California is on fire again.

[gini]

Rain? What is that?? Seriously, we will start getting rain just when we don't need it - and the thought of the mud slides to come gives me the chills.

I live miles in each direction from all of the many fires - but this morning the sky was a muddy beige. I ran my finger over my patio table that had just been cleaned yesterday - and I could write my name in the soot.

I have been sneezing all day.

Trish, I am so glad to hear that you are home and your babies are alright.
I pray that your home is alright too!

[sasvermont]

I, too, have been watching the news about the fires. I hope only the best for these people, much the same hopes I had (have) for the hurricane Katrina victims. And I thought I had (have) problems. Such destruction.

I wish we would spend more money on prevention from the damages of flooding and fires and less on war. 46 billion requested by Bush just yesterday. 46 billion more.

My heart goes out to the CA population as well as their loved ones sharing their horrors.

[gini]

Yes, I noticed that word too - BILLION!!!!

There was a newscast this morning from the Fire Department Chief in Orange County. He asked to vent. After the 2003 fires in San Diego County -
a "blue ribbon" committee was formed to study what needed to be done for the future to prevent so much damage and loss of life.

48 points were recommended as a result of that study.

Not one - NOT ONE - of them have been implemented.

It seems as though our priorities are really messed up.

[RICHARD]

46 billion dollars to implement -

Here comes another helicopter.....

Fire prevention plans?

When we have the little fiefdoms- small cities, home owners associations, zoning laws and all the em effing local politicos looking for a piece of the government money?- that money would be better spent loading it into 757s and dropping it into the ocean.

I just wrote out a long rant for the Dog house that I deleted on accident....

People depend on the gov't. for way too much and way too often.

One man was ticked off that he lost his home-the FD saved it once before, but now they are the EVIL FD..

A few minutes later I saw him doing another interview on another TV station.

The Fire fighters were probably his heroes the first time out. This time his luck ran out and he had nothing but bile and hate for them.

I guess the luck of an ungrateful bees turd runs out eventually.

--------------

There is no real way to prevent fires and losses from such..

I guess you can cut fire break roads around the forests, do not let people develop them and then pave a huge asphalt "no build zone" around Southern California.


46 billion should be enough to build a firehouse, complete with firemen, on every single parcel of land here in CA.

Our priorities sure are screwed up.

We are letting people-Another chopper overhead-build up to the edge of our forests and not making them responsible for their homes.

Sure, I want to live in the forest-but fire, bears, snakes and landslides make me want to stay a flatlander.

[cmayer31]

Some of the things that we learned from the 2003 fires have been corrected. The main one that came out of the 2003 fires was the need to communicate evacuations. Since the 2003 fires huge strides have been made. The reverse 911 system turned out to be amazingly good and saved lives and made the evacuations a lot more controlled. We did get our Fire 1 helicopter out of the 2003 fires and it was the first helicopter up and really did an amazing job while the political morons tried to figure out how to get the other aircraft in the air. That said, there were a lot of lessons that we learned the hard way to 2003 and we repeated them again this year, sad.

The one that saddens be the most is that the military once again wanted to help us, once again was prepared immediately to help us, and once again was slowed by Cal Fire administrators. The same issues that plagued us in 2003 came up again these last few days and the same sad results occurred.

The good news is that the humidity is up a little and the temperature has come down a bit. The Santa Ana winds have died down, but are being replaced by off shore winds that are hard to predict. It's a necessary evil I guess, the off shore will bring in cool, moist weather, but it's pushing fire back towards us and is much more unpredictable.

I hope everyone remains safe!

Just a small note.. we lost a lot of homes yesterday in non-forest or wild land communities. It just goes to show the unpredictable and destructive nature of wild fires. This fire jumped fire breaks as wide as the 6-8 lanes of the 15 freeway, and most every dirt fire road around. The wind was so intense that no width of paved fire break was going to stop this monster from spreading from forest, to foot hills, to city developments. It's the risk we take, no different than any community on the globe; there will always be fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters; no amount of prevention can stop Mother Nature when her fury is released. Can knowledge and preparation reduce the damages? Yes, but sometimes these disasters even go above any kind of preparation.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Just thought I'd check in to make sure everyone one here was safe. Glad to hear, so far, everyone is well.

We were in a campground in Aquanga, CA, which is a teeny tiny town North of San Diego, about 15 miles East of Hwy 15. We arrived there yesterday (Monday) after being told there had been a fire across the street the day before, but it was 100% out and only burned 5 acres - so we decided to go.

This morning we woke up to hear a new fire had broken out near Palomar Mountain, which was just over the mountain from us. When I heard this, I looked out the window and saw nothing. Turned out we had some business to tend to in Indio, CA, so I called the front desk to see if I could leave the keys for the motorhome with them, so in case a fire started nearby and the park needed to be evacuated, someone could come in and get the cats. I was told "Oh sure, that's no problem. We'll make sure they're safe." I was thrilled and very grateful for such a warm response. I told them we'd have all important papers and such with us in the car, they would just need to get the cats.

We were getting ready to go and I happened to turn around....and to my complete surprise and horror, I saw smoke billowing over the mountain! (first picture) Terry was on his cell phone, so I snapped a few pics and a video. You could see the smoke cloud growing and changing shape by the second! I was horrified and told him there was no way I was leaving without the cats. If he wanted to go himself, I would stay and watch the cats and the motorhome. He wouldn't do that, so we talked to the front desk and they agreed to give us a credit and we left.

By the time we left, the wind had started taking the billowing smoke and spreading it out. (see second pic) As we started leaving, I was on the phone making sure no roads were closed in the direction we were headed. Fortunately, all roads were open. We had to take I-15 to I-215. I-15 was closed Southbound, but open Northbound - Whew!

The 3rd picture was taken when we were about 30 miles North, and the smoke is still a significant obstacle on the horizon.

We are now safe in Indio, CA, where the wind speed was about 3 mph when we arrived this afternoon. Can you imagine - three (3) mph! We couldn't believe things could be so dramatically different in such a short distance.

It's all so sad - so many people loosing so much property, and so much loss of wildlife.

[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.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

There is no real way to prevent fires and losses from such..

Well, one way to prevent fires is for idiots to stop setting them. They are saying at least 3 of the fires were set. They have one person in custody and are looking for another. I hope they make them pay for all the damage they have caused!!!

Stay safe everyone!!!

[sandragonfly]

even seeing the pictures can be scary.

I have two uncles, aunts and three cousins live just very near where the fire is, I don't talk with them very much but my (northern) grandmother is fret all about this and haven't been sleeping well. they also have three goldens, four cats and two birds altogether down there - I hope all are ok! animals can react to this nature very well.

everyone who evacuted, lost homes, loved ones, or is going to be in the fire's way is in my thoughts. remain safe everyone!

[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.