Southern CA Guys Safe and OK?

[OneFinger]

I've been watching in disbelief at the wild fires that are devestating Southern California. Are all our M4M guys safe and accounted for?

 

Any local guys that are willing to give a personal perspective on the situation? How are the fires affecting your life, work, or the environment?

 

The parents of one of my co-workers lost their home on Saturday. I can't begin to imagine how difficult that would be. Have also heard that there are significant problems with air quality and smoke damage to near-by homes.

 

Hope everyone we know is safe and sound.

[JamesK840]

It's gotten pretty bad, but hopefully it's starting to come under control. Not much help for the >1000 families that have already lost their homes though. I'm even more concerned about poor and lower middle class Angelinos who depend on public transit to get to work, with that strike still going...

 

Ash everywhere and a smell in the air, to me not necessarily unpleasant, like any other wood-fire... But I guess some are having trouble breathing.

[JamesK840]

Deej, is it getting under control near you yet? Everything OK?

[+ deej]

I'm just a few miles from the Simi Valley fire. Monday was the worst. Thick smoke everywhere. Ash falling like snowflakes. I park in covered parking and my car was still covered in ash when I went to work. Mid-day, it was dark and more like early evening. The light was a funky orange because of all the crap flying around in the air.

 

The winds shifted last night, so someone else is enjoying most of the smoke today.

 

Several times over the past couple of days, I've seen news crews get interrupted during live broadcasts by authorities telling them "LEAVE NOW!" Today, a crew just finished a live broadcast and when they turned to their van it was being overtaken by flames. The smoke was so thick, they couldn't start it. It's a total melted loss.

 

I'll admit I have a bag packed and the cat carriers next to the door ready to scoop up the critters and bug out.

 

It's been spooky.

[Guest mondo]

Thanks for checking up on us OneFinger. The fires are really bad but the majority of people in the area are very safe.

 

Television can really make it look as if the entire southern part of the state is going up in smoke. It is far from that.

 

Typically most people are seeing a lot of ash all over the place, it covered my car, smoke clouds the sky and at night it has a weird orange glow to it, and several roads are closed which doesn't help our already horrifc traffic problems.

 

Most of the people who are / were in danger have been evacuated. A few stayed behind by choice. Law enforcement would ask these people for the name and number of their dentist so that their remains could be identified. The police report that the response to this question was effective and most decided it best to leave the area as required to do.

 

A NBC news van went up in flames, then, the crew is out covering the fire and put themselves in that situation so while sensational looking if they stayed away as the residence had to it won't have happened.

 

I have friends who have lost their house and basically all that they own. That is the hardest part of the fires. While they are grateful for their lives they are quite depressed about the losses.

 

I am only guessing but I would say that 99% of the people in this area is going on with there daily lives with little to no disruption. Remember most of what is burining is the forrest, the winds have been a huge problem and caused the fire to destroy property. The wind is dying down and the humidity is coming back so it should be under control within a week.

[OneFinger]

Just got an e-mail from my ex in San Diego. He mentioned the ash and irritation from the smoke. But, what really surprised me, was the red-hot, flying embers carried by 20 mph winds. These are causing grass fires along the freeway and threatening properties located a significant distance from the fire.

 

He also expressed concern for Palomar Mountain. Apparently an insect infestation previously killed many of the trees and there is lots of dead wood lying on the ground. That could cause serious problems if the fire hits that area.

 

There are also a couple of his friends who lost their homes in the Scripps Ranch area.

 

Very glad that most of the Hooville family is not directly in harms way. Thanks to all for the updates and letting us know you're safe.

[Guest pyell]

For people here in Canberra, Australia, the news from SoCal is eerily similar to the huge bushfires that swept out of the mountains in January and devasted parts of the city. Back then we had orange skies, thick smoke, and a tornado of flying embers which sent many houses up in flames that weren't in the direct line of the fires. Ironically, we even lost a fire station in the fires.

 

Today I went out to see one of the areas devasted in January for a case I'm doing. The place today looks pastoral and very green after the recent rains, and the few remaining trees are sprouting thick new shoots despite their charred trunks. But where there were once hundreds of square miles of forest is now hundreds of square miles of open country. It will take half a century for this area to restore. But it's worth remembering that there is life after such fires, both in nature and for us.

 

The Canberra fires were part of a series of vast bushfires in eastern Australia that ended up destroying an area not far short of the size of England. It is said that the one huge fire in Canberra in a couple of days put more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire year's output from the whole city. It's a sober reminder that global warming is not just caused by human beings: nature doesn't do too bad a job at times too.

[+ Charlie]

Is there anyone in the Palm Springs area who can report on whether the effects of the fires are being felt there at all?

[dick_nyc]

Any comments from the California media about doing something to thin the forests and get rid of the dead wood that is there so that if there is a repeat it might be a little more controllable. It seems that a lot of the problems are caused by the dead wood acting as fuel for the continued blazes. Time for talking about that when the fires are over.

 

I second the comment that we are all glad the M4Mers are all safe.