Southern California

[ryanzick]

Anyone have any news on the 250 homes that have caught fire?

[NJFFSA16]

Updates on the fire can be found at:

Grand Prix Fire Info

[SamsonFCDES]

They are starting to call for crews from MT.

I wouldnt mind takeing out our CAFS heavy wildland unit for a shift, we could use the money and it would be one hell of a good time.

I have my redpack loaded and I am waiting for the call.

Hell, its time to get out of MT anyway, we are starting to get snow!

[12TruckIrons]

The latest news about those 250 homes is that they are currently on the ground

[33motor]

Hey 12truck.....

Do you think you would still put that smiley face on there if it was your house that was on the ground?

[12TruckIrons]

Wasnt ment to offend 33 just a weak attempt at humor after a long day. This kinda thing does however make you wonder why people continue to build their houses in the area after seeing what happens year after year. In a round about way they actually deserve it. You touch a hot pot on the stove you learn not to do it again. If your neighbors house burns to the ground year after year wouldnt it make sense to move.

[33motor]

12truck,

Well, I don't agree that they should just move. And I know the don't "deserve it". It's just part of living in an Urban/wildland interface zone. Things like that are gonna happen. I would hope they have tried to take the appropriate precautions to prevent them as best they can. Saying they should just leave is like saying people in Kansas should just pack up and move becuase they live in tonado alley. Sometimes you just have to go on and hope for the best. Not everyone can just pack up and move away. What about their careers, should they just pack those up too? A lot of those people probably have a lot of time invested in their current jobs. Maybe they could just up and leave if they were some college kids who still have not gotten started with thier careers yet. But, I'm sure that's not the case with most, if any of them.

I know I don't have all the answers as to what they should do.... me, I would probably look into living somewhere else. But, with the terrain being what it is there, is there really any places close by that are better, or safer? Probably not. But, if I were to loose one house, I can say this, even if I didn't move... I would do my best to make sure it was the last house I lost to a wildfire.

Anyway, just my opinion.

[NJFFSA16]

14 dead, approx. 600 homes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wildfires raging in
southern California have killed as many as 14 people and
destroyed around 600 homes and conditions were expected to be
no better Monday, with hotter temperatures and dry winds
gusting to 45 miles per hour fueling the flames.
Those hot, dry Santa Ana winds and minimal humidity created
optimal conditions for raging fires in at least 10 places that
have already burned nearly 200,000 acres. The
fires, which have already caused millions of dollars in
damages, threaten more than 30,000 homes across the region.
Four counties were under states of emergency, with a fifth
facing a fast-moving fire as of Sunday night that threatened to
greater increase the acreage toll. Disaster-preparedness
agencies, like the Red Cross, were working feverishly to set up
the necessary shelters to house thousands of evacuees.
Monday is expected to bring further efforts to stop the
fires that have already started and prevent new ones from
cropping up in the dry region.
Officials said a decision would be made by Monday on
closing the Angeles National Forest, north of Los Angeles,
which was the site of a massive fire last September that
charred tens of thousands of acres.
"We've got weather conditions that we expect are going to
continue like this in southern California into the middle of
next week," Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the state office of
emergency services, told Reuters.
State emergency planning executives were also planning to
shift resources around as needed to battle the blazes, which
could paralyze some regions that are clouded by smoke and
congested as a result of closed freeways.
"The resources of the county from both a law enforcement
and fire personnel (standpoint) are stretched to the limits,"
said Greg Cox, chairman of the San Diego County Board of
Supervisors.

AVIATION, SPORTS PUT OUT BY FIRE
San Diego County took the worst of the damage
Sunday, with four separate fires burning more than 100,000
acres and killing at least 8 people. A professional football
game between the San Diego Chargers and Miami Dolphins
scheduled for Monday night will be played at the Sun Devil
Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, due to public safety concerns,
according to the Chargers' web site.
With airport traffic slowed or grounded throughout the
region, major airlines were warning customers to check for
delays and promising to waive fees through Monday for ticket
changes or refunds. Southwest Airlines canceled all flights
into and out of southern California late Sunday and warned
people to call ahead on Monday.
In Los Angeles, emergency personnel kept a wary eye on the
Simi and Grand Prix fires, which formed a pincer that
threatened the city's northern and southeastern boundaries.
In Chatsworth, 32 miles northwest of Los Angeles,
residents of multimillion-dollar homes there were told to
gather their belongings.
For those who have already lost their homes, officials of
the state's insurance department were planning to open hotlines
early Monday morning to answer questions on how to begin the
process of recovering from the disaster.
The air-quality advisory in effect for the major southern
California cities Sunday was to be continued Monday, with
the normally clean and crisp ocean air now unhealthy for most
everyone to breathe.
REUTERS

[NJFFSA16]

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) - The wildfires ravaging Southern
California are fueled by drought- and insect-ravaged vegetation and
stoked by hot, dry winds racing over terrain untouched by flame or
ax for decades.
The combination primed the region for a disaster that began to
unfold a week ago when fires - some linked to arson - began
spreading through dense chaparral and forest, officials said.
"We're set up for what we have all been afraid of for a
while," said Dan Felix, a fire behavior analyst for the U.S.
Forest Service.
By Sunday, the flames had destroyed hundreds of homes and forced
tens of thousands of people to flee.
Fierce desert winds gusted as high as 70 mph.
"This is all wind-driven," Martin Esparza, a Forest Service
spokesman, said of the wildfires.
The dreaded Santa Ana wind gets started in the Great Basin, the
vast expanse of desert that covers much of Nevada, Utah and
southern Idaho.
High pressure over the Great Basin forces cool, dry desert air
toward the southwest and through the mountains of Southern
California, including the Cajon Pass area, 60 miles east of Los
Angeles, that was at the center of the largest of the fires burning
Sunday.
As the wind travels downhill toward the coast, it is funneled
through narrow canyons, compressing, heating and accelerating the
air, said Robert Balfour, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
The hot, dry wind quickly parches vegetation already stressed by
years of drought.
"The fuels are so dry, they too are dictating the growth of the
fire," Balfour said.
Much of the brush has grown unchecked for decades.
"Some of these places do not have any recorded history of
fire," Esparza said.
The Santa Ana wind typically blows between September and
February. A decade ago, the wind exacerbated fires that charred
thousands of acres, killed three and destroyed 1,000 buildings in
Malibu, Altadena and Laguna Beach.
The Santa Anas tend to push flames downhill, toward subdivisions
built up against Southern California's mountain ranges.
When the wind subsides, flames climb uphill, mounting the
chaparral-covered slopes to push into denser forest.
Officials fear that prospect, since the region's forests contain
millions of dead and dying trees devastated over the last year by
tiny beetles.
Since the spring, the Forest Service and private land owners
have struggled to remove dead trees and brush within the
820,000-acre San Bernardino National Forest. Vast swaths of the
forest, home to 80,000 people, have not been logged for more than a
century.
"If the fire starts to crown, racing from one tree to the next,
it will be an extreme situation," said Stanton Florea, a Forest
Service spokesman.
Briefing papers circulated among fire experts this summer said
fuel levels near Lake Arrowhead in the forest approached those that
fed the Peshtigo firestorm in Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 1871, which
killed more than 1,500 people.
Decades of fire suppression mean a region that could support a
healthy forest of about 40 trees an acre is crowded with as many as
568 trees per acre, according to a fire safety briefing prepared by
the San Bernardino National Forest and the interagency Southern
California Coordination Center in Riverside. The Peshtigo fire
region had about 640 trees per acre.

APTV 10-27-03 0215EST

[RspctFrmCalgary]

At least 14 killed in California wildfires
Flames destroy 550 homes, threaten thousands more
Monday, October 27, 2003 Posted: 0512 GMT ( 1:12 PM HKT)

Ventura County firefighters watch a twister of flame rise from a back fire in Simi Valley, California.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked outside my house and I thought I was in the middle of hell.
-- Joe Wronowicz, Rancho Cucamonga resident


LA VERNE, California (CNN) -- Wind-whipped wildfires have tormented Southern California from San Diego to suburban Los Angeles, causing 14 deaths, and destroying more than 550 homes and threatening thousands more.

Eleven people were reported dead Sunday in a 100,000-acre fire in eastern San Diego County and more deaths were being investigated, Sheriff Bill Kolender said.

Two people died inside their car and three on foot while apparently trying to escape, The Associated Press reported.

The so-called Cedar fire started Saturday when a hunter lost in the mountains near Julian lit a signal fire, the AP reported authorities as saying. Two other fires in southern and northern areas of the county have torched nearly 20,000 acres.

San Diego's fire chief said at least 25,000 acres had been destroyed within the city limits. In the Scripps Ranch area alone, 150 homes have been lost, he said.

"Our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes," San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy told reporters Sunday evening. "This fire is so overwhelming, so devastating."

Murphy, who surveyed the fire-damaged area by helicopter Sunday, asked residents to reduce their water use to provide more for firefighters. Schools will be closed Monday and "only the most essential services" will be operating.

He said the city had asked the National Football League to cancel the Chargers game Monday night against the Miami Dolphins. The NFL decided late Sunday that the game would be moved to Tempe, Arizona.

Fast-moving fires have been raging in Southern California since Tuesday, fanned by low humidity and hot Santa Ana winds blowing 30-35 mph and gusting much higher, keeping the fires erratic and unpredictable, and hampering efforts to contain them.

Up the coast, fires in the mountains and canyons beyond the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles sometimes hopped fire lines and highways, thwarting firefighters and lighting up homes.

Two fires in San Bernardino County once separated by at least 10 miles merged at the intersection of interstates 215 and 15, the main freeway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The combined "Grand Prix" and "Old" fires created a blaze of about 72,000 acres in the San Bernardino and Angeles national forests and have so far destroyed more than 375 homes.

As many as 12,000 homes in the region were under "some form of evacuation," with residents either having already left or preparing to do so, Forest Service information officer Martin Esparza said.

Two elderly men died Saturday in San Bernardino, apparently from fire-induced stress. A 93-year-old man collapsed and died while watching his home burn, according to the San Bernardino coroner. A 70-year-old man died from a heart attack while evacuating his house, the coroner said.

Officials also reported a third stress-related death in the San Bernardino area.

The Grand Prix fire started Tuesday and the Old fire Saturday. Officials believe both were deliberately set.

Still farther west, more then 2,000 homes in Simi Valley were in danger from a 80,000-acre fire dubbed the Simi Incident, which sparked Friday when a smaller fire jumped State Route 126 and sped west.

According to the AP, firefighters were working to save the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the city.

Ventura County fire officials confirmed the loss of 12 homes and said the Union Pacific Railroad had closed all rail lines into Simi Valley.

One of the other fires in the San Diego area came within a quarter-mile Sunday of the Federal Aviation Administration's radar facility at Miramar Naval Air Station.

When air traffic controllers transferred their responsibilities to a facility in Palmdale, the switch delayed air travel for several hours at several Southern California airports, including Los Angeles International and San Diego International.

Firefighters took advantage of any lull in the winds, however brief, to put helicopters and fixed-wing tanker aircraft into the air to dump water and retardant on the fires.

Hundreds of residents of the heavily populated suburbs waited in their cars, on the streets or at shelters for word on the fate of their homes.

Among those sitting in their vehicles watching the burning skyline Sunday were Sharon Robinson, 62, and her daughter Kim Robinson, 46, who fled their home after throwing whatever clothes and other belongings they could into the back of their truck, according to an AP report

"We've lived in our home for 35 years," Sharon Robinson told the AP. "Fire has always stopped in the foothills. I never thought it would reach our home."

"I looked outside my house and I thought I was in the middle of hell, it was redness everywhere, unbelievable," said Rancho Cucamonga resident Joe Wronowicz, who along with his family put off evacuating and put their faith in firefighters to protect their neighborhood.

California Gov. Gray Davis asked President Bush to declare the four counties affected by the fires disaster areas, paving the way for financial aid.

"My heart goes out [to] them," Davis said at a news conference in San Bernardino, describing those who have lost or been forced to abandon their homes.

"This is a terrible situation. They are the worst fires in California in 10 years," Davis said.

The governor said he has authorized more than 650 fire engines to help the effort.

[NJFFSA16]

Some of the worst wildfires in California in the past seven
decades, based on number of deaths, buildings destroyed or acreage
burned:
- October 1999: Jones Fire, near Redding in Shasta County. One
volunteer firefighter killed, 176 homes and hundreds of other
buildings destroyed, 26,200 acres of land burned. Cause believed to
be accidental.
- November 1993: Topanga Fire, Malibu and nearby areas in Los
Angeles County. Three deaths; 323 homes; 18,000 acres. Arson
caused. The fire was among more than 20 that for about two weeks
raced through Southern California, killing four. More than 1,000
homes and 193,814 acres of land burned.
- August 1992: Fountain Fire, Shasta County. 636 buildings;
63,960 acres. Arson.
- October 1991: Tunnel Fire, Oakland hills of Alameda County. 25
dead; 3,276 homes and apartments; 1,520 acres. A fire that was
believed contained rekindled when an ember ignited a tree.
- June 1990: Painted Cave Fire, Santa Barbara County. One death;
641 homes, apartment complexes and other structures; 4,900 acres.
Arson.
- November 1980: Panorama Fire, San Bernardino foothills. Four
dead; 325 homes; 23,600 acres. Arson.
- September 1970: Laguna Fire, San Diego County mountains. Six
dead; 382 structures; 175,425 acres. Power lines.
- November 1966: Loop Fire, Angeles National Forest in Los
Angeles County. 12 firefighters killed; 2,028 acres. Power line.
- November 1961: Bel Air-Brentwood Fire, Los Angeles County. 484
homes; 6,090 acres. Cause undetermined but believed accidental.
- July 1953: Rattlesnake Fire, Glenn County. 15 firefighters
killed in Mendocino National Forest; 1,300 acres. Arson.
- October 1933: Griffith Park Fire, Los Angeles County. 29
welfare workers clearing brush were killed; about 47 acres. Cause
undetermined.
---
Sources: California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection,
local fire agencies, newspaper articles, official and scholarly
reports.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[ffdfireexplorer]

I just found out that my relatives in CA. have been evacuated from their home.

[MalahatTwo7]

I hope this works. I took it from our printed newspaper this morning. If it weren't for the implications of the event itself, this would be a really cool picture.

For the guys who are working this fire, I wish you good luck and hope that things can be brought under control quickly. I have seen what this sort of fire can do, and it just ain't pretty at all.

**for those of us with bad eyesight, the caption at the bottom reads:

"Firefighters gaze at a twister of flame from a wildfire Sunday in Simi Valley, CA."

[Lewiston2FF]

I have a friend that lives near California State Univ. Campus in San Bernardino. He said that many of the homes around the school he teaches at have been damaged, or destroyed. He said life has gotten really interesting now that the Old and Grand Prix fires have combined. He figures the Simi fire may join up next, then life will get really interesting. I hope the best for him.

[Engine101]

Thats been roughly the size of the blze that fire crews have to contend with, Not to mention the heat and winds