Not to be a downer but....
 

I can't help but feel a little nervous about this Chatsworth fire. I live in West Hills and the fire is moving down the mountain towards our side. I can walk out of the house, stand on the driveway turn to the left and see the mountains glowing orange and red. :eek: We are about 3 (maybe 3 1/2 miles) from where the hills are. I don't necesssarily expect the fires to get too close to the house (there are a lot of little streets and things before it would get to us...) but it is still a little scary to see the hills, a mere four minute drive away, on fire.

Eh, I'm in Simi Valley about the same distance. I see the flames moving about the hills. Seems to be staying in the same general area. My smoke alarm keeps going off and I'm trying to figure out what to grab just in case.

We'll see! Stay safe!

Keep safe all of you near the fire zone. I saw a picture earlier from Coaster Matt and it looks very scary. I really hate the unpredictably of fires in general. Keep safe.

Yeah we are trying to figure out escape routes just in case. Let's hope all of us don't have to use them......

Creepers. I hope you are all okay.

Take care, both of you! We had a fire near our house this summer- it was pretty scary stuff. They closed all access roads and we pretty much just had to wait to see if we had a house (and kitties!) left.

This type of thing makes me glad I no longer live in the foothills-yes, Bakersfield does have foothills. I used to pull fire watch from my bedroom windows. Every 2 years we had an arsonist running around in our area. In '86 it was real bad. My sister was on her way home and spotted it in the large field in front of our houses. It had just started. Small fires set every 10-20 feet. By the time I called the FD the flames were running towards the houses in front of us. A bunch of my friends came out to help. I had to break in to a neighbors house to get their windows closed because the ash was so bad. After a fire fighter was killed they finally caught the guy responsible. It was a Basque sheep herder. He set the fires every 2 years so his roaming flocks would have better grass to eat.

They were just giving advice on one of the channels about inventorying everything you have and saving that inventory somewhere else (like a friend's house in another city) so if anything happens, you can prove to the insurance company what you need compensation for. It included noting what kind of floors you have (carpets, tile, etc), your furniture, belongings, etc. You might wanna walk through each room slowly with a video camera or something, just so you have something to show the ins. company if anything should happen.

If you're super ambitious, like my brother, you keep a database and update it with every major purchase - item, brand, model #, price, place purchased, date purchase, where it is in the house, distinguishing characteristics, etc...

My mother lives in Canoga Park. Where she is at is really not in danger (they are a ways from foothills), but the ranch where she trains with her mules is RIGHT where the Chatsworth fire started (for those who know the area, it is where Santa Susana Rd breaks off of Topanga).

And there were two fires out in the Inland Empire near Susan's mom (one was the one that burned up a chicken ranch killing 60,000 chickens).

Fire is one thing that scares the hell out of me. I remember one really bad brush fire in the early 80's that was near our house in Chatsworth. I spent several hours on our (wood shake) roof with a hose putting out the burning embers landing on it.