California is on fire again.

[wolf_Q]

I'm thinking of all the California PTers, I'm glad to hear that everyone is ok. This is just awful. I've seen the mountains on fire a few times, but I've never had a fire close enough to threaten our home...I can't even imagine.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I found out that my brother and his family had to evacuate on Monday and now they're staying at my parents house in San Clemente. My brother told my mom that it smelled like a campfire at their home in San Diego. They hope to be able to return home sometime tomorrow.

My SIL's brother has a friend who lost his home in the fire while he was away on a business trip. His wife and kids had to evacuate and now they have nothing to return to. My SIL's parents live in the Fallbrook area and they know a lot of people there that have lost their homes. My brother lives in the Rancho Bernardo area and hopefully everything there is okay.

Many more prayers are going out to everyone in San Diego and the other areas that are involved in the fire.

[Barbara]

My thoughts go out to all of you - you just cannot believe it from here. Knowing people who actually have to deal with this catastrophy makes quite a difference... it is not just a story on paper.
Hope you all stay safe.

[RICHARD]

It's a quiet night.

No sounds of engines, no aircraft running overhead.

Yesterday there was a thick smoke cover with just a small band of blue sky between the mountains and the haze.

T&P,

Welcome to Hell.
That is a small taste of what our autumns hold for us. I am really amazed that the hills to the north of us haven't caught yet....there is still that chance that some accident or screwed up person will test the firefighters in the near future.

It is pretty amazing how a fire can get so big, so fast.


Barbara,

Not too many people payed attention to a fire that started on July 4 and burned for more than one month this year....

Sadly enough, we only pay attention when we get singed.


http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=25190


The Zaca fire burned from 7/4/2007 PAST 08/24/2007-220,000 acres burned.

More info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaca_Fire

And no one payed attention.


--------

Here's a little trivia about the huge DC 10 airplane you see flying over and dropping the red phos check stuff.


That plane was damaged in an accident fighting another fire.

How?

It hit a tree.

It was flying low over a fire and a downdraft forced the tail to hit some tree tops, damaging the tail and raising some questions about a large plane being used to fight fires!

[cassiesmom]

Here's kind of an eerie photo from today's on line Chicago Tribune. It's an aerial picture from the European Space Station.

[RICHARD]

A little perspective?


See the island off the coast? The smaller on in the middle of the pic....That is Catalina Island. It's 26 miles off the coast.

[cassiesmom]

Just checking in again today on Calif. PT'rs. I hope you are all okay. They are saying on the news that the number of people needing to evacuate is now over 500,000, but that the strength of the winds seems to be decreasing.