Fires in Southern California

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/us/0310/gallery.wildfires.1026/06.jpg

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/us/0310/gallery.wildfires.1026/01.jpg

But seriously, these fires are ruining the CA ecosystem. LA is the only place you expect to see smog, not all over. The worst human effect so far are the 2 poor souls that died of heart attacks after losing everything.

Glad everyone out there is still standing, though.

Actually, the death count is up to 14...

Shouldn't a "state of emergency" be in order? You're talking millions of dollars in property damage and homelessness.

Would cold temperatures alone do it?

Only at the state level. Bush II has not declared a Federal state of emergency yet. He's only promised "aid" and a FEMA visit so far.

OC got pounded during the 1993 fires which nearly burned me and the whole Barrus clan down. Pictures here: http://www.quartzcity.net/~chris/lagunafire/index.html

I hope that everyone out there is keeping well and out of danger.

Actually Claremont (which is on the southwestern most side of the Grand Prix fire) usually gets worse smog than LA does. The whole LA basin funnels through the San Bernadino pass, so you get wind, smog, etc. piled up there.

http://www.quartzcity.net/albums/longbeach-various/IMG_0750.sized.jpg

http://www.quartzcity.net/albums/longbeach-various/IMG_0752.sized.jpg

I'm between the left and center big plumes in the satellite photo, so the air here is fairly clear, it's like a normal sunny day with a little extra smog, but I can smell it outside all the time.

Pretty, possibly. However, when you can taste the air, shouldn't there be concern about general, eventual health effects?

Back to topic: what kind of reasoning is that? Living in SoCal doesn't mean you should expect the air quality to shorten your life by 5 or 10 years.....

Does it seem unreasonable to suspect that more of these were set on purpose? Could this many fires really start "naturally" at the same time?

I sorta do, actually, since in earlier decades it was worse enough that it would probably shorten it more by 10 to 20.

Arson is a very logical thing to suspect, trust me. Especially since there's been no storms/lightning strikes around.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/Archive/Oct2003/California.TMOA2003299_lrg.jpg

I haven't lived in California for long enough to have seen other big SoCal fire events (though when I first moved here and was living in Irvine, I remember my mind boggling at the news coverage of a big fire up in L.A.; the way the reporters "bravely" stand right on the highway as the fire roars 10 feet behind them). It's just amazing to me that something like this could happen.

I sorta do, actually, since in earlier decades it was worse enough that it would probably shorten it more by 10 to 20.

So it is actually better now? With all the machinery and newer technology around, I'd think that science would have found a method to begin to clear up the air pollution as it occurs. Isn't the air quality as bad up in No Cal....or do the wind patterns have something to do with that?

So it is actually better now?

The cover of Tim Buckley's Greetings From LA, taken in 1972:

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd700/d756/d75646148p5.jpg

The wildfires in Southern California have Infinity's Country KFRG/Riverside broadcasting with a limited signal from a borrowed transmitter; OM/PD Lee Douglas tells R&R that the state of the station's own transmitter is unknown and says, "It's a miracle that we're on the air."

KATY/Temecula, CA and KCXX/Riverside GM Bill McNulty tells R&R that it's "so far, so good" for the two transmitters used by the All Pro Broadcasting stations.

Meanwhile, the tower site for KSGN Inc.'s Inspo KSGN/Riverside-San Bernardino has been destroyed, and the station is off the air indefinitely.

The news was saying last night that the Reagan library was threatened.

</immature schadenfreude>

the latest news report said oneof the fires started near LA defnitely WAS the work of arsonists!!

"Haha, oh me? I'm doing fine, aside from owing the rest of my income to the state for life."

Also, thankfully I haven't heard of any big fires in South/Central TX this year. Usually we get a few of them a year, but because we've received so much rainfall this year we've not been in any real danger yet, thankfully.

Good article in the LA Times today with interview bits from Mr. City of Quartz himself, Mike Davis:

No Way Out When Home Is in 'Firebelt'
Steve Lopez

October 28, 2003

With half of Southern California ablaze in a spectacular series of killer infernos, and no end in sight, it's only natural to
want the arsonists tracked down and tied to the nearest tree.

But arson, suspected in at least two fires, isn't the only culprit in all this death and destruction. In part, we're witnessing the
inevitable consequence of insane land management, and generations of public officials rolling over for developers despite
past lessons.

"We keep putting tens of thousands of homes in harm's way," said author Mike Davis.

The UC Irvine history professor's scorching books have assailed Southern California as an apocalyptic theme park,
always courting disaster. In "Ecology of Fear," Chapter 3 is called "The Case for Letting Malibu Burn." It's a history of
California's failure to conduct preventive burns, despite the growth of "firebelt suburb populations" on the edge of
combustible vegetation.

Homeowner groups resist preventive burns because they're risky and leave scars, but then scream for help when fire
rages out of control, Davis argues. The public cost is huge; so is the risk to firefighters.

Davis, of San Diego, watched distraught Scripps Ranch residents await firetrucks as flames approached their
multimillion-dollar homes. This was a huge base of support for smaller government, and for Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Davis said.

"Now all that stands between them and an ash pile is the car tax," which Schwarzenegger promised to cut back, even
though it helps pays for fire protection. . . .

Davis thinks this could grow into California's fire of the century, which he predicted in 1998. "The exponential growth of
housing in foothill firebelts," he wrote in "Ecology of Fear," "increases the likelihood of several simultaneous
conflagrations."

On Monday, Davis said friends had been burned out and relatives were preparing to evacuate, and it's remarkable there
hasn't been more death. He captured the horror and madness in a single sentence:

"We're building homes in places where there's no fire escape at all."

Does Davis really want to be known throughout CA history as the guy that foresaw CA's total destruction? The tone of the article almost makes him sound smug. Almost.

"Oh I'm so happy. I'm not much on speeches but it gives me joy to...leave you in the filth you created. You're screwed, bye."

Slight x-post with Gygax here:

There seems to be some confusion here -- Davis has made a deserved and notable name for himself over the past fifteen years with a series of books, articles and presentations about the poor state of urban and suburban affairs when it comes to any number of issues in Southern California and Los Angeles in particular. This includes land management, which he has suitably and understandably attacked on many fronts given its current (mis)use. While I cannot claim complete familiarity with all his conclusions I would be very surprised if he did not offer up some general suggestions or at the least pointed out what the problem areas were that needed work. He is a researcher and academic, he is not a politician by trade, and he uses his academic standing to advance his conclusions and beliefs in much the same way that Edward Said, for instance, was able to do in turn with regard to Palestinian issues. I am not trying to say he's a perfect person -- there's a reason I made the Ibsen reference, though others would be able to speak on that point more than I could -- but I am confused as to your immediate and specific annoyance with him given his background and well known public statements.

It's not truly annoyance, though it may come out sounding like that. What I said was more a reaction to the tone of the article---than to the individual, himself. (That was why I'd asked the question about useful suggestions.) As I'm not obviously a CA resident, I'd have no way to know about Davis' high standing and expertise, beforehand.

Can't we all just get along?

Davis quite rightly points out a the class differences in civic services that occurred during the 1993 Malibu fire when the fire trucks rolled to protect the multi-million dollar homes, but did nothing to protect the poorer areas. Obviously there's only so many resources to go around, and you can't protect everything but still...

Lastly developers STILL build houses with wood shake shingle roofs out here which is just fucking insane. My mom's place has always had a rock roof and we were very meticulous about keeping the brush around our house clear and planting ice plant on the hillside below. Not to get all smug about it, but when the 1993 firestorm came through Laguna, we were fine while half of the houses on our street burned to the foundations.

I'd say! Do the developers consider that to be more cost effective? If so, I can't see how....

My mom's place has always had a rock roof and we were very meticulous about keeping the brush around our house clear and planting ice plant on the hillside below. Not to get all smug about it, but when the 1993 firestorm came through Laguna, we were fine while half of the houses on our street burned to the foundations.

Yeah, those pics of yours spoke volumes. Afterward, did the neighbors rebuild with rock roofs?

at 12 pm i went home for lunch and the smoke had rolled in so thick that you could stare straight at the sun - our visibility was down to maybe 500m. everything looks like you're looking through brown-tinted sunglasses. you park your car and when you come back it's covered in fine white ash. the air is so bad it makes your head spin just walking around in it.

and i live a mile from the beach, about twenty miles west of the fires.

It just makes me sad to think of the flames enveloping my city...sigh

http://www.impawards.com/1989/posters/miracle_mile.jpg

http://abclocal.go.com/images/102803_Satellite_View_map.jpg

Crazy stuff.

(x-post)

an argument in favor of high density living. it's okay to hear your neighbors before you get to know them or after you know them. or have fewer possessions and move around a lot. jess's ideal city - anonymity.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/space/0310/gallery.fires.space/4.nasa.seawifs.jpg

Yeesh.

I'll tell you who I'm glad I'm not -- the hunter in San Diego County who, apparently being lost, set a small fire to summon help. This is a perfectly understandable move in the case of distress and if you need to get attention, but a few VERY basic precautions on the hunter's part in terms of setting up such a fire -- and even then it would have to have been an incredibly calculated risk since the dry weather and miles upon miles of ready to burn fuel in all the parched plants and the winds are, as noted earlier, the ultimate conditions for a blaze to burn in -- and nothing might have happened. If he followed those precautions as best he could -- well, he rolled the dice and we've seen the result. The hunter in question has been arrested and will face felony charges, but besides all the lost homes the blaze he sparked up has claimed the bulk of deaths so far -- not something I would want on my conscience at all.

More on the guy who maybe started the big San Diego fire. Looks like the story is more complicated than it first appeared -- it's not positive if he actually started it yet, and it seems he was suffering from a major lack of food and water. Hrm.

"I asked him what he started it with, and he wouldn't comment," Weldon added. "He just remained quiet."

Perhaps, some part of his consciousness realised he started off something major (even in his delirium)?

Can't help feeling sorry for him on some level: if karma truly exists, his line has just gotten screwed for generations.

At least with hurricanes, earthquakes, or tornadoes, you know it would be quite difficult for bored 23-year-old shitheads to just "start" them.

Indeed it is striking to what extent the current fire map (Rancho Cucamonga, north Fontana, La Verne, Simi Valley, Vista, Ramona, Eucalyptus Hills, Scripps Ranch, and so on) recapitulates geographic patterns of heaviest voter support for the recall.

I really, really, really do not want to gloat over a catastrophe that has killed a number of people and left many, many more homeless...but sometimes karma in action can be an astonishing thing. Still, once the fire has died down, what are the odds that people will take this issue seriously?

"Fire, as a result, is politically ironic. Right now, as I watch San Diego's wealthiest new suburb, Scripps Ranch, in flames, I recall the Schwarzenegger fund-raising parties hosted there a few weeks ago. This was an epicenter of the recent recall and gilded voices roared to the skies against the oppression of an out-of-control public sector. Now Arnold's wealthy supporters are screaming for fire engines, and "big government" is the only thing standing between their $3 million homes and the ash pile."

More than just an area of Arnold support, these are all areas that have traditionally and consistently have voted against property taxes which are used to fund things like more firefighting resources.

http://a1022.g.akamai.net/f/1022/8158/5m/images.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/photo/2003-10/10017117.jpg

The look of courage on that fireman's face hopefully won't be the last we see of him. I could almost feel the heat on my face through the terminal screen.

Feds Turned Down Request to Fight Beetle
Thu Oct 30, 9:39 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!

By TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Just as the Southern California wildfires were beginning late last week, the Bush administration quietly turned down a six-month-old emergency request by Gov. Gray Davis for help in removing dead and dying trees in the same forests now being consumed by flame.

In April, Davis asked for a federal emergency declaration in three counties where bark beetle infestation had left thousands of acres of dense woodland vulnerable to fire.

If approved, the presidential proclamation would have paved the way for millions of dollars in federal support for clearing dead trees in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

"We made the request in the hope of making a horrific situation less serious and we were turned down," Davis spokesman Steve Maviglio said.

A spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handled the Davis request, said it decided against the proposal largely because Congress had already agreed to provide $43 million this year for fighting the beetle infestation in Southern California and the sum seemed appropriate at the time.

But state officials say the money represented only a small part of the $450 million needed to clear the forest of dead trees and eliminate the fire danger.

State officials have estimated the fires — which have burned about 2,600 homes, blackened about 730,000 acres and killed at least 20 people — could take a $2 billion toll on California's economy.

After four years of drought, nearly a half-million acres of dense woodland in Southern California had become infested by the bark beetle. Local and state officials had warned that the forests were a disaster waiting to happen, and some have criticized Davis for not moving more aggressively to combat the problem.

In an April 16 letter to FEMA officials, Davis said, "Supplementary federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health and foster safety."

A response from the letter has still not been received by the governor's office, Maviglio said. The state was notified by the office of Rep. Mary Bono, R-Calif., last Friday that the request had been turned down.

The FEMA denial came a few days after the first of the major fires began to rage out of control in San Diego and San Bernardino counties.

"I don't want to second-guess that decision," said Chad Kolton, FEMA spokesman. "They were asking for federal resources and federal resources were being provided."

State Sen. Jim Brulte, a Republican whose district includes big parts of the fire-ravaged area, said that it was not fair for Davis to suggest the federal government has not been doing enough.

"The Davis administration twice rejected San Bernardino's request for a state of emergency to be declared and we had to beat up on them to finally get it," he said. "The fact is that everyone has been late to this party."

The beetles, which are native to California, drill into bark, seeking the moist inner layers to feed on. Typically, they can kill only drought-weakened trees.

Healthy trees are able to expel the invaders by flooding the infestation with resin, which drought-stressed trees can't produce. Once the infestation has begun the trees are starved of water and nutrients and quickly die.

or northern california, as the case may be

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/us/california-fires-evacuations.html?_r=0

we recently stayed at some nice farmhouse rentals in Sonoma, i'm worried about the owners bc it looks like at least one of them is on the border of the evacuation zone.

wow. this is really bad.

this shit is heartbreaking, it really feels like everything is going terribly wrong. walking home from bart through oakland and seeing the ash that collected on my windshield wipers, i kept thinking, what tree was this, whose house was this, what animal's body is this?

Tweets like this cause unnecessary panic. "total devastation" is applicable to places like Puerto Rico, or war zones. Napa/Sonoma are in crisis but the vast majority of towns/houses are still here. Words matter, chose them wisely. pic.twitter.com/oj32mgqHYH

— Julia Wertz (@Julia_Wertz) October 12, 2017

(lives in and is currently still in Napa btw)

staying inside/keeping the kids inside is def putting a strain on things

Wow this thread was started about the SD the fires my parents lost thier house in. Doesn't seem that long ago. I think I was only lurking ILM at the time

just found out at one of the places we'd stayed at burned down and they lost everything, except themselves and their dog. otherwise their home, guest house, animals, all gone.

My parents live just a few miles from Geyserville, but they're far enough west of 101 that it shouldn't be a problem. They're elderly, though, and the air is bad in that whole area with smoke.

Yeah it's been miserable up here -- the smoke in the air sucks your energy out.

A friend lost her home in Santa Rosa, near Coffey Park. She, her husband and pets were safe but the house, gone like you've seen in some photos. Very, very thankfully they had a condo still in their name -- they only recently moved into the house itself -- and have fallen back on it for now. Meantime, a coworker's partner's family is very heavily affected; a brother lost his apartment and a house their stepfather built is presumed lost.

My GF's sister and brother-in-law live in Mendocino county (haven't evacuated) and are firefighters so we've been worried sick all week. Thankfully one's a chief and the other's working comms on this one so they're not on the front lines but their crazy work hours and bad cell service mean we get long dreadful periods of silence between brief two-word check-ins by text.

Most of their town already burned down (their house was spared) earlier in the week so I'm hoping that puts them somewhat in the clear but with these winds and such low containment percentages you can't really feel comfortable.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Wine-Country-fires-first-fatal-hours-12278092.php

shit looks scary

Getty Center in jeopardy !

Do twitter videos embed?

Not the typical morning commute... pic.twitter.com/kJIOQeqsIK

— A. Mutzabaugh CMT (@WLV_investor) December 6, 2017

Almost as amazing feature of the video is that shows a faster than usual traffic flow for that stretch of the post-CARMAGEDDON 405.

hellscape right there ! insane

oops sorry, i've been posting over here: WILDFIRE

but this is a better-named thread

uh

Scary quote from Cal Fire re: forecast tomorrow: "There will be no ability to fight fires in these kinds of winds." (80+ mph expected)

— Joe Serna, LAT (@JosephSerna) December 6, 2017

The Getty Center
Next Exit

:(

how are yall able to breathe?

lol

west hollywood air quality index is okay: https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&zipcode=90048&submit=Go

downtown la and parts of koreatown are usu worse on a regular day

also the smoke only affects the air quality for just a few days

Pasadena is clear and not windy.

Fixed pic.twitter.com/uUTmyNYBEa

— dorsey.mp4 (@dorseyshaw) December 6, 2017

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/79630000/jpg/_79630637_alamydt7hcy.jpg

i hear rupert murdoch’s estate is on fire, so i guess it’s not all bad

the murdoch story is what got my attention in the first place (on the other, unkindly neglected thread)

my commute from sherman oaks to century city took two hours. its 11 miles.

is the 405 still closed off

think it fully reopened at 1pm.. so getting home should be ok. inshallah

how are yall able to breathe?

the smoke from these and the September fires is basically something in the sky that makes the light a bit murky. Fires in Australia can be stay-inside level choking from two hours' drive away.

this may have more to do with the direction the wind is blowing. air quality is bad up here in santa barbara. back patio covered in ash.

Spent a good amount of time house/dog sitting in Ojai, know the town and have good friends there, fingers crossed it doesn't burn.

the smoke from these and the September fires is basically something in the sky that makes the light a bit murky. Fires in Australia can be stay-inside level choking from two hours' drive away.

― shackling the masses with plastic-wrapped snack picks (sic), Thursday, December 7, 2017 4:18 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

read this in Steve Irwin's voice.

I don't know her.

having trouble reconciling the "very unhealthy" AQI forecast with the somewhat meager recommendation that we simply stay indoors

I went to high school in ojai. lovely place. its in a tough spot tho - very narrow valley with one two lane freeway as the main route in and out.. but I could also see the fires skipping around it too..

AQI now hazardous with masks distributed at grocery stores

Looks like a small (2 acre) fire has just broken out in El Sereno. We're pretty close by in Montecito Heights and there are a bunch of fire trucks here and helicopters landing just down the street from us. Trying to figure out how concerned we should be! Bunch of smoke on the horizon but we're not close enough to see fire...

We're about a mile and a half away:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-el-sereno-fire-20171208-story.html

This is a lot of fires happening at once. I have my suspicions about some of them, I can't remember nearly this many occurring at the same time one right after another. I suppose it could just be conditions are perfect for it but still...

yeah def seems weird

Just saw a post on fb that Trevor Horn lost his home and studio in the fire, as did drummer Simon Phillips a day or two ago.

went to bed feeling good. not feeling so good now.

UCSB Cancels Finals Week, Postpones Fall Quarter

http://dailynexus.com/2017-12-10/breaking-ucsb-cancels-finals-week-postpones-fall-quarter-due-to-thomas-fire/

holy shit

our grad student neighbor high tailed it outta here a few hours ago, so I am not surprised. It looks like BotW blood moon out here.

if BotW were set in a 1988 pizza hut ash tray

Yeah my good friend Stripey who works at UCSB hightailed out this morning -- she figured she was going to get a mandatory evacuation notice anyway. Currently in Pismo Beach but the smoke's up there too.

We were in Pismo Beach and SLO since Thursday. Woke up this morning to view of smoke-filled sky in SLO and drove down to ready possible evacuation with more than the minimum this time (our cat, mostly).

As you noted, the AQI is much better down south. So I hope we can move that way if needed. You'd have to go far north or northeast to get away in that direction.

Damn hang in there...

There was another fire in Monrovia yesterday that I guess was knocked down.

"red flag day" not as bono advertised

This is a lot of fires happening at once. I have my suspicions about some of them, I can't remember nearly this many occurring at the same time one right after another. I suppose it could just be conditions are perfect for it but still...

― omar little, Friday, December 8, 2017 10:12 PM (four days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

los angeles is a fucking arsonist circus. it’s been this way for at least half a century.

socal in general

https://thekenyonthrill.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/firestarter.jpg

enjoying this "unhealthy" air quality today. big step up from "hazardous".

ESA Sentinel-2 image of the Thomas fire from Tuesday, December 5:

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/still-raging-thomas-fire-torches-its-way-california-wildfire-history

No hotlinking, I guess. The story it's from:

The Still-Raging Thomas Fire Torches Its Way into California Wildfire History

Xmas card from some friends:
https://i.imgur.com/nnxkpJc.jpg

anyone else finding their allergies kicking up a bit more the past couple weeks? when we went out to Woodland Hills the other day mine were doing a number on me.

I lol'd :\

no

everything looks/feels like its back to normal in los angeles

Here come those Santa Ana winds again...

Sister, bro-in-law, nephews just evacuated....

The evacuation center they were originally told to go... is a high school that's currently on fire.

jesus, i'm sorry

where were they told to go after that??

They are lucky and have a place to go that's out of the fire zone but I'm sure many people are not that fortunate. 80mph winds currently.

holy shit, really? that's over hurricane strength

Hope they find safe refuge. A friend had to evacuate her place in Chico from the new fire up here. What a brutal season. Calfire must be feeling.

*reeling

This was <1 hour ago near the area they were told to drive to:

#WoolseyFire Winds are pushing the fire hard in Oak Park now pic.twitter.com/sx5PIgZA4b

— Michael Coons (@Michael_Coons) November 9, 2018

This is getting pretty bad:

#WoolseyFire: VCFD Station 37 is on Fire. Starting support company (Truck 41)

— VC Stringer (@VCStringer) November 9, 2018

The neighborhood across the 101 Freeway from the Borderline shooting yesterday is now on fire.

Now there appears to be a decent sized fire in Griffith Park.

https://gizmodo.com/video-shows-the-terrifying-drive-to-escape-massive-fire-1830331814

the end of the video when they clear the fire is the shocking part for me

very sad to hear about the fires

a place that is so dry and up on the mountains and known to have fires though should not have houses (i understand housing was built before fires were a constant there), it's basically a natural disaster area now though

on another note, part of my family used to live in simi valley around 30 years ago -- that place is fucking dreadful and i'm glad they moved out of there

That guy was driving too fast for that little visibility.

Clear skies and no wind at all in Pasadena, I can't even smell smoke.

I guess when you have flames licking around your wheels you don't care too much about driving too fast.

Well, till you smash into the car ahead of you and then have to walk to safety with a broken leg.

i mean he's literally running for his life

i would definitely be more careful but yeah

tbf he was driving fast in the wrong lane. only car they could smash into would be a fire truck driving at them, and they'd probably die. fire season sucks. hoping the best for those caught up in it this year.

yeah i imagine the sheer adrenaline makes for a lead foot

Understandable, but I was white-knuckling sitting in my office watching it.

I was going to complain about a SoCal thread being bumped for a NorCal fire but that's before I knew the entire state is burning.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Massive-Camp-Fire-forces-red-air-alert-prompts-13377739.php

p fucking grim in SF right now

heavy smoke and some ash

I think it's worse than last year's fire, as today I could smell the smoke when I was at home.

my heart goes out to those having to leave their homes

P100 masks, y'all

Words fail me. This is the Woolsey Fire approaching Malibu as people desparately are trying to evacuate on PCH. pic.twitter.com/rdJGvbu7kN

— Spin Doctor (@SpinDr) November 9, 2018

This is Zuma Beach right now. Photo from @ktla5news #ZumaBeach #WoolsyFire #Malibu @Amie_Yancey pic.twitter.com/COVm9WA9HY

— Scott Yancey (@Scott_Yancey) November 10, 2018

up in Butte County

These abandoned and burned out cars shows you what a panic it must have been for residents trying to escape the Camp Fire. Unreal scenes in Paradise, CA, this morning. #CampFire pic.twitter.com/AhBuWzS0Tx

— Nick Valencia (@CNNValencia) November 9, 2018

5 people found dead in their cars most likely on that very same road.

jesus

our friend's aunt lives in Paradise and is suffering from Alzheimer's, she was home alone at the time of the fire picking up steam and her son couldn't get to her in time. A neighbor tried to get her out but she wasn't answering and he had to flee. There's still no word.

meanwhile:

Pray for Malibu— and #TheBachelor Mansion... pic.twitter.com/D9t8VxFXeo

— Mike Fleiss (@fleissmeister) November 9, 2018

Is there a German word to describe the feeling of waiting to see if your father-in-law's house burned down? (he's fine, don't know about the place)

Llamas are tied to a lifeguard stand on the beach in #Malibu as the #WoolseyFire approaches. Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Timeshttps://t.co/X8PtsdblHP pic.twitter.com/dvAq6LWSxv

— JJ the Santa Barbarian (@cookiesinheaven) November 10, 2018

#tfw when life is a tarkovsky film pic.twitter.com/K9EEGKQAyM

— Tovarisch (@nwbtcw) November 10, 2018

my grandmother & her husband were evacuated and their house is probably gone. but they're fine. everyone else I know in LA - one of my best friends, my grandfather + his wife, other friends - live outside of the danger zone but say that the city is truly apocalyptic now. I heard the Santa Monica Pier was gone?

I think someone fed you bad intel, the city of L.A. itself is fairly business as usual albeit very smoky. Santa Monica Pier is perfectly ok. Malibu (15+ miles up the coast from Santa Monica) is what’s apocalyptic.

Not to diminish what’s happening at all; the fire going from the ocean to west hills is astonishing to me. It’s coming scarily close to my wife’s dad’s home.

F-I-L’s place in Point Dume survived! Seems like everything across the street from him burned down though. Fingers crossed for other folks here and hope for some good news.

Higher winds coming tomorrow...

no words

WATCH: Screaming DC-10 air tanker drops Phos-Check over #WoolseyFire in Calabasas https://t.co/iBgAWLyr9d pic.twitter.com/lZzI4GXexK

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 11, 2018

was hanging out today with a friend whose dad lived in Paradise: house gone, got his three dogs out, no clothes or anything else.

Some beautiful shots on ig but just no

PG&E has informed state regulators that it experienced an incident early Thursday on a major electrical transmission line at a remote site in Butte County just minutes before the reported start of the devastating Camp Fire.

In a brief report filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, the company said a power outage was recorded on its 115-kilovolt Caribou-Palermo line at 6:15 a.m. Thursday. Cal Fire says the blaze started at 6:29 a.m.

Driven by high winds in the Feather River Canyon, the Camp Fire raced west, destroying parts of the the communities of Paradise and Magalia. So far, 23 people are confirmed dead in the fire, which had burned a staggering 6,453 homes and 120,000 acres as of Sunday morning.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11705306/pge-transmission-line-may-be-tied-to-disastrous-butte-county-fire

Yeah it was that which started those massive Black Saturday fires we had here in 2009 (the ones that wiped a couple of towns clean off the map). Winds + high voltage lines + poor maintenance = hell.

Also the Ventura fires last year?

Tubbs fire:

The Tubbs Fire was the second-most destructive wildfire in California history, behind only the Camp Fire of 2018,[6][4] burning parts of Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties in Northern California during October 2017, and affecting the city of Santa Rosa the most.

there's a massive fire every year in southern california. its 'normal' now.

Thought this was a good thread:

It continues to frustrate me how badly people misunderstand California wildfires. I have mentioned previously here the amplifying role of population growth, and the causal ignition trigger of development at the urban-wilderness interface, but the fuel itself is key.

— Paul Kedrosky (@pkedrosky) November 10, 2018

42 now confirmed dead in Camp Fire

What a terrifying tragedy. It's days later and there are still a hundred unaccounted for.

The toll from the Camp Fire, the worst California wildfire ever, is now 48. The National Guard has been drafted to help with the search for remains. The fire has now claimed 130,000 acres and has destroyed 8,817 structures. 52,000 people have been evacuated

clickbaity title: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-malibu-trailer-park-fire-20181114-story.html

but man this is so true:

“While it may be true that a fire disaster does create a kind of egalitarian equality, what follows is anything but,” said Mike Davis, author of “Ecology of Fear.” The book included a chapter titled “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn,” a stinging critique of fire suppression mismanagement that leads to catastrophic fires and expensive efforts to save castles where none should have been built.

“Fires tend to gentrify areas,” said Davis, “and what follows a huge fire is not just the rebuilding, but rebuilding on a larger scale, with more expensive structures than before.”

see also: disaster capitalism

btw this is terrifying:

https://google.org/crisismap/google.com/2018-camp-fire

you can look at the Malibu one as well

if you look at the map, a quick estimate shows that the fire burned an area that--east to west--is more than 1/8th as wide as California.

thought this was interesting, particularly in the context of crazy republicans asking why only california ever seems to burn: https://www.firescience.org/worst-states-fire-danger/

Rhode Island has had a larger percentage of its land burned than California.

Camp Fire toll now 56, with 10,321 structures destroyed

In terms of sheer area, 2018 has brought us the largest fire in state history (Mendocino complex), the 7th largest (Carr) and now the Camp Fire has cracked the list at the 20th spot and considering its containment level will no doubt climb at least a few spots on the list.

All this after the previous largest fire was last year's Thomas Fire.

According to a couple sources now more than 600 people remain unaccounted for. Our friend’s aunt is among them.

oh god, that's awful omar, i hope you all find her well

thanks, i'm hoping our friend will update with some miraculous report soon but idk!

i've watched a couple of those videos from people fleeing the scene. when you see the roads clogged up and the intensity of the fire, you see how inescapable it was for so many folks.

this has prompted several conversations among people we know who feel this is a sign to move up their plans to leave the state tbh. ours too! while a city like L.A. isn't affected in the same manner as a more rural, forested area like that, it just feels like a warning about the changing climate. the wildfires being so disastrous in parts of the state that see more rain historically are really a grim sign.

cali ppl: i just shipped off 30 N95s to a friend in the bay area because she said the local hardware stores are rationing them. have you also been experiencing this?

Can't speak to that because I get mine from work but it's got to the point where even when wearing a mask inside our apartment isn't enough protection. On our way to a motel 4 hours away for a couple days to wait it out in fresh air. GL to anyone sticking it out.

Camp Fire Evacuees At Makeshift Camp Given Deadline To Leave

take it with a grain of salt due to many factors but currently the number of missing is now listed at over 1,000.

Jesus Christ

1,276

Apparently there's lots of duplicates tho and media have spoken to several people who are listed.

Hopefully it will be like Grenfell where the final fatality count ended up a lot lower than the number listed as missing.

The shifting numbers indicates either a lot of duplicates and misinformation or it could be that bad. It’s maybe tough to assess, it’s possible many people are in shelters with no means of communication and friends/family who simply have zero clue where they are.

Article about it on the BBC site here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46253575

Article from the L.A. Times here on the fire is pretty harrowing:

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-camp-fire-tictoc-20181118-story.html

our friend's aunt apparently did not make it, they found remains at the home she shared with her son.

they're speculating the fire might keep going til the end of the month, though i imagine everyone is at this point well out of harm's way.

That's awful

that LA Times piece, i was holding my breath the whole way through, jesus

my heart sank reading that la times piece

I read it at lunchtime & then sat in my car & cried. Reminds me so much of the stories I heard growing up after the Ash Wednesday fires in 1984, the speed of the fire & the chaos of trying to evacuate.

Devastating.

1983, not 84.

There was a heartbreaking piece on the ABC (Australia) radio this morning. Reporter going around with a local cop who has stayed behind to search for remains.

My brother had to do similar work after the 2009 black Saturday fires here. He's involved with the Emergency Services developing map/GIS data precisely for these sort of scenarios: when a town is razed to the ground, you no longer even know where the houses were to be able to easily identify remains. They had to devleop and use overlay maps and GPS tracking linking back to address databases. I imagine the stuff they worked on will come into play here - he's worked with US officials on it before.

this was the worst wildfire in U.S. history, having occurred in Wisconsin on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire (which caused it to be overlooked.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire

the Camp Fire seems to be a similarly frightening conflagration in terms of its speed and growing size, but hopefully not as deadly in terms of life. I'm really hoping the numbers are in fact that Grenfell-type situation and are at present inaccurate.

this is beyond amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CbWkfCA9tc

Dang, that's Castro Peak. He doesn't post here anymore but cutty & I would ride around up there all the time. The other side of that valley is where the Rock Store is.

Happy to note that the Rock Store survived.

The trailer park across the street where people lived did not fare so well.

I used to jam with a few guys south of that area in Malibu.

We used to drive around the mountain for fun, too.

getting pretty scary over here

SoCal fires have always been scary. But there's no question about it, they are getting even scarier.

the fire is >2 miles away, but it's up on the mountain and looks like it's in my backyard at night right now

Rain is on the way, hope it hits you guys ASAP.

thanks, Albert. Was a long night of checking the evacuation map on phone alarm increments.

Stay safe, SG!

Cave fire ?

cave fire. I don't think it's taken any homes. There was a large evacuation area last night. Locals talking about the 1990 painted cave fire that hopped the 192 and 101 has me worried.

PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for 2018 Northern California fire

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/16/camp-fire-pg-e-pleads-guilty-84-counts-manslaughter-2018-blaze/3199591001/