San Diego fires
 

one of my workers left for San Diego Saturday for a family visit.

Bad timing. They're evacutating the zoo animals, man! Fire's gonna go all the way to the sea. They say.

We'll see.

I emailed with friend Liz in the LA hills above Dodger Stadium. She says its smoky and nasty all the way up there. Not sure how near the closest major fire is to her.

Just got word from one of my friends out there that they packed up and are staying with a friend that has a "less intimidating fire nearby" than the one he was dealing with at his place. Yikes.

...but on to the important part of this news story: the celebrities.

http://fox.org/~vince/out/fires.gif

Yeah, several major fires at once menacing the area.

A dozen named fires distributed over seven Southern CA counties.

Saw two of them driving back from a trip to Las Vegas, for they were visible from Highway 14 -- the biggie in Canyon Country and what looked to be a smaller brushfire, trying steadily to burn uphill against the wind. Big fire was smoking the hell out of Santa Clarita immediately to its west. We can smell the burning and see the haze and occasional fall of black ash. There is smoke and haze around all points of the compass, though less north of Oxnard. Some of the Malibu smoke is no doubt coming straight at us.

A wind day, a flame day, a day of haze and ashes.

If it's irritating to the throat I can't tell; a feature of this week is I've already got a cough. Which is getting better.

The winds are powerful today; they've only slacked with the sun going down. We tend to get our fires when Santa Ana winds blow, and we get troublesome fires if they blow hard, which they did yesterday and today. It's dry and it's warm around here. With as much wind as we're getting, for once the newsies have it right in speaking of undomesticated blazes as "wildfires." You need real wind to make a brush fire truly wild.

Called my mom to tell her we weren't in trouble.

oh, UG! I knew there had to be Cellarites in Socal, but didn't realize . . .

(sends non-windy thoughts to California)

I thought you'd been quiet lately, UG. How was Vegas?

I dread big fires, they can move so damn fast, and with the fire-spotting they are almost impossible to stop.
We discussed the presence of eucalyptus in California a few weeks back. Here is the downside: the buggers burn like hell. I think it may be to do with the oil in them, as well as their tendency to build up huge piles of dead sticks and bark. Best wishes to all concerned.

Did you just tell UG to shut up?

bwahahaha!

(very small chuckle)

I hope it is not as bad as the fires we had in Victoria (Australia) last summer. Those fires burnt for 69 days, and there were a number of summer days when the official weather forecast for Melbourne was "smoky". Fortunately, a lot of the land that was burnt was uninhabited wilderness.

The Californian fires are clearly worse in terms of human impact because the fire area is more densely populated.

BAD Fires around, evacuated , back home now...
 

This started Sunday Noon, about 20 miles NE. dry desert winds blowing at 20-50 mph, blowing the fire through the unincorporated town of Ramona, into the high rent outer districts NE of San Diego. meanwhile, several others, one along the border, others north to riverside county, its bad in every direction

We got the reverse 911 call at 2:00pm yesterday, the news and radio media have been all over things, they have done an extraordinary job of getting realtime information out. lessons learned from 4 years ago when 350 houses in our neighborhood burned down. The fact that it burned though here so recently acts as a safety buffer for us, but the city was taking no chances with the fast unpredictable winds. we spent the night with three cats in carriers, papers, overnight bags and laptops in the local grocery store parking lot. everything was closed, the police were not letting people back in once they left. They released us at 12 noon. otherwise 90 degrees, blue (smoke filled) skies. No humidity. less than 8%, the dew point is between -2 and 8 degrees.

The back of a Ford explorer is not kind to a 51 year old body. Next time we'll pack camping pads.

And, we do plan on a next time.

there are 300 thousand + evacuated, and seeking shelter in the community, and the city, towns, businesses and churches are really stepping up. the co-ordination is superb, let's see it they can sustain it.

we're not convinced we might not have to bolt again, they have evacuated some of the rural areas due east.

500+ local houses so far burned, some people we know are effected. many more over the region, and they have no control over most of it yet, it's too massive and fast moving.

we are ok, and should stay so, but there are many many people in extreme distress and disruption. The prayers of your choosing (not a habit for me, except at times like this) would help give them the strength to get through this.

-steambender

Glad you're OK, man.
I guess this will impact the SoCal housing market, big time.

2+ years to get rebuilt for the people with money, good insurance and assertive management personalities. Not that many custom builders to do rebuilds, and new development builders business model doesn't handle demo, rebuilds very well, so there is a long waiting list.

The people who live out in areas like Ramona (not the developments , but in the country, hills and canyons) frequently like the isolated lifestyle, and some don't have the money or coping skills to rebuild what they've spent 20+ years evolving as a home. some of them still haven't gotten rebuilt in 4 years, and just got sent back to start over.

and the market should get a slight bump, too. but, people will also move out because of this.

Kingswood, yes, but there's a good deal of uninhabited land cheek by jowl with the houses, so damage to houses varies by quite a bit. A fair bit of the terrain being burned over is hillsides and arroyos. Some country houses peppering the fire areas irregularly. It's almost the kind of crapshoot tornado destruction is.

Cloud's nonwindy thoughts seem to be taking some effect; the force of the Santa Ana winds (named after the canyon(s) that winds from the northeast funnel through, coming off the deserts of the Mojave and most of Nevada, playing upon the greater Los Angeles area like the draft from furnace ducts) weakened today at least in Ventura county. The forecast has the Santa Ana winds dying out tomorrow as the high-pressure area over Nevada moves north, and quits dancing quite so closely with a low-pressure area over the nearby ocean -- when they are close together and strong, their winds get damned fierce. A mountain peak I can see from my block recorded wind like a Cat-III hurricane, gusting at 111 mph. Today we were getting wind from the usual quarter, off the water. We didn't smell smoke today, though it's still clouding the sky.

V, you're naughty!:p

Yep, no kiddin'. The governor, indulging his (understandable) penchant for quoting from movies, spoke of the "perfect storm" for fire conditions. This year, rain was minimal, leaving the brush very very dry, though not growing a lot of extra foliage either, so to some degree there's equipoise. Then we got ourselves a strong Santa Ana wind condition, which crops up most often about this season of the year at the end of the drying season and just before the rainy one. The wind kicked up really hard, bringing hot dry desert air with it in a big way and then -- in a case or two, supiciouslyyyyyy -- the fires cropped up. This many fires all over the area makes one suspect they had a bit of help getting started. One blaze, I forget which, is reported to have been started by blown-down power lines arcing.

So far, two dead, some firefighters injured to varying degrees.

We don't go to Vegas to game -- that's for mugs, and for people who really really like to play cards. We may try to get back there in mid-December for a Squirrelnut Zippers concert. There is, well, pretty much everything in Vegas, including Indians. And bagels with lox -- your bagels are very secure when you put lox on them, you know. And the wife, who does know, tells me the blintzes are some of the best anywhere. The Vegas Strip, where the entertainments are most concentrated, is basically the east end of town, and it's the theme-parkish end of the place. It's designed to make you rear back and go, "Jeeezus Keerist!" -- but even though it's the town's main industry, it's also a triumph of determined artificiality. Just think of it as Vegas World: here's a desert city and the national dish is shrimp cocktail -- okay, prime rib dinners seem to run a close second. You can eat mighty well in Vegas. The cuisine on the Strip varies from fancy-schmancy restaurant fare to hotel buffet, which is plenty copious but more than a little Midwestern -- best for breakfast, in my view. A bit more effort -- mainly that of leaving the Strip -- can get you more ethnic and zippier fare out in town. The city is very open to the skies, and with a bit of altitude under it, you get a Mountain States sort of sky and feel in the air. I grew up in that, so the air and light around Vegas is very friendly to me.

It's a bit unfortunate for the psyche that the main Vegas industry, and its real money mill, is gambling and frivolity. I don't think I'd care to work in a casino in any capacity: they smoke in there. However, you can make quite a decent and honorable living catering for the punters: housing them, feeding them, taxiing them, and putting on shows.

yuk, yuk, yuk!

Ah, the breakfast buffet at the Paris! c'est magnifique!

lox??
Blintzes??
Weren't they Santa's substitute reindeer?
You're eating reindeer. You sod. :p

I never got the appeal of Vegas, or gambling generally.

I bet you never will.

You're on. Twenty Bucks.

HA! You lose! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

From the LA Times of 24 Oct 2007:

complusion...
 

Has anyone else seen that add for the Restless Leg Syndrome Drug? And the side-effects/contraindications include "...increases in gambling or other compulsive behavior?"

A Drug that intensifies compulsion? Who the hell is going to tell their doctor that they're an arsonist, or klepto, or pedophile?

right know that makes me wonder, about the arsonist part. I also swear to god that I would chase down, drag out of their car and pummel anyone stupid enough to toss a lit cigarette butt out of their car window...

still smoking in San Diego

Progress towards containment is being made on most if not all fires up at the more northerly end of things, where most of the evacuations... weren't. The greatest number of evacuations is still down in San Diego County.

1800 houses destroyed overall, and five deaths.

In Oxnard, we did have one little smudge-fire located right by a highway on-ramp -- Rose Avenue onto the 101 -- that was immediately squashed by the local FD. That probably was some dildoid flicking a butt out the car window. They apparently didn't have the advantage of being brought up by a forest ranger...

A month ago my brother visited from back east. We drove the 45 minutes out through Ramona and witch creek to Julian for lunch and apple pie, the town specialty. Our trip was cut short by a wildfire on the backside of town, and we were passed by a steady stream of CalFire trucks heading up to town as we went back downhill home to Scripps Ranch. I took the opportunity to show him how absolutely arid the vegetation was and the extreme fire risk. He got to walk on a beach and see a wildfire in the same day.

Anyone with any sensitivity to their local surroundings would see the hazard. They think, or so they've said, that the wind downed power lines for the witch fire, and that an exploding transformer started at least one of the secondary fires. Too many others to be spontaneous.

Four years ago I rode my bike through the area 1-2 miles away where 350 houses were burned. They wouldn't let people in for quite a while, there was some looting, but I got in earlier on a bike than they would have let a car in. It looked like the California version of Germany and London after the firebombings, even down to being mostly black and gray. Blue sky and sunny, being southern California.

I wonder at the contrast between this disaster, and the Katrina hurricane. Similar stadiums as refuges; one a horror story of backing up toilets, no facilities, etc., the other described as a "county fair" with an overabundance of volunteers, and massages provided to evacuees.

Is it just a smaller disaster? Was New Orleans just a poorer place with fewer facilities? Has FEMA really learned its lessons?

As an aside, I'm always flabbergasted by the number of people who don't have disaster plans or supplies on hand. In California, surely, where people deal with earthquakes all the time, shouldn't most of these people have emergency supplies on hand? I guess it's just one of those things that people know they should do, but somehow never get around to it. Like me!

Japan is the most earthquake prone country in on Earth (according to some) and gets regular tsunamis, typhoons, flood, volcanoes, blizzards (in the north and mountains) ... about the only thing it doesn't get are huge fires and droughts, although droughts are starting to happen.
The government urges everyone to have 3 days worth of water, food and other supplies per person in disaster packs ready to go ... yet barely 15 or 20 % of the people I have spoken to have them. Usually it is older people too. I guess they've seen it before. It's hard to convince people by telling them.
And even those with packs often seem to forget toilet paper. Du-u-uh!

I too have noted the difference between this and Katrina, and I'm wondering why. Got no answer though.

For the most part, the areas evacuated were not inner city, dense urban populations. Plus, San diego has a highly developed sense of volunteerism and service - 100 thousand active duty personnel, 300 thousand retired military. People are offering to pick up and do laundry for the stadium refugees!

We went through this 4 years ago, and everybody learned lessons from it. there are still people who had no clue, but most people effected in Ranch Bernardo (worst hit) were white collar, and the houses than burned average probably $750k. Their coping skills are reasonable. And the denser parts of the city and hotels were open to absorb the evacuees. remember that at peak only about 15,000 peple went to qualcomm. All the others (the balance of the 500,000+ potential evacuees) got absorbed by the community. the number of homes lost will be less than 5000, so the destruction is much less that Katerina, and the infrastucture is still in place.

San diego has had some high profile city management issues, financial mismanagement, and rubber stamping developers plans, that type of thing. But therre is still a sense of amatuerism to the city politics compared to say, Chicago. almost innocence, and it comes out in the community spirit in a big way at times like this.

"High Fire Danger" is a season here and the level of awareness is very high. It's always a question of when and where, not if.

There's also the difference between having emergency supplies in your house, and what you can pack in your car and take with you on less than an hours notice. Ranch Bernardo got evacuated at 4:00 AM on short notice, the fires moved the 20 miles overnight.

kids, pets, important papers, computers, overnight clothes...gee we're out of room, can't take our years' survivalist supplies.

I think the main difference is that a hurricane wipes out all the power in the region and causes widespread destruction everywhere in the area. These fires are widespread, but they don't cause the same overwhelming destruction everywhere. Some places burn, some don't. The systems (electricity, plumbing, etc.) still work, for the most part, even though so many individual buildings were lost.

Also, in Katrina, everybody had to evacuate. In San Diego, only some people did. Those who didn't are able to help the victims.

Good points Steambender.

Tho the emergency preparedness info I've come across says to have BOTH 1) bulk supplies of food, water, etc.; and a backpack or other "quick-grab" thing with essentials in it.

I keep meaning to do this . . . fortunately, very few natural disasters in my area. Still, could be a plague or something . . .

Hmmm. Good Question. Glatt's right about the power.

I think the difference is, being able to drive to safety, and resources. And if you don't like that....you can drive somewhere else.

Here are some marked differences:

One massive group is trapped inside of a burning hot, and putrid watery hell with no means to get out for weeks on end.


The other:

Tiny small groups are free to leave a hot burning hell with their house in the rearview of their hummer to go eat and rest at Grandma's for a few days clutching their insurance policys.


I can give you a more detailed list but I'm already tired of my own opinion on this one.

Are you ready?
 

the topic of grab and go energency supplies gets talked about a lot.

Do a quick experiment-

1. back a car out of garage so you have some clear floor space.

2. start a pile of everything you and the people (& pets)you are responsible for would need for 24 hours of survival

at least one gallon of water per person
shelter in which to sleep
clothing for 95+ days and 50 degree nights
blankets or sleeping bags
sun shade for the day
personal hygiene supplies (we were peeing behind the grocery store)
food
a source of power for cell phones and radios
anything you need to prepare, cook & consume the food
transportation for all of the above
fuel for the transportation - we watched many people pull up to opur local gas station after it closed - they were SOL.
trashbags

non essentials to survival:
activites for the kids and any restless adults, you do nothing but wait and worry once you have a place to be.
important identity and property ownership papers.
computers
irreplaceable photos, etc.


Now how big is that pile, how long did it take you to collect it, does it fit into your transportation?

multiply it by more than one day.

Have you ever practiced using it? (gone camping) or does your version of camping involve curling irons and room service?

so, how easy is it to not look prepared, and who among us is ready RIGHT NOW?

Steambender,
That's a good point. But 90% of what you'll need for 3 days, you'll need for one day.

Now you have to worry about changing out the batteries every once in a while, making sure the water is still potable, putting in fresh twinkies every other year, getting fresh stable fuel every quarter, organizing your whole home so the passports and pictures are in a case with a handle, etc. etc. This is just too much fuckin work for a guy who can't manage regular vacuuming or cashing of donation checks.

UT
you are so right...life is too hectic for all of the just in case planning.

and the memories and urgency fade with time even after you've had to do it.

it's an attitude, and a little planning and preparation. we'll do better next time, and we don't or won't prepack any perishables, just use what's around the house at the time.

It just irks me to hear people say "why weren't they more ready?" Who is so organized and in control of their normal life much less contingency planning...

glad things are getting back to mormal.

Gee, I was just there the other day! I didn't flick any butts but I wonder if this fire was semi-divine retribution for that speeding ticket???

As a first one in such locations and being on a bike, what precautions were necessary? Do the streets remain clear? Are there numerous obstructions to be removed? Are flat tires a serious risk? Anything apparent as a threat to you - wildlife or inorganic?

tw lit the fires.

he didn't!
It was always burning, Since the world's been turning

TW-

fly ash and soot, not much debris. nothing that made me worry about my tires. Wildlife pretty much disappears for a while. and I wasn't first, the officials, fire and LEO were all through there, they don't let civilians back until the gas and electric are safely taken care of. I just looked harmless on my bike. I'll tell you though, the air particulate level is high enough that it's not a good idea to do anything strenuous unless you really need to.

Not much news from the northern end of the trouble area today: containment continues, and some assets are freed up to go reinforce the efforts down south. San Diego County is where the major action is now.

As a benchmark indicator of air quality (and why air masks might be useful), how did your clothes smell afterwards? Strong or just an odor of smoke?

New Scientist has a fascinating story about the fires.
There was a camera trap in bushland in Orange county being used to study coyote behaviour. It's the regular set-up that takes a picture when the motion sensor is triggered. The camera somehow survived when the fire raged through, and came up with one astonishing picture, and several others that put it in perspective.

The evening before, Wiley Coyote, possibly fleeing the fires:

Attachment 15680

No caption required:

Attachment 15677

Ten minutes later.

Attachment 15679


More pics at the original story.
I want to know the brand of the camera that survived that blast of heat, and kept shooting. Impressive. Probably not in the design specifications.