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Southern California is on Fire


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I'm fine. The one in Santiago Canyon is the closest to me, but it's far enough away that we're safe (I'm awful at knowing distances or I would tell you how far). You could really see the smoke yesterday and there is still smoke in the air today.

ETA: My sister lives in the San Diego area. I called her and she's been evacuated, but she and her family are fine.

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hi,

i had the fun of driving into the luminous clouds last night - calling people as i drove asking if la had been nuked or something.

i also saw a "new" blaze on a mountain side. thats always "non-anxiety" (SARCASM) but the fire & smoke were going in a different direction...

my mom lives very far away from these fires. alex lives in a very populated and urban part of la.

plus, its supposed to be really hot this week....like in the 90s F. and its super windy. so that just makes controlling the fires that much harder.

me & baby are ok,

db

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This is really bad! They're now saying one million people have been evacuated and things changing by the minute and are looking very bad.

;)

Speaking of Ron Paul - if he were president there would be NO ONE fighting this fire and there would be no shelters and no assistance to the evacuees and probably no highways for them to drive on. There would probably be private highways with tolls that only rich people could pay. I hope everyone here looks beyond single issues to see that these Libertarians and right wing Republicans do not care about public health, safety, the commons or our infrastructure. We are in so much trouble.

Do you aspire like me to rise to the level of the middle class? Forget it if you keep voting for these sociopaths. Forget about health care of any kind unless you are uber rich. That's what right wing thinking is all about. Yes, this is a political rant but I'm really, really, really holding back so excuse me.

Anyway.

Someone close to me is a fire fighter and fire science specialist for the US forest service and I'm worried he's going to get called up to fight this one. This is really dangerous work. I hope he's away from his cell phone. Actually I hope he's somewhere camping in the mountains of New Mexico and oblivious to all that's going on because he'd go if called upon.

Our national forest service has been grossly defunded during the Bush administration.

I think Arnold called up the National Guard this afternoon. It'll be interesting to see the response because I think they're mighty busy doing something somewhere else at the moment.

Something tells me there's a big story not being told.

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hi,

well its been reported how one of the fires started - welding sparks from construction. i think thats a reasonable answer.

i was driving through some of this stuff on sunday. i saw FIRE FLAMES on the side of a mountain. it was small compared to whats been seen on tv...but it only takes a small fire to become a big one. especially on a range of mountains that are "gold" because they are dry and dead.

Im all about the government is not telling us the truth - but i dont think the govt is hiding anything on this one. why would the government want to destroy rich white people homes? a friend of mine thinks this is the work of terrorists - a firey jihad. that one could be possible.

the governator tends to be loyal to his constituents....and the majority of these people live where the fires are happening.

db

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I wasn't suggesting the government started or flamed these fires. I am questioning whether the resources to fight the fires are in place. I'm wondering where the resources are.

What percentage of California's National Guard are securing George Bush's oil somewhere like 9,000 or 10,000 miles away?

I have heard reports that there was some arson involved in some of these fires. That's sad but not unusual. My heart is with the people of southern California, the fire fighters, all the animals living there and the National Guard tonight.

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The air is pretty bad outside (live in the LA area). You can smell smoke when you leave the house. The closest fire for me is about 20 miles away right now.

My sister lives in Santa Clarita - just a few miles from a couple of the blazes, but her home is okay for the moment.

A few years ago we had some big fires right where I lived...they came within a few hundred yards of my house. I know what a lot of those people are going through, and I feel for them...

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Generally the national guard is called out to prevent looting when there are large areas evacuated.

San Diego is by far the hardest hit, with well over 500,000 people evacuated. I know many people down that way and nearly all of them are out of their homes, but safe. When the Santa Ana winds hit in the fall the humidity can drop to almost zero. I kid you not. The humidity today was between 3 & 8% throughout southern California. The winds just suck all the moisture out of the air. And they change direction a lot.

We're in a drought. Most of southern Cal got less than 1" of rain from July '06 - July '07. The trees and brush are so dried out that they just about explode when they catch an ember.

The main freeways that go through these areas are I-5 and I-15. They are both open, but with fires very close by.

I live in the desert. No fire here, but it's all around us.

Amazingly, only four people have been killed in all of these fires so far. One of the deaths was a 92 yr old man who had a heart attack when he was being transferred out of his nursing home.

That's all I know for now.

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My sister lives in the San Diego area. I called her and she's been evacuated, but she and her family are fine.

My Mom talked to my sister. She was able to see her house today and it's fine. They should be able to move in in 24 hours.

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Not to be overly

Insensitive,

Well.

Maybe a lot.

Ive been on

the ground,

in that shit.

They will never fucking

Learn,building on those

steep brush and oak laden slopes,

narrow roads for the fire gear to fight,

that,OH so natural look

of shake roofs.

Forestry Regs

require a defenseable area,

at least cut the brush off your house,

Yeah,at some point

nothing can be done,

fire technology

has improved,

We relied on creaking old WWII

bombers,big ones,

they saved us,

I still love that sound,

It meant we weren't likely to die.

While I do appreciate the

people

that choose to live

in SoCal,

For god's sake

after the mudslides this winter

move to the desert.

Baaah,Stasis

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Not to be overly

Insensitive,

which you are being.

did i deserve this? did my family deserve this? does anyone deserve this?

riverburn.jpg

107_0777.JPG

They will never fucking

Learn,building on those

steep brush and oak laden slopes,

narrow roads for the fire gear to fight,

that,OH so natural look

of shake roofs.

Forestry Regs

require a defenseable area,

at least cut the brush off your house,

you understimate the amount of effort people DO put into brush removal.

having nearly lost a house two times, and lost a whole orchard, i find your implication that my family is irresponsible downright fuckign insulting.

we, like many other californians, do our parts. we clear our brush. we have fire insurance.

is it our fault that assholes set fires for fun?

is there any part of the country that is free from natural disaster.

southern california is a wonderful place to live, don't insult us or patrionize us by acting like we dont' understand and assume the risk of living here.

next time you have a natural disaster i'll remember to remind you that you should be living somewhere else.

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PC,

I have had my share,

mostly water involved.

The last one cost me

my home,land

and

way of live that

can't be replaced.

Then the 7.0s

rock'n'roll

Gone are the days

when we could flee

three or four ridges

and start over,

it was all brush.

Your orchard was worth

much more than

money.

This whole thang makes me cranky,

Apologies,Stasis

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Wow Penny. Sorry to hear about what happened. Our house backs up to 2000 acres of undeveloped hillsides, and we have to do our brush clearing twice a year (200ft) etc. When a big fire hit a few years ago we had flames that came within a few hundred yards of our house.

No matter where you live you will have natural disasters, and no matter what you do as far as preventive measures it may not be enough to save your house or yourself. We can clear as much brush as we can, but embers can fly for miles. We can build as as sturdy of a house as we possibly could, but the strongest earthquake will cause it to come crashing down.

Despite the fires and earthquakes I wouldn't want to live anywhere else than Southern California.

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:wtf::cussing::);) Yes fire is natural here. And maybe we will fall off the continent, into the ocean, before we burn to a crisp, but actually maybee the fires will encourage the wet s'mores. This is a risk we take. Buying a house without researching the overdeveloped nature of the location is something else. The winds are a natural component, too, that the firefighters have learned to usually use to their advantage. Cheers!
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