SoCal Fire Season, Again

Vaughn McMillan

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Well, it looks like the Santa Barbara fire a few days ago was just the warmup. Dunno if it's made the national news, but we've got fires all over the place out here again. The closest one, the Sayre fire in Sylmar, has taken out over 600 homes last I heard (most of them in a mobile home park). Sylmar is about 8 miles from our place, so it's not an immediate danger, but with the winds and the dry heat we've had lately, any of the foothill areas (including our neighborhood on the edge of the National Forest) are on alert for evacuation. (They've evacuated 10,000 people in Sylmar.) LOML and I have already discussed what we'd need to grab if we have to get out in a hurry.

Here's a fire map of the Sayre fire. Scroll a little to the east, and we're about where the map shows Sunland to be. We're in the mouth of the canyon just north of the Sunland dot on the map.

Interesting times, for sure. :rolleyes:
 
Well, it looks like the Santa Barbara fire a few days ago was just the warmup. Dunno if it's made the national news, but we've got fires all over the place out here again. The closest one, the Sayre fire in Sylmar, has taken out over 600 homes last I heard (most of them in a mobile home park). Sylmar is about 8 miles from our place, so it's not an immediate danger, but with the winds and the dry heat we've had lately, any of the foothill areas (including our neighborhood on the edge of the National Forest) are on alert for evacuation. (They've evacuated 10,000 people in Sylmar.) LOML and I have already discussed what we'd need to grab if we have to get out in a hurry.

Here's a fire map of the Sayre fire. Scroll a little to the east, and we're about where the map shows Sunland to be. We're in the mouth of the canyon just north of the Sunland dot on the map.

Interesting times, for sure. :rolleyes:

Boy it sounds like it's that time of the year again to mow and cut all the grass & vegetation back away from your house as far as you can to get rid of as much as you can that would burn. (I know it's not a guarantee, but might keep the house from catching fire if it gets to your area). I'll get my "Vibe Generator" going to see if we can keep those fires going the other way.
 
Good vibes being generated from Maine and gaining momentum as members pass them along on their way to you Vaughn.

Interestingly enough, I doubt you could get a refinery to catch on fire here. Rain for weeks it seems and no end in sight. As I type this, a gale warning is up and the winds are blowing at 50 mph with a torrential downpour. If you want some Vaughn you can have all the moisture you want. :)

Edit: For what it is worth, I was on the fire dept for several years here and I must say, fire sucks. I learned through observation that it does not matter if you are rich or poor, you lose everything when you have a fire. My post above was meant to be silly, but it should be noted that fire is serious, with serious consequences. Just keep in mind, what is taken by fire can mostly be replaced...people cannot. Best wishes to the firefighters and homeowners.
 
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Boy it sounds like it's that time of the year again to mow and cut all the grass & vegetation back away from your house as far as you can to get rid of as much as you can that would burn.
That was all done last summer. The LA City Fire Department is pretty vigilant about citing homeowners who don't comply with the brush-clearing regulations. Our immediate neighborhood is clean in that regard, but we're also on the edge of untrimmed wildlands. (And the neighborhood has a variety of pine and eucalyptus trees.)

Good vibes being generated from Maine and gaining momentum as members pass them along on their way to you Vaughn.
...
Just keep in mind, what is taken by fire can mostly be replaced...people cannot. Best wishes to the firefighters and homeowners.
Thanks for the vibes guys, and Travis, you're right about replacing stuff vs. people. Its always amazing to watch the guys who are fighting these fires. On the local TV news Saturday afternoon I was watching a cop (in short sleeves) slipping and sliding on the tile roof of a house with his gas mask and a garden hose, trying to keep the fully-involved fire next door from jumping over. Never did see if he was able to save it or not.
 
I saw this on the news today, and wondered how you are doing.

Make up a kit of stuff to take, as fire can move real fast, 8 miles is, unfortunately, not very far. :(

A few years back, in my home town, the whole town was just about surrounded with fire, lost a lot of homes, no lives, thank goodness, but lots of homes and such. At the time, the local government had a by-law restricting the cutting of trees and such on one's property, the fire situation was bad. Most of the homes that did NOT burn in the worst areas, were the homes that the owner ignored the by-laws, some even go charged and paid fines, but they cut the brush and trees back from their houses. The by-law was soon removed.

Good vibes coming from a wet and cool Tokyo! :wave:
 
My cousin lives in a fire prone area outside LA but she has brush cut off to a substantial distance from her house. Last year everything around her burned but her place was OK. Still scary.
 
That's really tough. I know it's home but still wonder why folks live where this happens repeatedly.
I think that a lot of people don't realize this is a big state...even the southern part is bigger than a lot of entire states. (And definitely more densely populated, which is a whole other problem.) A lot of the places being hit with this series of fires are not the places where it repeatedly happens. Indeed there are some areas that are at higher risk (like ours) than others, but the chance of being hit by a large-scale disaster here is about the same as places that are prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, and blizzards.

I know you're not insinuating it at all in your post, but I've seen other discussions on the net tonight where people were having a hard time feeling bad for all the "rich people in California", not realizing that the national news is only sensationalizing the lost mansions, and not saying much about the lower- and middle-income people who are affected by these things. Sylmar, for example, is definitely not the land of the rich and famous. (At the Home Depot there -- where I shop -- most of the intercom announcements are in Spanish.) The 500 mobile homes (prefab homes, actually) that were lost in Sylmar Saturday morning were homes to lower-income and retired folks. By the way, I just saw on the news that they've arrested five suspects in the mobile home fire.

Stu, just before I read your comment I was thinking about the "assembled kit" idea. We've already got earthquake stashes, but they could stand to be better organized. Thanks for the reminder.
 
Yesterday, we have had some rolling electrical blackouts and major traffic jams due to the fires. But those are minor inconveniences compared to what folks are going through in the areas that are burning.

Vaughn, stay safe.
 
I'm coming out of a fairly tense 18 hours: started out directly downwind of the Corona fire, which split to the north (around the north side of Yorba Linda) and south (into Anaheim Hills) around my area.

Due to the terrain and wind direction, I never felt any serious direct fire danger, but the prospect of evacuation was very real from mid-afternoon on. And embers from the actual fire line were igniting structures 2-3 miles downwind.

Right now the main thing in short supply is clean air. :eek:
 
Vaughn, being the computer geek you are (I'm saying that as a compliment!!) I'm sure you have already thought of this. But for others that might need to be evacuated for any type of disaster that there is some warning for (hurricane comes to mind), I'd have my computer case loose, and the hard drive "unbolted" from the case, just in case. Unplug the HD and take it, the other parts can easily be replaced, and the HD hidden in a glove box so it won't be tempted to walk away with someone else. Much easier than trying to take the whole computer case. Jim.
 
But for others that might need to be evacuated for any type of disaster that there is some warning for (hurricane comes to mind), I'd have my computer case loose, and the hard drive "unbolted" from the case, just in case. Unplug the HD and take it, the other parts can easily be replaced, and the HD hidden in a glove box so it won't be tempted to walk away with someone else. Much easier than trying to take the whole computer case. Jim.
I've got a 250GB external drive that gets the critical files from the big machines upstairs (photos/graphics/music mostly). That goes into the side pocket of the laptop case...the laptop has all the financial stuff on it. It spent the night in the trunk of the car.
 
hey vaughn if you got time build your self a storm cellar and you can store your yellow friend in ther eot keep it in good shape should a fire come threw and take your shop... like stu said and i am sure you konw 8 miles of no fire can be gone in a flash ,,seen it first hand.. stay safe vaughn.
 
I'm coming out of a fairly tense 18 hours: started out directly downwind of the Corona fire, which split to the north (around the north side of Yorba Linda) and south (into Anaheim Hills) around my area.

Due to the terrain and wind direction, I never felt any serious direct fire danger, but the prospect of evacuation was very real from mid-afternoon on. And embers from the actual fire line were igniting structures 2-3 miles downwind.

Right now the main thing in short supply is clean air. :eek:
I was wondering how you (and the other OC guys) were doing down there, Lee. Glad to see you're still hanging in there. Anybody heard from Mike Henderson?
 
I was wondering how you (and the other OC guys) were doing down there, Lee. Glad to see you're still hanging in there. Anybody heard from Mike Henderson?
He's waaaay south of the (current) fire zone, unless there's something going on I haven't heard about.

I haven't quite convinced myself to unpack the car yet, but things are much calmer here now.
 
Just found this thread - as Lee said, I'm way out of the danger zone. But I'm worried about you, Vaughn. Hopefully, the fire will go away from you and there won't be another that comes your way. I'll be thinking about you and your family and watching the news. Let us know as your situation develops.

Lee, I haven't heard of anything in your neighborhood but let us know if there's a threat to you.

Mike
 
Lee, I haven't heard of anything in your neighborhood but let us know if there's a threat to you.
No problem now, but at one point yesterday I was about three miles SSW of the Hidden Hills (Yorba Linda) portion of the fire and two miles NW of the Anaheim Hills portion.

I wasn't worried about the Anaheim Hills portion of the fire (it was moving the wrong direction), but things could have gotten very ugly if the main fire front had moved south (downwind) through Eastlake instead of west through Chino Hills.

By morning the Anaheim Hills fires were pretty much burnt out and the Yorba Linda/Chino Hills fire had moved well to the west and was headed toward Diamond Bar.
 
Well, it looks like they're getting a handle on the Sayre fire. It's 30% contained. It has burned 9500 acres and 484 homes have been lost (over 600 structures) according to the last report I saw.

Everybody in our Big Tujunga Canyon area is still keeping their eyes and ears open, but so far it looks like we only have smoke and ash to worry about.

Down in Orange County, you guys have a lot more individual fires, and a lot of property loss, too. It looks like a mess on the TV news. Glad to see it has bypassed you Lee.

And Mike, I hadn't really looked at a map to see how close (or far) all the action was from you. Anything east of the 605 is kind of a blur to me. :p
 
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