Are fires in CA anywhere near Lindens ?

The one thing you don't see much in the news is how incredibly strong the wind gusts are. I've never seen the wind blow this hard before and it's probably fanning the flames. I don't see any smoke or ash in my area but I can feel it in the air, like fumes, and it makes my eyes hurt as well as giving sinus trouble.

The worst of the winds will be over tomorrow morning, but there will still be a "red flag advisory" until wednesday at 4pm. Weird, there is barely a breeze where I live by LAX.

I love the Northern California coast. No place I'd rather be.

Of course I'm sure most people here feel this way about their place in the world. Not to go too literary, but when I was living in northeast Texas for a couple of years, I read the Willa Cather book "My Antonia". I was so homesick, and stuck in such a foreign environment I couldn't help but hate it for being everything that home wasn't. But in the opening chapters of the book, there was this extraordinarily beautiful description of the Nebraska grasslands and how they waved in the winds that swepth through... honestly, it made me feel like the U.S. central plains were the most beautiful place in the world. I was still oh so happy to come home eventually, but I was left with a good understanding of how much people can love their homeland regardless of where it is.


... and now I'm sad thinking about all the people who've lost their homes, and what they must be going through right now.

@ Bree: I did see that on the Today show this morning. The winds looked like a hurricane, and one shot showed the flames blasting across a highway like a volcanic explosion. I have never in my life seen a wildfire so violent. I can't imagine how scared people must be.

A friend of mine who lives in our area had her dog blown into her pool earlier today. The maid had to fish him out. Funny how something can be so terrible and so funny at the same time. I'm like you, though, I'm not feeling that much wind.

I remember when the Jersey Pine Barrens burned a few years back.the havoc it caused, and that is a campfire compared to this. Best of luck to you guys.

My SL best friend lives in the San Diego area, and she had to evacuate yesterday about 1 pm PST. That's the last I've heard from her. I did get a message from a friend who had said that she had emailed him telling him they were at her parents house getting things together, and that they were safe, but as it stands right now, she cannot get to the area where she lives. I'm guessing she doesnt even know if they're home is still there or not. I'm axiously awaiting an IM, email, or whatever from her. I know they're safe, I just hope their home survives.

Homes and posessions can be replaced. It amazes me to see people in all sorts of impending disasters, foolishly, in my opinion, trying to save material things, the people on their roof with a garden hose, the person having the hurricane party, etc. (Or the idiot reporters reporting from hurricane sites) You can get new stuff. If the authorities say get out, GTF Out.

Wind was crazy here near Malibu (north about 10 minutes). I can barely breath or see 100 yards due to the smoke. This morning I can see stars but can already see and smell the smoke, the smoke comes and goes the smell always stays.
My main issue is that since I'm right on the coast I don't have air conditioning and with the smoke I definitely wont be opening the windows so it gets hot in the house.
But this happens about every year to one extreme or the other, a hazard of the area.

Jopsy is okay, just dealing with the smoke and ash fallout, and experiencing a little Deja Vu (from 03). Emailed yesterday afternoon to be sure.

Notwithstanding the fact that it is **impossible** to save your home from fire like this with a garden hose, those folks who are sticking around after evacuations are ordered are doing NOTHING but hindering the overall firefighting efforts, by forcing crews to pull off other critical tasks to respond to their 911 calls. I can understand why they do it - who wants to lose their house? It's just futile, and an unnecessary strain on already thin resources.

In the last Malibu fire, a woman did not evacuate when told. As the fire spread, she panicked and headed down Corral Canyon in her SUV. The firefighter trucks heading up could not pass because she was blocking the road. THen she made matters worse by panicking and abandoning the SUV in the road. The houses above this roadblock were lost. She ended up moving out of the area in shame.

Just talking to a friend who lives near Descanso (or something like that) stuck right in the middle of it all, no power or phones, running off a generator and unplugged the fridge just to be able to turn the computer on.

She can see fires all around in the distance, plus a small one nearby that they don't have enough manpower to put out so they have to just let it burn.

Scary stuff.

Broccoli

Thanks, Zaphod. I sent him a PM last night but hadn't heard back. Have they started evacuating your area yet?

No, and it's not very likely that the Big Bear Valley will become threatened, even though the fires just west of us are intense right now. It would require a major wind shift to move those fires toward us. We still have two egress routes - 18 to Victorville and 38 to Mentone, which are unaffected by fire.. That would be a trigger point, should a new fire start in one of those areas. It's the main reason we evacuated in 03 - we had one route left off the mountain.

Get to see nice views of both the mountain fires from Hesperia. Shame for all the loss.

Had two groups of friends move into my house last night after evacuaction and we just heard this morning tha both homes have been lost. This last year it was very difficult for some people to secure insurance in some of the mountain areas in our area due to the fact that the area is considered a huge threat after the infestation of the bark beetle killing many trees over the last few years

It is hard to blame some of the people staying and trying to do whatever they can to save their homes - yes you can always replace possessions but some people have all they have tied into those homes and if not insured it would be a tremendous loss.

The firefighters on the news this morning look terribley exhausted and worn out, but they are doing an incredible job. Even heard of different firemen having homes in the fire areas but no time at all to check on their own homes and see if they have survived.

Lets hope these winds die down soon before more nature and homes are lost. The smoke is the most inetense I have ever seen.

Another satellite picture, this one from mid-afternoon yesterday. The extent of the smoke is mindblowing. For scale, the bottom is just south of the Mexican border, the top is about half of Oregon, and San Francisco is just about in the middle. The smoke plumes shown blowing over the ocean are about 500 miles long... and I mean just the part you can see in the picture.

Heya! Yep, I'm still here, no evacuation in my neighborhood yet, despite being equidistant to both fires. Air quality where I am is far better than it was for the fires in 2003. Looked like a nuclear winter back then, dark, ash everywhere, what little sunlight got made things glow in a deep sanguine/amber hue.

Several wet towels around the house really help cut down on the smoke/ash/dry air thing. Even with the house all sealed up, they dry out disturbingly quickly.

Part of me is confident that I'm too close to the heart of the city to be affected by this wildfire... and part of me is worrying that I live too close to a vulnerable canyon. If I do join those that have lost their homes... there won't be much left of San Diego to return to.

At last report count there are more than a million people evacuated, more than 1200 structures lost. No hope of containment tomorrow or the day after, though hope the santa anna winds may fall off a bit tomorrow.

When I was out earlier today, everyone I saw had kind of a "end of days" expression of either forced cheerfulness or numb resignation.

Not much to do but wait and see, and keep checking the news... over and over and over...

Me and my family have just reunited again after being sepeated Sunday evening.
My parents, and my 3 year old son were in poway and got evacuated to mira mesa.
this whole time i was in chula vista and was told by my parents to stay put..
then today chula vista had the evacuation scare..

Finally, me and my son are back at home together, and my parents are going back home to poway

The air is horrible, ive has constant nose bleeds and headaches...
this is not fun..

I heard the president will be out here tomorrow to see the damages, and will be sending more help...

Lets just hope this ends soon.

My heart goes out to all the familys who lost thier houses or any valuables.. and a big thanks to all the firefighters

I'm so glad you're okay, Jopsy, please be safe.

Coyo
-Palm Springs

We've just evacuated from the East Highlands Ranch portion of Highland. It was voluntary when we left, but authorities told us that could change in two hours, so we packed up, grabbed the cats, and rented a hotel room. The neighbors we left behind seemed to think it was a 4th of July barbecue.

Anyway, glad everyone's safe so far. Hopefully the (mountain) fires will die a quick death in the night. *fingers crossed*

Were the fires started deliberately ?

Yes, at least a couple of them are definitely arson. One suspect was arrested last night on suspicion of trying to start a fire in the Lake Arrowhead region; another suspect was reported but not yet apprehended. Authorities here are also fielding dozens of reports of looting - arrests have been made there too.

Anyone in the San Diego area with information about the situation out there?

Me too - the TV news film looked horrendous! Just wanted you guys to know that people over here are thinking of all those affected and the people in the emergency services and feeling great concern.

A friend of mine's husband is a firefighter and has pretty extensive experience fighting forest fires here in Washington - we get some bad ones in the East half of the state some times. He was told earier this week to gear up and report for deployment to California to go fight those fires. The guy scrambled like a madman - he had virtually no notice - threw his gear together and scrambled out the door (alnog with the guys he works with, of course) only to be told that the governor of California doesn't want extra help and has everything under control.

Hey Arnold! We have some firefighters. They do good work. They have their bunker gear on and they're ready to go. How about letting them spell a few of your guys for a little while? We can spare them for the time being, seeing as how our state is not currently on fire.

My heart goes out to everyone down there. I grew up in Visalia, just between Fresno and Bakersfield and I remember the fires down in the foothills of the Sierras. It's scary and awful.

I was dumb enough to move to a state that also has major fault, but also has neatly positioned several extremely large, active volcanoes on top of it. (shake, shake, shake BOOOOOM!) Mt. St. Helens is one of my favorite places in the world, but it's scary how much power is underneath there.