Fires in California

[syscom3]

I thought some of you would like to see this link that gives a good overview of the fire that's burning in the mountains above Los Angeles.

InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire

Station IC - Google Maps


What makes this fire so unusual is the complete lack of wind. The smoke is not blowing horizontally, but straight up.

 

[davparlr]

We've been watching the smoke billowing above the mountains for several days. In 30 years I have never seen such a sight. Reminds me of a volcano or two.

Pray for the victims and firemen. We have alreadly lost two firemen.

 

[syscom3]

Here's a pic from yesterday, and one I took a few minutes ago. I am approx 30 miles SSE of the fire.

The color of the smoke ring at the base is a dirty gray. It sort of reminds me of the cloud formed from a small nuke.

 

[B-17engineer]

The fires are threatening 6,000 homes

 

[Vassili Zaitzev]

I've heard they're pretty bad. Stay safe, anybody who's in California.

 

[GrauGeist]

I know it's a weird feeling to see fire in the hills and not have a Santa Ana blowing. It happens once in a while, and hopefully it'll stay calm like this so the fire crews can get an upper hand on them.

 

[vikingBerserker]

My wife took a job in LA and she's been saying it's getting a tad on the smoky side on her commute.

 

[syscom3]

I know it's a weird feeling to see fire in the hills and not have a Santa Ana blowing. It happens once in a while, and hopefully it'll stay calm like this so the fire crews can get an upper hand on them.

I'd like to see it continue to burn so we dont have an out of control fire when the winds blow.

Decades of misguided fire suppression have finally caught up with us. Its time to pay the piper.

 

[GrauGeist]

I'd like to see it continue to burn so we dont have an out of control fire when the winds blow.

Decades of misguided fire suppression have finally caught up with us. Its time to pay the piper.

I agree...one of the major probs is the Forest Service's constant injunctions from "E" groups that keep them from doing any real forest management.

We're really paying for it up here, as you've seen recently.

But like I've said before, the hills will always burn. The HUGE problem with that is the idiots down there that keep building right up into the areas that have ALWAYS burned in the summer, not to mention building in areas that have ALWAYS had land/mud slide in the winter (in many cases, it's both).

Then when it happens, they act all surprised and get angry, yell crap about global warming or how (local/state/federal) government should do a better job protecting taxpayers. And then go right back to the same spot and rebuild.

The local indians who lived in the Los Angeles area before the Spaniards arrived, called it the valley of smoke. 400 years later and people still haven't figured that out!

 

[evangilder]

The La Canada/Flintridge areas have not had anything burn in 30 years, so there is a lot to burn up there, and it's burning like crazy. The fire department doesn't think they'll have a handle on it for 2 more weeks! It's pretty smoky at my office in Woodland Hills, and that is quite a distance from the fire. Over 100,000 acres have burned in this one so far. Last night, it was at 45,000, so it's growing rapidly.

 

[GrauGeist]

Is your place is safe from the fire, Eric?

 

[evangilder]

Yeah, I'm in Ventura County. We have had some smoke when the wind shifts, but otherwise we're safe from this one. The smoke gets worse in the valley, where I work. But even then, the fires are still a good distance away this time.

The good news is that we have a hurricane in the Pacific heading towards Baja that will likely bring us some rain. That might help if it gets toward the fire lines. Lord knows we could use a break from the heat. It's been triple digits for a week. The firefighters are earning their pay this week.

 

[GrauGeist]

Good news about the homestead being out of harm's way.

Yeah, the smoke and heat is not only oppressive, it's a dangerous combination.

Our only salvation last year, was the extreme smoke (solid from June until September) actually lowered our average summer temps by almost 10 degrees.

Redding is known for it's triple digits, I've even seen it over 115°, but I'd take the heat over the smoke any day!

 

[comiso90]

Californians Gather To Celebrate Annual Wildfire Tradition | The Onion - America's Finest News Source


.

 

[GrauGeist]

Californians Gather To Celebrate Annual Wildfire Tradition | The Onion - America's Finest News Source


.

LOL

Man, if that's not just about as close to the truth as you can get...

 

[syscom3]

Tonight's burned area is 105,000 acres. That's 164 square miles.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Our thoughts go out to you all in California, with the last summer horror fires of Victoria and the ones in Canberra in 2003 we feel for you. Stay safe.
8)

 

[evangilder]

Anyone familiar with Southern California can get an idea just how big the station fire is by the map below.

Los Angeles area fires: Mount Wilson, La Canada Flintridge, Altadena, La Crescenta, Glendale, Pasadena, Acton, Agua Dulce - Google Maps

 

[evangilder]

To give you an idea of where I am in relationship to the fires, here is the map, shifted a bit. So you can see work is closer to the fires, but there isn't much vegetation between the fires and work, except above Chatsworth, which I can see from my office window. If it gets that far, we are in big trouble.

The little volcano looking icon on the map on the lower right of the fire area is Mount Wilson. It is at risk and it burning would be very bad for Southern California. Radio, television and cell phone repeaters are up there along with an observatory.
(Map by Google Maps.)

 

[evangilder]

Mount Wilson tower cam is still up, for now.
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~obs/towercam.htm

You can see that they still have power (backup generators). The observatory there has a 60 inch telescope available for public viewing. It is more than 100 years old and was where Edwin Hubble did some of his ground-breaking work. News stations have used that camera for years to show conditions across the LA basin.