, stay safe.

Our prayers are with you in California. 'Things' are replaceable, lives aren't. So don't take any unnecessary chances.

There is one city that I can't remember the name of right now that is getting hit from both sides right now by fires and is getting burned up. (It is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and I can't think of the name right now.

My brother was packed last night in SD and ready to pick up and move out. I feel bad for him he just bought a beautiful home.

I heard the same thing you did Aquilla that is was started by arson. I hope whoever did this loses everything they have and then lock them up for good. This is going to cost millions and hopefully no deaths. Has there been any deaths related to this by the way? I haven't heard.

sadly, 15 people have been killed in the fires, including the 2 teens of one family whose car was trapped as their mom and dad watched from another car. There can't possible be anything more devastating.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

1,134 homes has already been destroyed. This has been the worst ever in SD history.

The winds seemed to have calmed but still change direction so randomly which sends these huge embers everywhere starting new fires.

Arson is suspected in all the fires.

Pretty soon the same thing will happen to Australia. During our "black Christmas fires", we had to sweep ash off the pavement. The sky was always orange and hazy, and flakes of ash would fall from the sky. And the fires weren't even close to us.

I remember the Australian fires. They weren't too long ago either.

These fires have been given names, the Cedar fire is the closest to where we live, only the freeway seperates us from it, then it's all homes and reserve. it's hot, dry and scary for sure.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

We're still burning here in Southern California and there's really no end in sight. The firefighters are having a hell of a time with all these fires, it's stretching them pretty thin. Firefighters are coming in from Arizona, Nevada and Northern California, but there are alot of fires in alot of places here. One surprising thing is that there are hardly any aircraft available that can fly water drops at night. LA County has a couple of helicopters equipped with night vision equipment, but that's about it. I do have to wonder why the US Forest Service doesn't have night capable aircraft. One would think that with all our military success at night fighting, some of that technology would have found it's way into our fire fighting resources. Pretty tough to fight a fire when you have to let it go for 10 hours at night.

The above image was shot from Glendale California this afternoon at around 3:30 PM, DIRECTLY into the sun. We're 30 miles from the nearest fireline, but as you can see, it's pretty nasty here all over. They have evacuated around 100,000 people from the mountains north of Los Angeles and are afraid that that fire may go all the way to the upper desert. On the west, they are evacuating most of the people in the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley which could be as many as 200,000 people, and things are even worse in San Diego to the south. Fire-fighting crews are coming in from at least as far away as Wyoming and there are already some 11,000 very brave firefighters on the lines now. They're putting up one hell of a battle, but so far, they are losing. It's going to be a very long night here I think. I hope everyone here who lives in Southern California is doing ok.



(Thanks for posting the picture, Mike!)

Edited to add an answer to the question many of you might have about why we in California put up with this sort of thing instead of just moving.....

Have a listen...

THIS IS WHY

Aquilla,

Thanks for the informative post. I live in the San Fernando Valley.
It's quite a sight to see - all the smoke filling the sky, as the fires
ravage on...........it's ironic that such a catastrophe can create such
a beautiful sunset. I hope everyone will get through this ordeal
safely, and the fires will be contained ASAP.

I watched on the news today in awe. I'm sure TV does nothing to what is really seen.
But what I find amazing is how every now and then one house is spared and they showed how a house and a boat in a driveway was completely demolished but at the end of the driveway a vintage car under a tree was spared.
I pray for the firefighters and the people of California.

Aquilla -

we took a similar picture today. Very very smokey.

I have cousins in Montrose, not far from you and in Santa Clarita. It's incredible how fast these fires are moving.

It was awfully ominous and still all day today. The smell of smoke was terrible. It was the first day that in all four directions there was nothing but smoke.

Some of the folks in the Scripps Ranch area were allowed to go in and see what was left of their homes today. Part of the east end of the fires have headed towards the mountains around Julian.

God Bless the firefighters. I don't know how they do what they do.

You've got that right, So_Caliente, they are an amazing group of people. From one of the San Diego newspapers.......

Pretty well says it all


Happy to see you are still hanging in there. Tomorrow may be the day where they finally get a handle on things. They are reporting here in LA tonight that a special fire-fighting unit of the Wyoming National Guard has arrived with their specially outfitted C-130's. These aircraft can dump something like 30,000 gallons of flame retardant in under 15 seconds, kind of like the firefighters' version of a MOAB. That could make a major difference I hope!

Stay safe everyone!

Just wanted to point out that no moron has come in here with some sort of accusatory argument that it is all your fault.

That speaks to the quality of people who hang around AD.

None of this is your fault. Fault has nothing to do with natural disaster. We choose to live where we do and take the risks associated, from hurricane to flood, from high winds to tornados, from life-sucking cold to avalanche. And fire.

I've witnessed my fellow humans turn smug during these times only to be whacked with their own flavor of natural disaster.

It's a tough planet on which to live. That's all. My choices aren't any better than yours, and my god isn't any better either. We sometimes find ourselves in the path of forces we can't possibly control or avoid.

Brings it all down to faith, eh? The real stuff.

Best wishes to all in S. California. Time to pick some blues.

Quick update on the fires out here, yes, they are still going and still very dangerous. A firefighter from Northern California was killed yesterday and 3 others injured. We've had a little bit of light rain here and that's helping, but thus far over 2400 homes have been destroyed and over 20 lives lost. Those figures are expected to increase. Firefighters are here from all of the western states and they are even beginning to come in from at least as far away as Michigan.

Anyone who wants to check into what's happening right now can stream the news coverage from KNBC TV, the local LA NBC station. They are basically covering the fires 24/7 right now.

Go to this URL

Then click on the "Live video" under the "NBC4 Video Feedroom" banner. That's about as up to date as it gets.

good link Aquilla.

The winds off coastal San Diego seemed to have pushed inland and into the mountains. The Cedar fire on tuesday, when it ran through Scripps Ranch was the closest to us. As of today we've been clear of the smoke. The temp has dropped and a little drizzle is on the way.

I wish Gov. Davis had asked for help when all this had started. It could only have helped tremendously. Bless all who have come to help California. Such selflessness is only seen on the battlefields. Putting your life in danger for others is a gift that goes beyond ever repaying.

fires such as these, so fast and furious, really DO need support on a National level. Perhaps more homes and lives could have been saved. We've lost 20 people thus far, one fire-fighter and has burned countless others
somewhere a little over 6,500 homes destroyed.

stay safe out there Aquilla.

You are right about that, So_Caliente. I watched yesterday as they fought the Stevenson Ranch fire and it was an incredible sight! Firefighters were driving bulldozers right into the heart of flames that were towering some 50+ feet high. They were within 10 feet of them trying to create a firebreak. Meanwhile, overhead LA County Firehawk helicopters were flying at rooftop levels into the thick smoke and dropping water on the flames. The news crews were getting ready to bug out, but the firefighters remained and knocked it down, saving several hundred homes, some by mere 10's of feet. Then, they took off and headed to the next hot spot. No rest for those guys, all in a day's work.

Back in my days as a TV Satellite truck engineer, I covered some wildfires and they are frightening in their intensity. Nothing like the nice warm glow in your fireplace, rather like a blast furnace. You can feel their heat from miles away. We once did some live shots from a burned out home in the Lake Shasta area and while we were setting up the shot, I walked into what used to be the garage of that house. On the floor was what was left of their toolbox. Tempered steel tools, melted into the concrete of the floor.

How a person can drive a bulldozer up to intense heat like that, I'll never know. But they do. Thank God, they do.

Something remembered:

Check your gutters if you've been under the flying embers. Roof fires can start there even after the wildfire is out. It can happen days and even weeks later.

Maybe I'm repeating something you all already know in California. It's just a shame to think you got out only to be slammed in the aftermath, so the possible redundant info.

If you have overhanging eaves, roof fires can start there, too.

News report cited stucco as a good fire-resistant siding material. There's also a concrete and fiber siding that looks like wood but has zero flamability (HardiPlank).

Was amazed that some folks in CA still use shake shingles on roofs and even for siding. Thought that had been banned years ago after smaller wildfires, but it was telling that one firefighter said his crew had to select homes to try to save. If a home has shake shingles, the crew doesn't try to save it.

We had shake when we bought and immediately replaced it with metal.

Anyway, those are some of the tips I remember from living in a wildfire area. I know it's too late for many, but maybe others will benefit in the future.

I know we are thinking of yanking the cedar siding and using HardiPlank. BTW, I have no financial interest in the company that makes this material. Just heard about it from a local developer.

Oh yeah, we've torn out the old cedar decks and replaced them with that fake wood decking board. I forget any of the brandnames. Also put in cement or metal steps where we could.

Apparently, this started when a lost hunter lit a signal fire? That's what I heard last night. He'll be charged with murder third, manslaughter. Probably 5-15 years.

Yeesh. Should have just tooted the whistle and kept on walking in one direction.

Hope it rains like mad and gets real cold in S. Cal.

Your wish has been granted, SoCal. Unfortunately, the fairy godmother was asleep at the switch.

According to CBS news this evening, Governor Davis asked the Feds in a letter to President Bush for $430 million in April of this year, saying it was needed for emergency cleanup of dead trees and brush, to keep fires from blowing up into a disaster this season.

According to the news report, the request was passed along to FEMA, who just last Friday denied the funds, claiming that it wasn't an emergency, and other departments could better serve California's needs.

The question is, why did it take FEMA six months to rule on this, and rule wrong, as well?

Link to the story, also in the LA Times is here.

Hope the wetter weather helps this weekend. Stay safe guys.

Actually, the question might be why did it take until April of this year for Davis to ask for help? The Pine Bark Beetle infestation in California has been happening for the past fews years at the very least. What took Davis so long to recognize that and why did he wait until he was facing a recall to raise it as an issue with the feds?

Look the recall is over, Davis is out and hopefully the rain we are having here in So California will help finish the job of knocking down the fires. I'd just as soon leave politics out of it, but if someone wants to bring them into this, go for it. We can start by talking about the "enviornmental" regulations that prevented many of the residents of the mountain communities from thinning out the tree stands around their homes....

I heard a report on Fox News and CNN that a hunter started a signal fire, and when it started to get a little out of hand, a chopper with water was enroute, but was told to "return to base" because it was past the time that choppers were allowed to be out. The chopper was 5 minutes from the fire....could have prevented this disaster

Hey, Aquilla, I've got no dog in this fight. I saw the news report, came in here later, saw SoCaliente's question of why Davis did nothing, and replied, based on the report I saw.

The fact is he did ask for funds. I'm not saying he wasn't slow on the draw, and I'm not saying that he shouldn't have been fighting the environmentalists that insist undergrowth and dead wood should not be removed.

Anyway, I'm not looking to make it political, I was just answering a question, and asking one of my own. Not trying to blame anyone, I just wanted to see if anyone knew why it took FEMA so long to look at the request before they did anything with it. I wasn't hinting that it was anything nefarious, I just wanted to know.

Ok, fair enough. I would hazard a guess that the reason it took FEMA so long was because Davis asked the wrong people. The "E" in FEMA stands for emergency and unless their charter has changed significantly, they don't do much until there is an actual emergency. Not just the possibility of one, but one happening.

A lot of those trees are in US Forests. Why didn't Davis go to the US Forest Service? Why not the BLM or the Park Service? Why FEMA? That doesn't make any sense at all.

We've had earthquakes here in So Cal, some of them pretty damaging, and I bet we're going to have more. Should we expect FEMA to pay beforehand to reinforce our bridges and highways? We've had floods in So Cal, and I bet we have more. Should FEMA pay to build new flood control infrastructure? They just had a blackout in the Northeast US, should FEMA pay to re-build the nation's grid for fear it could happen again? You see where I'm going with this......


In any case, if it appeared that I came down too hard on this, I'm sorry, it wasn't directed at you. If anything, it was directed at the LA Times which has turned in recent times from a fine example of good journalism into a political hatchet for the Davis/Democrat folks out here. Too bad, I used to actually believe what I read in the LA Times.

I don't know of any environmental regs that would stop me from clear-cutting our little 2/3 acre plot. In fact, we are encouraged to create a 100 foot buffer around our houses. As for the USFS, they do controlled burns around here and cut down trees infected with pine beetles. Both the USFS and BLM open up areas for fuel wood cutting and timber operations.

Maybe some blame can be placed on administrations that cut USFS/BLM funds?

Anyway, enviros want to protect old growth forests, and they seldom burn if at all.

I understand the feelings, though. At this point, someone or something has to get blame. For Hayman, Terry Barton got time in the slammer for burning her letter and sparking it off. Or maybe she wanted work, who knows.

Colorado just had two fires, both caused by downed power lines. The weather cooperated and they were quickly controlled.

Go after electricity generating/distributing outfits?

You know, for dragging feet on local generation techniques that would eventually eliminate cross-country grids? I know of enviros who push for this sort of thing. Not only is local generation more efficient, it avoids regional blackouts.

Anyway, I guess blame has a lot of targets. We went through this whole thing last year, but with the wet 2003 season, people seem to be forgetting.

But then there's the rather obvious Hayman burn area that links up with other burn areas. That's a pretty good reminder that forest and fire are peas in a pod.

According to both stories, Davis had sent his original request in a letter to President Bush, who forwarded it to the head of FEMA, in pretty quick order.

Ok, so it goes to the wrong agency. I would say that it probably sat on somebody's desk for quite a while, before it was even looked at. You'd think that somebody reading it, would immediately say, "hey, this isn't us, it should go to Parks and Recreation", or whoever, and get forwarded to them. Or at least a phone call to California to suggest who they should direct their request to, don't you think?

It looks like it was just one of those usual governmental "comedy of errors" that happens because the bureaucracy is just too big to be efficient.

You don't live in California, AM. Some of the state enviornmental regulations out here are crazy. I watched an interview with a San Diego police officer who had a cabin in the Arrowhead area and he said he'd been fighting with state regulators for months in order to get permission to trim some tree branches that were hanging over his roof. He had cleared brush from around his cabin as state and local law requires, and his cabin was not burned, but as he pointed out, the woods around his cabin were extremely dense, and according to him, thinning them out was a regulatory nightmare.



Gotta agree with you on that, typical of what happens when people expect government to solve their problems....