SoCal fires December 06, 2017, 01:41:29 pm Napa and Sonoma had their huge fire two months ago now it's our turn.Living in the western San Fernando Valley, we are surrounded by three major fires and the air is terrible, just like our summer vacation.We are relatively safe, with the fires several miles away but we living next to the open, brush covered hill, we are on alert with a few things packed in the LD and the yard covered with hoses and a ladder set up for roof access, just in case. This is one of our four major seasons: fire, flood, drought and earthquakes.Guess it's still better than the Ten Plagues .Stay safe Larry 3 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #1 – December 06, 2017, 01:49:20 pm Larry:Bill and I are sending our best wishes to you and Renee during this fire season. Just as I was telling Bill about the closing of the 405/Skirball Fire, and we were commenting on your location, your message popped up. Stay wet!TinaP2006 MB "Wild Thing"
Re: SoCal fires Reply #2 – December 06, 2017, 01:51:48 pm Larry, we are monitoring the situation. I know Steve and Nancy are close as well so will keep you all in our thoughts and prayers! Let me know if we can be of help in any way.Greg
Re: SoCal fires Reply #3 – December 06, 2017, 05:42:34 pm Tonight will be the challenge. The winds will return after abating for most of today. We are directly downwind (across several miles of high-fuel chaparral) of the Skirball-Getty fire which is still uncontained. When the winds howl, the fire can jump half a mile in seconds. We saw it in the late 70s two blocks away. Not much sleep anticipated. Have spent this morning collecting the bug out items and videoing our house contents. Not much more to do but wait and see. Happy to have heard our Lazy Daze friends in Santa Paula were spared so far. — Jon 3 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #4 – December 06, 2017, 06:28:42 pm About the only thing we can think to say to all those folks in harms way is to be safe. We thinking about this tragedy and watching the TV for updates throughout the day. We wish you the best in this terrible situation. 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #5 – December 06, 2017, 07:57:55 pm My wife and four kids many years ago woke up in Daytona Beach to smoke during fires there. Scariest thing ever. My daughter has asthma and we immediately vacated. It took us two hours to drive and get out of the smoke.Fires are dangerous but also be careful of the smoke. Praying for your safety.Ron 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #6 – December 07, 2017, 12:27:10 pm To Larry & Renée, Steve & Nancy, Jon & Loni and anyone else in the area - my best wishes, and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Stay safe!Andy 2 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #7 – December 07, 2017, 12:56:31 pm Quote from: Andy Baird - December 07, 2017, 12:27:10 pmTo Larry & Renée, Steve & Nancy, Jon & Loni and anyone else in the area - my best wishes, and I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. Stay safe!Andy Amen & amen! Another thing I value about LDO is that it connects me to those of you living what I see on the news soundbites. It reminds me that despite some of the sociological data saying people are self-segregating & staying in information bubbles that reinforce what they already think, outside contact is essential to community. Here I am in the boonies of north Missouri, & I've not yet put faces with most of the names on LDO, but y'all are in my heart. Keep us posted.Lynne 2 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #8 – December 07, 2017, 05:31:55 pm Hundreds of homes have been lost in the LA fires. Ventura County is especially hard hit. Just made a donation to the Salvation Army and am providing the link here for those that care to make a donation:The Salvation Army Southern California - The Salvation ArmyWe continue to pray for those who have lost their homes or are in harm's way. Be safe! 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #9 – December 07, 2017, 06:19:23 pm Monday night till this afternoon 95000+ acres burned in the Thomas Fire. That is a rate of 2.5 seconds per acre. We live on a couple of acres, and imagining the speed these fires are being driven by the Santa Ana’s and the dry tinder is shocking. 5 seconds to burn our entire property. So far, the evacuations have been well handled by the authorities and the citizens. Sadly the impacts on lost homes continues to mount, the 150 being currently cited is acknowledged as Way low. Our daughter and family left home early, and have been watching neighbor’s property burning on their home cameras, but heroic efforts by firefighters have minimized the damage. They are in a little section along Highway 33 between Casitas Springs and Ojai that has not been over run. Tonight the fire is passing east, into the national forest, and Carpinteria. As we watch the news and twitter feeds, and keep updating the maps it is hard to remember it is December 7. 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #10 – December 07, 2017, 06:39:41 pm Happy to report that we didn’t have to bug out. Despite near hurricane strength winds (70mph) thru the Santa Monica mountains last night, the firefighters — heroes all — kept knocking down each new flareup and contained the fire upwind of us. Fellow LDers Gene and Sally survived two evacuations in the much more seriously threatened Santa Paula area by driving off in their rig. The front line men and women have to be exhausted after three days and nights of wind, smoke, and flame, and little containment thus far. The news now reports that the winds will continue thru Sunday at advisory levels in some areas. A factor not often mentioned is that our humidity is standing at 6%! That’s super dry and a major factor in our tinder-like conditions. Can’t wait for an on-shore breeze. — Jon 4 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #11 – December 08, 2017, 11:07:41 pm Snowy South, Fiery West: What’s Happened to our Moisture? by Bob Henson |... ...According to the National Interagency Fire Center, 2017 ranked in fifth place as of November 30 for the most U.S. acreage burned by wildfires in a year (since 1960), at 9.2 million acres. This week’s fires in California have added another 157,000 acres as of Friday morning to that total, putting 2017 into third place on the all-time list. Currently, the top five fire years for U.S. acreage burned since 1960 are:1. 2015 10.1 million acres2. 2006 9.9 million acres3. 2017 9.4 million acres4. 2007 9.3 million acres5. 2012 9.3 million acresAccording to Cal Fire, the 132,000 acres burned as of Friday morning in the Thomas Fire make it California’s largest fire of the year, and tied for 18th largest of any year since records began in 1932. The 439 structures destroyed by the fire are the 19th most of any California fire in recorded history, and the 5th highest of 2017. Five of the twenty most destructive California fires on record have occurred in 2017. The 612,000 acres burned in Cal Fire’s jurisdiction so far in 2017 make it their biggest fire year since 1944, when 649,000 acres burned.
Re: SoCal fires Reply #12 – December 09, 2017, 09:19:53 am Very informative article, thanks for sharing, Ed. Looks like we are in for some interesting times ahead!
Re: SoCal fires Reply #13 – December 09, 2017, 01:03:34 pm I've long cursed our Missouri humidity--75 degrees in Missouri seemed much more miserable than 85 degrees in Denver & environs--but the reporting on these fires has taught me it's not just the drought/winds that y'all contend with, but even variations in humidity make a difference...and that the fires themselves create microclimates that keep the disasters spiraling. A tornado can be horrifically devastating, but it doesn't go on for weeks at a time, and the same is generally true of our midwest flooding (except for the Flood of '93 through the Missouri & Mississippi basins, which went on and on and on for the whole summer)."Thoughts & prayers" seems like an increasingly empty cliche, but I guess it's a cliche because it's the best those of us at a distance can do for now...y'all sure don't need a bunch or rubbernecking gawkers contributing to traffic/housing headaches right now, but like after the hurricanes, I'm sure there will be opportunities for help with clean up as time goes by, so perhaps if anyone knows of such places, info or links could be shared.Lynne
Re: SoCal fires Reply #14 – December 09, 2017, 08:33:51 pm Way down here in Aguanga, we've been having crazy weather -- Santa Ana wind gusts up to 40-50 mph, fires within a few miles (Murrieta, Anza, Fallbrook), plus a swarm of earthquakes. It's so damn dry here I'm afraid of setting a fire just from petting my cat :-(fu 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #15 – December 09, 2017, 10:45:24 pm Our thoughts and prayers are with all affected. 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #16 – December 09, 2017, 10:47:47 pm Fu--I've only been out there three times--a convention in Anaheim in '72 (drove up from Phoenix with my aunt & cousin), a conference where I flew into LAX & the hotel was right there in '08, and in'13 when I took Amtrak from KC to Fullerton. LDy Lulubelle's previous family lived in Whittier; they picked me up, I stayed in the rig in their driveway for a few nights (they took the rig & me to the Mothership for Vince to see if there was anything I needed done before heading back to Missouri where it would be more difficult to get things--the only thing he recommended a new shower dome). Steve took me out for a driving lesson, we took care of business at the bank, and he then gave me an escort out of town (to I-10, which I followed to I-15, & eventually back to Missouri. My sense was of just being in one continuous city, 'til I was past Victorville.I googled Aguanga just now & the topographical views give me a whole different sense, looking down from those satellite views. The images on the news don't so justice to the terrain. We've got the Ozarks in south Missouri (& Mark Twain National Forest is spread across several parcels in the Ozarks), but up here in the north it's actually a lot more open-looking than what I see in your area (we have rolling hills/pasture/river-bottom farmland). Although Kansas had devastating prairie fires last spring, we've never had anything like that in Missouri--just tornados/floods/blizzards, which seem more predictable than winds that whip fires another direction in a matter of seconds. The fire that I had when my teenage workers got the pickup catalytic converter stuck in dry grass in a ditch in my pasture last summer was a hot, miserable day, but the rural fire department had in under control very quickly & it only covered a couple of acres--there was no damage beyond the truck & contents, & it's part of what I'm going to have Conservation Department contractors do a controlled burn on in February. The uncontrollable nature of what y'all are contending with is beyond my imagination. Thank you for sharing...the cat's not named Sparky is it?Lynne 1 Likes
Re: SoCal fires Reply #17 – December 11, 2017, 09:13:08 am As some of the fires continue to rage on, especially the Thomas Fire, we are getting kind of a twisted benefit here in the Tehachapi Mountains, beautiful sunsets! Praying for those in the path of the firestorm. It could just as easily be us. 2 Likes
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