SoCal Fires
 

Well hell. I just heard that Aunt Moonie and family is having to evacuate from the La Canada fire. From what I can tell, the fire is a little more than a mile from their house, the same one we just had the reunion in.

The wind changed last night... the smell of fire is thick in the air.

Update:

I have a little better information. For the moment, they are outside the evac area but not out of danger just yet. Here's hoping they get this thing contained soon.

My boss has a home in Idyllwild.... wonder how he's coping with the fire up there.

That's the Cottonwood fire . Voluntary evacutions in Bee Canyon.

How do the fires know when "fire season" starts?

http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_current

When I went to work there were 2 fires. Now Camp Pendelton is on and there are 5 or 6 more going.

Bleh.

The Valley is stinky today!

More so than usual, I mean.

The season is starting early this year.

I'm surprised I'm not under a layer of smoke. The RPV fire is not far away. The wind must be coming from the South West and I can still breath.

I got confused yesterday thinking it was October already. That's when things usually get really bad.

Yep, we're lucky there are no Santa Anas yet. Still too early for them.

Supposed to be this weekend....ugh!

I hear there's a fire over near Tom's Farms in Corona. I live in Corona. Have a friend/co worker that lives right down the street from Tom's. SCARY!

And I have a headache.

Our sky is weird up here. I don't know if we are getting smoke, or if it is just hazy. It seems strange that Bakersfield is about 10* cooler than Riverside right now.

Every year you're all on and on about the fires and so far (at least to my memory) not one of you has been burned up in a fire.

You can only cry wolf so many times. This year somebody better die or next year I'm not going to pay any attention.

~ mousepod as Legolas

I wonder if that's what Murphy's been up to since he can't perform for Fantasmic?

At my previous company we had global employees. During the massive fires (2 years ago I think?) when they were in Foothill coming towards RSM (to the point where we had smoke in our office) people were shocked we were at work (so were we, but aside from the smoke in the building we weren't in imminent danger).

It also hits home when there is a fire in SB or LA and people want to know how close that is to Disneyland and if Disneyland will be closed.

The smoke is coming into the SJ Valley through Tehachapi. I was seeing the Western sky, but it wasn't until I went out in the front yard that I saw the East and all of the brown and purple of smoke. I had to look up our news just to make sure our foothills weren't burning.

Hey, Good news! Auntie Moonie was just given the evacuation order.

Would major loss of property be enough to keep you coming back?

Oh Moonie, I think Alex is just being Alex. Not malicious.

If you remember, a few years ago NM was evacued. Fire was essentially in his back yard.

But it's sure different when it hits that close to home, eh?

Hope everyone is safe and no property is lost.

Probably not since I don't know Auntie Moonie. There are already plenty of stories of anonymous people being put out. Get her to join the board.

You mean like you people in the Bay area belly acheing about pesky those earthquakes? You'd think the world was ending to hear them talk about them.

(I'm posting this..;) .... because I know Alex won't see it) :D

Best of luck to the Moonie family.

We saw lots of towering smoke in our wanderings today, and the edge of hillside fire itself was visible for a moment on our drive home this evening. It's kind of crazy, being close enough to see how freaking huge it is, but far enough away to not worry about it at all. "Oh yeah, that? That's the fire. I'm sure there are evacuations and brave firefighters and all that. Good luck to 'em. I'm going home, far from the edge of it."

We drove up a hill on the way back to Cherny's from the Hollywood Bowl tonight so we could kinda see the fires. But Princess Dala and I ended up getting a better view driving the 101 away from Cherny's later. A very bright line of flame along a hillside. Kinda reminds me when I drove up El Toro to get a better look at the Irvine/Foothill Ranch fire (except for the part about driving close to an evacuated area and all that)

So you one of the ones that just drives by to see the flames....;)

When it was close to home, yeah.

The ones going on right now we were just seeing from a distance, when we were high enough to see over the near foothills to the ones behind them where the flames were just barely over the ridge. Still, for the valley, that's pretty darn close. Reminds me of the fires in the hills around Chatsworth back in the early 90's.

A new fire started up in Oak Glen. Here are some pictures we took:

Oh no!

Where is Oak Glen?

The only fire I can find info about is the Station fire, that it is heading towards Acton and Santa Clarita.

Latest news I heard was that firefighters were abandoning Mt Wilson and the observatory along with a bunch of TV/radio transmitters are in danger. There's a lot of history up there.:(

Oak Glen is by Yucaipa

We did see the DC-10 go by (not my picture)




more info here

This site (Cal Fire)
is a good resource. They have info on the Oak Glenn fire and all the others.

That's not good. I remember when a radio station lost it's transmitter in the fires a few years back. I know NBC has theirs on Mt. Wilson.

Some info on the Station Fire.

I've been getting up to date fire news from LA Now (The Times' blog)
And, VERY sad news.

Sad about the firefighters.

BTD's link led me to the cause of the Gloria Fire, Agricultural Fireworks. You learn something new every day.

NBC just shared some info about some morons who decided to stay. Two of them tried to hide from it in their jacuzzi then had to run to a ranger station - a helicopter had to fly into the smoke to rescue them. Another moron drove their truck through a wall of flames to escape.

I'm glad the news is sharing that deciding to stay isn't turning out well. I still think those who choose to ignore the evac warnings and stay be left to fend for themselves.

It rained here last night. I hope that the fire areas also got some rain.

NBC is reporting that it's a 'when', not 'if' Mt. Wilson goes.

I hope they are wrong.

At least it's not a populated area.

KTLA showed firefighters are back on top of Mt Wilson. It didn't look like a lot, but that there are some there must mean that it was safe enough for them to return.

Rain? Couldn't have been much....??

And is the home of Riley's Apple Farm, which has been discussed in this thread.

Are you jeepers? I had no idea!

So if they burn down - it's God's wrath for them being such bigots?

If Riley's Apple Farm burns then is God punishing them for being homophobic a$$holes?

yep, we drive them from time to time.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking those thoughts... :evil:

You've got it all wrong. They clearly haven't been bigoted enough and God is punishing them for having thus far failed to wipe out homosexuality. The same way the fact that Katrina affected just about every part of New Orleans except the heavily gay populated section was to punish everyone else for their acceptance of the evil doers.

The fire is 1/4 mile from Mt. Wilson.

Also:

Yeah my office in Encino smells like smoke. Looking out the windows (from the 16th floor) it is really, really nasty out. :(

Been to Shambala.....I hope all goes well there!

Oh no! Those poor animals!

Is this why Las Vegas hasn't been destroyed in a natural disaster? After all it's Sin City. They don't care who does what there.

View of the fire from space.

Wow... That picture gave me vertigo! Aerial photos have never had that effect on me before.

I saw Aunt Moonies house on a live feed from the KTLA copter this morning. So far it's still standing but the fire is getting close and I did not see any firefighting equipment in the neighborhood. Although it was admittedly a quick shot.

What about skakey aerial cam?

My dad called last night to say that he can smell the smoke in Vegas and that the air is fairly bad there too. Dude! :(

I think Riley's Apple Farm would be a great sacrifice to appease the fire gods though.

Yeah. Heather is in Vegas for a trade show. Her plane almost didn't leave Burbank yesterday - and she also reported the smell of smoke from LV.

Remember, they choose those shots to make it seem as dire a situation as possible. They know how to play clever tricks with angles and zoom to make the first look closer than it is.

Careful, cause now if they don't burn down we'll have to admit that God is on their side.

Generally yes, but in this case I was watching the raw feed where they were basically flying around looking for the "right" angle. The fire was coming down the Mtn towards a house at the end of their street.

Red Line = Fire
Green Circle = Aunties House.

Strange, this morning a number of us thought it seemed smoky last night - wonder if... ?

Here... haz a hurricane.

Too bad it'll be tiny by the time it gets there.

There is a layer of brown east, towards what I presume to be FHR/Lake Forest/El Toro area. I'm directionally challenged but the mountains are that direction so I'm going to say I'm safe with east.

That could be the result of the Ridge fire (north edge of Pendelton), the Morris Fire (east of the Station fire, still in Angeles National Forest), or a combination of all 3.

It's times like these that I miss Jerry Falwell, blaming the flaming gays for starting the fires. All those perverts rubbing their sticks together, coating them in hot oil and.... *ahem* Yeah, those were teh days.