California people

[kwayne]

Is everybody okay? I know we have Sky family out there.

[Skip]

Cough, Cough, cough cough...Who in the world left the oven on and the brisket burning?.....Skip... NASA has photos from space showing the fires in red and the white and black smoke....

[WOLFSKY]

I'm in Sherman Oaks (the valley) so my house is unaffected. But I can see the smoke from the mountain tops all around me.

[jimmyrc]

Cough-cough is right....I live in an area that is getting a lot of smoke and ashes from the lake arrowhead fire. Many have lost homes up there please keep them inyour prayers. So. Cal. is smoked out; I was down toward where John D lives and the smoke there is also very bad. Thanks for thinking about us:

[1812]

I also thank you! My car was got a pretty good dusting of ash today. I work in Tustin, south of Anaheim. Today my office lost power for a second. You could directly look at the sun in the afternoon. I know of some Kappa owners in San Diego and hope they are ok.

[duck833]

Hope the Ducks smoke USC on Saturday!!!!!!

I believe they will have collection sites at Autzen Stadium to assist the Red Cross in their efforts for the Southern California Folks, hopefully they will be sucessful in raising lots of bucks.

[larry4pyro]

Thanks for the concern. I live in Carlsbad near the fire. Its been pretty exciting the last few days. Monday we got a reverse 911 call advising us of a fire in Rancho Bernado. I thought the authorities were overreacting as that's around 30 miles east of us. But the winds were really gusting strongly and the humidity was really low so the fire spread really quickly and by noon the smoke got really heavy nearly blocking out the sun.

About that time we got another call advising us of a voluntary evacuation. The fire had jumped the freeway and was spreading past Lake Hodges, which means it was now about 15 miles away. We decided to stay until we were given a mandatory evacuation alert but we loaded my truck with everything we thought might be important, and waited with aprehension like hundreds of thousands of other people in a similar situation. By 10 that evening the fire was in Rancho Santa Fe, only a couple of miles away. We stayed up throughout the night to see if we will have to leave. Fortunately for us, the winds died down and the progression of the fire towards us stopped. Unfortunately many, many homes and businesses were burned and continue to burn.

I think though, there were many positive things that have come out of this fire. The way people stepped up to help each other was really great. Also the coordination between the various agencies was outstanding. Apparently they got a sophisticated trunking radio system working that allowed all the agencies to communicate with each other even though they operate on different frequencies. We've got fire agencies from all over working like hell to knock down the fires as well as a large number of aircraft from a bunch of agencies including the military and Coast Guard. The Air Force even has a Global Hawk UAV continuously overhead using its infrared scanners to detect hot spots and linking this imagery down in real time to the fire command centers. I have nothing but praise for all these people, without their hard work this fire would be much worse.

As to the Sky, I happy to report all is OK except a good dusting of ash, even though it was inside my garage the whole time.

Thanks again!

Larry4pyro

[Skip]

Larry4pyro, it gives new meaning to the monicker...Skip...

[larry4pyro]

Skip,

Ha, I hadn't thought of that. The pyro in my moniker has to do with a fireworks business I'm involved with.

Larry4pyro

[Robotech]

I'm no where near where things are burning but the smell of smoke has finally died off. The winds have settled down and that will help the firefighters get a handle on these things. Still wasn't as bad as 2003. That was the year the sky went black from all the smoke various fires were kicking up. I could stand outside my house, see the flames of one fire to the north and then see four or five smoke pillars from various fires all around. That was really bad.

Only time will tell just how bad this round was. Hopefully we won't get too much rain next year or we'll be hearing about mudslides come April.

[CenterIce]

One of these Martin Mars water bombers flew down from Vancouver Island yesterday to help fight the San Diego-area fires. Those fires are worse that the ones we had up here in a few years ago in the Okanagan region of BC when quite a few people lost everything. It's not something I'd wish on anyone. Hopefully the change in winds makes it easier to get them under control.



(picture from http://www.gotofino.com/sproatlakemarsbombers.html)

[MidniteBlues]

Well those fires are bad enough in my opinion. Many good people lost there homes and that is never good.. We certainly get our share of these things when lightning hits out in the Everglades, the smoke & ash, effects breathing, sinus etc, and we also had half of the state on fire earlier this year farther north, but nothing of the size and scope California deals with every year, plus we don't have the mountains to deal with.

On another note, they are now reporting that a few of these fires were "man made", another words, arson. What kind of sick people(s) would do something like this, and who can you sue? Then you have people building in areas they should not, on top of that, the tree huggers that won't the land be cleared of brush close to homes, it's insane really. People build homes in flood plains, in coastal states building of homes by the oceans edge that will get creamed one day from another Andrew or Katrina. Bad construction doesn't help. Building homes out of cardboard, or particle board is ridiculous.

What upsets me the most, is that for years now, in Florida we can't buy affordable decent insurance coverage for our homes that is reasonably priced any more. Insurance company's have fled in droves or have gone belly up. We have had no hurricanes last year, and so far none this year but my insurance rate DOUBLED this year. Outrageous!! To top it all off, I have reinforced my roof & windows and all doors, everything hurricane proof and they do not acknowledge that and knock down the rates. In the mean time, even thru all the storm's/hurricanes I have gone thru down here not 1 claim have I made, and still they rip me off-- When I first bought my house 25 years ago my insurance was $800.00 if that, this year they asked for whopping $5,200.00 MORE than DOUBLED from what I paid last year $2,500.00. I'm dreading the next bill I get, out of control...And yet, I have NOT ever made 1 claim--most frustrating let me tell ya. And then you have the home owners that know that they live in a possible flood area and the idiots do not buy flood insurance, which by the way is the cheapest you can get. They get flooded out and now the tax payers are suppose to bail them out? that's not fair either--OK, Rant OFF-- Stay safe Californians!!!

[moni6]

Coming home Monday night was a nightmare. The 15 N. freeway way closed because a powerline fell and started a fire in Devore. So we took the 210 to the 215 N. to get home, only to find the 215 N. was closed due to another fire. We had to turn around and get off and take side streets to get home. The entire freeway was doing the same thing so the traffic was insane. The Devore fire came towards our house but they managed to put it out 1/2 mile away. Didn't look like it burned any homes. The smoke was horrible. We had 100 mph gusts of wind up here. Our backyard looks so sad with all the leaves gone off of everything. With the winds stopping it looks like the fires are going down.

[PammySky]

Yeah the sun hasn't been out for the past 2 days due to the smoke from all the fires and I live in the San Gabriel Valley......

[dcparks]

I am in Bakersfield, so we haven't been affected by the fires; however, the smoke is drifting up over the mountains south of us. We live about 45-50 miles north of Santa Clarita which was where one of the big fires was going. I understand it is pretty well-contained. Lots of our firefighters have been sent down to help out. We love those guys!! I have heard from my two brothers who live near the area of some of the fires and they have reported only that they are safe and haven't been told to evacuate yet... Hopefully, they will get them under control soon. On the news earlier, I heard that the police had shot (and killed) one of the arsonists. Apparently he was sitting in his car and when the police officer approached him he drove his car into the police car and the officers then fired on him...... Another arsonist is allegedly in custody. I can't believe someone would deliberately set fires in such windy conditions!! Such a strange world we live in...