Getting Smoky Around Here

Vaughn McMillan

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I don't if it's made the national news, but fire season is upon us again here in the land of fruits and nuts. I was driving around Thursday night for a while, and went and watched the La Canada Flintridge fire when it was only about 500 acres. It's now over 5100 acres, about 5 or 6 miles away from us, and headed in our general direction. No imminent threat yet, but we're gonna stay on our toes this weekend. Our house is the blue marker just above where it says Sunland.

La%20Canada%20Flintridge%20Fire%20vs%20Our%20House.jpg


The fire is headed towards Big Tujunga Canyon, the canyon you see to the north and east of our house. It's downhill from its current location to our house, but the winds can drive it any direction. Right now we're just getting a lot of smoke and ash.

Conditions are ripe...hot and dry. It's 80º right now (4:30 AM) here, with humidity in the low 20% range.

Dan and Glenn, are you getting any of the smoke? (I don't know where you are in relation to the Hemet fire, Glenn.)
 
Best of luck with that Vaughn, sucks to be in that kind of situation.

I wish I could send you some of our weather, we have a typhoon bearing right down on us this coming ......

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..... most of the typhoons here come from below the equator, thus they rotate opposite to the hurricanes you guys get in the US, we are on the West of this typhoon, which in our case is GOOD, still, it may mess up my garbage removal day on Monday :doh:

I'm sure you could use some of the rain we got on the way! :rolleyes:
 
Time to call my cousin again. She lives in southern California with her nearly 100 year old mother. I call her during fire season to see if she is alright. She calls me during tornado season for same reason.
 
Oddly enough, when the prevailing wind conditions are right, we get thick smoke in our valley from the southern CA fires. At least last year it was thick and hazy from fires in the Santa Barbara area.

Yesterday it was so thick we could smell it, but I think that was from the big meadow fire.

Today the winds shifted and it's cleared up.
 
Hey Vaughn,
I grew up in that area, back in the 50's and 60's my brothers and I spent a lot of summer days swimming at Hansen Dam, graduated from high school in Sun Valley. Haven't been back there in 30 years, your map brought back some memories!
 
Good luck, Vaughn. I hope the fire stays away from where you guys are. Good to know that you guys are prepared though, just in case.

Boy! I had no idea that there was place called Mt Disappointment near Altadena.
 
Like Vaughn, When I lived in southern Cal I lived in the foothills. The Chaperal grows dies off and creates fuel for the fires it's a cycle thats been going on since time began. It doesn't make it any less frightening when your faced with a raging fire in your back yard just one of the hazards of living there. I went through three major ones where we were ready to evacuate. It can be a scary expierance. I don't miss it one bit.
Vaughn, I hope you stay safe.
 
It's about 20 miles as the crow flies from our house to the La Cañada Flintridge fire. I can see the plume way off on the distance, but the winds must be westerly because it's fairly blue sky here. At 10:30 it is 93°F (34°C). The last two days it hit 105° (40.5° C) at 3 PM and looks to be pretty close today.

These are some pics from last November's Yorba Linda fire, about 14 miles away. The palm tree pic is at 1:00 PM and the car pic is the ashfall the following morning. When it gets bad like that we close up the house, run the A/C with the allergen filter installed and two more large-room HEPA filters.

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Here's a view out our front door as of a few minutes ago...

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It's still several ridges away, so no immediate danger. The news reports are saying it has shifted directions and is moving east (away from us) for right now. The winds have been changing quite a bit around here today, though, so it's hard to say how long that will last.

I'm not as worried about this particular fire as I am about the prospect of another one starting closer to us. Like I said, the conditions are ripe.
 
I just got back from the local hardware store, and got a better feel for where the fire is, and which direction it's heading. It's about a mile away from our house now, and still moving in our general direction. No evacuation orders for my neighborhood yet, but the people a few miles up the canyon from us have been told to leave.

Here's a shot I took on the way to the store a few minutes ago. This was taken about a half mile from our house...

La%20Canada%20Fire%20-%2002%20800.jpg


It has grown quite a bit this afternoon...it's up over 7000 acres now.
 
Just got the word...mandatory evacuation. I'm packing up the dogs and the computer and getting out of here. I'll check in from my mobile later.
 
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