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I can’t give any detailed information on any fires but the ones closest to us – but those seem to be pretty much under control. They expect full containment by tonight. Yay!
The winds in southern california are slowly dying down, but they’re still gusting at 45 mph…
I’ve got the news on and it will stay on all day – just heard an update on deaths – looks like 3 confirmed fatalities and 1 other possible fatality…lots of firefighters injured and 3 in critical condition.
They’ve been able to use the planes today (they weren’t able to yesterday, for the most part, due to the winds) so things are looking better…but the big “witch fire” is huge and in no way contained and it’s still creeping along…
A lot of people are complaining that the resources are being badly managed and that those in charge are doing a poor job containing the fires… 🙁 it’s sad to hear people say that, because it sound like the resources are pretty stretched and they’re doing the best they can. Though there does seem to be a possibility that there are planes still on the ground and other resources that aren’t being used – I hope that’s not true!
I think someone on the news just said that so far 400,000 people have thus far been evacuated from San Diego. Wow! 🙁
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienWe will take your humidity!!! Please send it our way!!!
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienI’ll try and send rainy thoughts, you can have it. It’s been raining on and off for the couple of weeks. *Rainy thought, rainy thoughts*
They’ve started sending in waterbombers from British Columbia, no crew yet, but the news said that a bunch were headed to California from Oregon and Washington.
Praying for the winds to cool die down, and wet weather. I’ll even prya that the snow headed my way makes it that far! 😉
EEEEee… hope everybody stays safe. It must be an eye-opener to pack for an evacuation. My father-in-law & brother-in-law have been evacuated. Crazy scary.
Stay safe!! Keep us posted so we’ll know how your doing! We’ve got constant rain right now, wish I could send it your way. 😕
I hope things are still OK in your area, Arlla! I just called my parents’ house and the answering machine picked up, which means that the place is still standing. The Web pages for the San Diego news stations are . . . not as informative as I wish they were . . . but XETV has got a good map and it shows no further incursion across Espola. Unfortunately it’s NOT very informative for Riverside County! 🙁 So I really hope you guys are OK and that the winds continue to settle down.
And thank you everyone for the kind wishes! I feel badly for barging into Arlla’s thread like I did; was feeling very stressed and wanted to vent, and she’s been very kind to let me do so. 🙂 This is such a wonderful and supportive place!
Barrdwing wrote:And thank you everyone for the kind wishes! I feel badly for barging into Arlla’s thread like I did; was feeling very stressed and wanted to vent, and she’s been very kind to let me do so. 🙂 This is such a wonderful and supportive place!
Hey, we want all our members in the area to stay safe!!
We’re still fine! Our county went from “no mandatory evacs” to “no evacs” this morning…We can now see one of the big fires, but it’s still too far away to threaten us…
Barrdwing – for heaven’s sake LOL this thread isn’t just for me! If anyone else is having any experiences with this fire, I hope they post all over this thread! I just wanted to start one because I was surprised no one was talking about it yet…and I has something to say! 😉 Thank you for posting! And I’m VERY glad your house is still there!
Here are the map links I’ve been keeping track of:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=5720745
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?uid=109103557032275200740&hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.00043d21dedd02f5ae1f7
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571The last one is particularly cool because it shows the size and breadth of the fires, but it isn’t updated much…maybe once a day. The others are updated a little more, but still aren’t totally accurate.
So anyway…from what I can glean with my blurry-just-woken-up eyes, we’re still quite safe here in Temecula but the south county is still catching a lot of hell. It may even be worse than yesterday down there… 🙁
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
-J R R TolkienI feel for EVERYONE in So CAL and wish the best for all of you. I know what it is like. i lost my first 2 Windstopnes EVERY in a house fire in 1988. It seems that fires like this hit So Cal more often then No CAl *knock on wood*
I hope everyone is safe!!I hope my Uncle Norman is okay, he’s in that area too. Mom was saying something about him possibly being evacuated. The fires are also in the San Bernadino area, but the news seems fixtated on San Diego. I’d like info for some of the north fires, because that’s where I have family.
So far my step-grandparents and kin are okay. Only uncle Norm is possibly in the line of the fires so far. I sure hope they get some help from Mother Nature soon, no Santa Anas and some rain would help a lot.
Kyrin
I hope you guys won’t mind me posting this. It’s written by a friend of mine in Utah whose husband is a firefighter and is in California now. Lisa has been giving us day by day reports on the fires, telling us more than the news ever did. On the second day of the fires, Jeff was talking to her, watching their old nieghborhood burn as they talked, there was nothing they could do. Anyway, this was Lisa’s last post yesterday. You can tell she is very tired and stressed, but she makes a lot of good points here that we should all think about and share. I’m so glad that everyone here is ok!
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Hi guys.Jeffs back on the fire line today, after spending the night running calls on
his
” regular ” medic unit. Life go’s on, and even people in his area who do not
have fire related needs, get rides to the hospltal all day and night.
Today, Jeff is up Silverado Canyon putting water into the helicoptors as
they work all day trying to hold back the fire from getting down into the canyon
from the top, which is heavy with old growth oaks and scrubb. Last night, the
Santiago peak had fire reaching the top, which cannot be fought from the
ground, but they did have alot of air support and have managed to keep the major
front from burning down into Silverado as of mid-night. There are still 2,000
homes near there threatened. They expect a ” mild ” Santa Ana wind condition on
Mon. which will not be welcome. The communities of Lake Elseanor, Corona,
Norco and Riverside are nearby, but waiting for now.Everyone in the canyon is evacuated. Mojaska and Williams canyons next door
have lost 22 structures, 12 homes at least are totally gone, all lost on that
horrible first 2-3 days when no extra personal or air support was in place.
The park across the street from Jeffs station in Tustin is gone. The deer are
still around, must have taken refuage in peoples green back yards, and they are
happy munching on all of the acorns. The friendly mountian lion who used to
sit in the mornings across from the station ( much to the guys delight ! ) has
moved on. Hope he is ok. Hope he has enough deer to eat this winter.Jeff went up yesterday to see some of the streets that he fought fire from
backyards on during the first 2 days, Sun. and Mon. This is when they had no
extra teams, just their own crew. It was his regular crew who had to escape
flames into their ” shake and bake ” suits, one block over, and where Jeff,
working on an overtime crew, took an ember to his face. They personally saved many
homes. The people will never know. The homes that were lost are affecting the
Fire crews personally. This is their neighborhood. They have both comfort
seeing standing the homes that they had HOPED survived, but wernt sure did
!…..and trying to absorb the reality that they couldnt save them all. At least the
PEOPLE, Pets and livestock all got out, even the ones who thought they could ”
shelter in place ” and ended up yelling for rescue when the flames reached
them. Now I get emotional. Pissed off more like it.It sounds sort of ” romantic ” …. ” brave ” ” courageous ” ….. ”
shelter in place. ” I have other thoughts.
These are MY thoughts, not nessessary Jeffs. You dont want to hear his.I have read some tips here and on other lists about what to do (((( IF )))))
you DECIDE to stay with your home in face of a manditory evacuation order.
Bad idea, sorry.I dont even like to see TIPS….about letting horses go, taking refuge in
homes and vehicles, someone staying behind with that stupid stupid stupid rubber
garden hose. Did you see any of the coverage during the winds of homes going
down ? Do you really think that your home would be ” saved ” by a drip of water
and you on your roof ? When the flames reach you, your hose will melt. When
the flames reach you, there will be no power, no water. By the time the flames
reach you, the heat, poison gas’s and wind have already taken you off the
capacity of fighting fire. If you now…. and they DO, call for help or try to
make a run for it, you will be risking the lives of firefighters, sheriffs, EMS
personal, other neighbors ect.
( most working without the benifit of breathing aperatus, flame resistant
suits ect. ) by your defiance. You, by waiting…..and choosing to IGNORE, and
DEFY, and CHOOSING to remain around to protect your STUFF. You are not only
impacting you. It is the ultimate in selfishness. It is not what you would
advise other family members to do, right ? Think of your family members in some
other place….. yet people never apply advice to themselves. They think it wont
reach them. They think if it does….it wont be that bad. I have heard this
one….” oh if it really got here, we would jump into a pool, spa ” NOT. It
can take 10 min. for a fire to blow over, and even without anything burning,
the super heated air and gas’s from the fire storm will kill you when you try to
come up for a breath. Lots of people died in their pools a couple of years
ago. They should make another sign for pool owners, not about children or
running or gates………” THIS POOL SHOULD NOT BE USED TO TRY AND SURVIVE IN CASE
OF FIRE. GET YOUR DUMB ASS OUT WHEN THE FIGHTERS TELL YOU. ” They think that
by staying behind, it is their CHOICE and does not or shouldnt be someone
elses. So wrong…..The Firefighters and others doing evacuating rescues will always ( try ) and
protect live before property. Now….they have to send additional support to
your door ( again and again ) instead of doing something more productive, like
Fire fighting. They must stage already streched personal at your roads to keep
you from sneaking out, then sneaking back in. The game of ” I know ways in
and you cant keep me from going back…..” takes up thousands and thousands of
personal and manhours. Maybe someday they WILL allow Firefighters to force
people from their homes when they are in extreme danger. Maybe they will have
those people refusing to evacuate, sign a ” right to refusal ” form admitting that
they have been informed that they are in grave danger, and will continue to
DEFY Law Enforcment and the Firefighters to get them out while it is not a
super dangerous rescue. Maybe INSURANCE companys will quit paying out coverage to
people holding up rescuers when homes around burn down due to lack of enough
personal to put water down…..because some dumb jerk next door is refusing to
get off his roof.Doubt it, but for me, its a nice thought. When I hear that ” shelter in place
” crap after a manditory evacuation order is being ignored, I wish the
Firefighters could now ignore them ! Wont happen, saving even dumb ass live’s will
always come before saving YOUR empty house.They say that 950,000 people DID follow directions and get out when told to.
Just think how many people would have died…..when the structure loss toll
is now aproaching 1,700 with maybe 2/3’s that many of others uninhabitable.Watching the heartbreaking news today of people returning to their home
sites, with nothing left, something strikes me. Almost 100 % of those people say
the same thing. ” It dosnt matter. Its just STUFF. It can be replaced except
for sentimental items, photos, trinkets with memorys. The rest of it is just
STUFF. Its PEOPLE WHO CANT BE REPLACED. PEOPLE GETTING OUT AND STAYING ALIVE IS
THE ONLY IMPORTANT THING. FAMILY, FRIENDS, LOVES ONES, NEIGHBORS, PETS.
Thats all that is important.
I agree. The heros of course will be the Firefighters, Sheriffs, Pilots, EMS
personal ect. who risked their lives to try and save others and their
property.But I also think that everyone who OBEYED manditory evacuation orders are
also heros. They didnt want to leave….didnt plan enough ahead to leave…..were
going to be terribly inconvienced to say the least, uprooting livestock,
pets, kids but still left. With 950,000 people reluctantly following those who
know better, they also saved lives. Their own and their familys. Theres my tip
for the day. Sorry to be emotional about it.Hoping they release Jeff a day early tomorrow and he will head home. He got
held back when the Malibu fire started and he has been on duty now 14, ( 24 hr
days ) straight. We are supposed to leave next week for the PNW and the
Fjord club meeting up there…visit with friends…..deliver Caesar to his new
home, vote on the club issues regarding Libby, Moses Lake ect. Keep you fingers
crossed he is on his way home tomorrow !
Lisa
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