Southern California Firestorm

[premierrider]

All the familys are in my prayers.

We used to have some bad fires here in Texas.

Its a scary thing.

[Manny In England]

I've only ever seen a forest fire in Greece up in the mountains. It was pretty far away but pretty big, must be quite worrying having that many going on so close to where you live, stay strong all you So Cal guys.

[Top Thrill Dragster]

These are photos taken at 6:00am today. The smoke of the fires is causing the moon to appear red. Just thought I would share these with everyone.

 

 

 

 

[winningfreak]

Magic mountain will OPEN tomarrow!

 

http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/index.aspx

[spaceace12]

Filter masks optional but Six Flags will be selling for 10 dollars each.

[Mr Stratosphere]

We made it fine out here, A little smoky but everything is fine. Today was just a trip to Huntington Beach. Six Flags TOMORROW!!! Disney on Saturday.

I will post a Photo TR once i get home. I hope everyone is doing well.

[Loco]

Filter masks optional but Six Flags will be selling for 10 dollars each.

 

Typical Six Flags...

[kraxleRIDAH]

^ You're aware that he's joking, right?

[verticalzero]

Six Flags should sell "Gas Masks" instead, just imagine the picture of the train with everyone wearing a mask.

[rgb60]

Tell me they weren't charging regular admission prices during those days when most of the rides were down either because of winds or fire/smoke. Did they have concessions open? "Get your smoked cotton candy right heah!" No extra charge for the ash.

[Xmeister]

Well I got back from evacuating to Pechanga on Thursday. My house is fine, but when the fire came and I was still there, flames were surrounding us.

 

One minute, it was just a little glow, the next, flames were racing down the mountainside and came up around my family on three sides.

 

The Witch Fire burnt within maybe 100 feet of my house.

 

In the San Pasqual Valley below my house a couple became trapped because the fire engulfed their street in mere seconds. Unfortunately the couple didn't survive.

 

Anyone else come close?

 

BTW: The Witch Fire at it's fastest moved seven MILES in fifteen minutes. Almost thirty miles per hour.

[rgb60]

Seven miles in 15 minutes? Holy ****, that's scary. Glad to hear you're alright though, and sorry to hear about any loss of life from this event.

[socalMAN123]

Quote from OC Register:

Fire containment expected by Friday

LATEST UPDATE: Firefighters continue to put up trenches around the blaze, but predict an end to the turmoil.

By SARAH TULLY, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, NIYAZ PIRANI, SCOTT MARTINDALE and ANDREW GALVIN

The Orange County Register

Comments 6| Recommend 273

 

Fire officials expect to fully contain the Santiago fire by Friday, authorities reported today.

 

The blaze is now 65 percent contained, far better than previous days. Still, flames so far have burned 28,012 acres -- the size of about two Manhattans.

 

The blaze remained a threat to about 200 homes deep into Silverado Canyon. So far, the blaze has destroyed 15 homes and injured six firefighters, Orange County Fire Authority reported today.

 

Evacuated residents today applied for emergency cash and quickly grabbed clothes and mementos from their threatened homes, as crews built trenches to get a handle on the Santiago fire that pushed them out almost a week ago.

 

The blaze remained a threat to about 200 homes deep into Silverado Canyon, even as officials predicted 100 percent containment by Tuesday. So far, the blaze has destroyed 15 homes and injured six firefighters, Orange County Fire Authority reported today.

 

Firefighters so far have prevented the flames from hitting sensitive areas as they worked on containment lines around Silverado Canyon and east near the Riverside County line. Arson investigators tried to keep up with more than 800 tips that came in by Saturday, but today reported no major updates on their search for a suspect.

 

“Until containment lines are completely around the fire, the threat will not lessen,” said Rick Vogt, an information officer for the Santiago fire.

 

Even as the skies began to clear, the air was still considered unhealthy for everyone in the area near the fire and people with health problems in surrounding areas, experts said.

 

Almost all schools closed last week are expected to reopen Monday. Only Silverado Elementary and Trabuco Elementary schools will remain closed.

 

Firefighters started today setting a timetable for when about 3,000 residents can return to their homes almost a week after they were forced out. Meanwhile, escorts brought in about 150 residents by midday to extract any items from their house that they could gather in 10 minutes.

 

Resident Deborah Whistler hoped she wouldn't have to separate the ashes of her recently deceased best friend from the ashes of her home. She was relieved to find her in-tact house, where she brought out the ashes, her grandmother's rosary, a flute and a laptop computer. Her friend, Pam Peterson, died July 4.

 

“I promised her I'd spread her ashes at sea, not that I would burn her out in the canyon,” Whistler said.

 

As soon as Raquel Prodiz got to the front steps of her son's house, she turned around to those in her truck, apologized for crying, knelt down and started praying.

 

“My angels helped me out a lot. I prayed that they would cover the canyon with their wings so it (the canyon) would be here when we got back,” Prodiz said.

 

In Irvine, eight residents headed by 3 p.m. today to the FEMA/State Disaster Recovery Center, which opened Friday financial assistance and other helps to fire victims. Others dropped off donations.

 

Ben Baharie, 55, of Modjeska Canyon, came by to get information for himself and neighbors. The fire damaged part of his house and cars, so he has been staying at at his son's apartment in Mission Viejo.

 

“We got partial damage but three other homes close to me were total losses. We have some fire damage in the back, nothing too serious,” Baharie said. “I haven't been able to go back and assess the whole thing. I had roughly 10 minutes yesterday…to just grab whatever from the house.”

 

Orange County Fire Authority reported that Modjeska, Live Oak, Tracubo and Silverado Canyons may be re-opened at different times, depending on fire conditions. But even when those residents go back, they must stay on their properties and no one else will be let in.

 

By this morning, fire officials deemed the fire 50 percent contained.

 

"We have a 15 percent increase in containment since yesterday, that's pretty significant,'' Capt. Stephen Miller of the OCFA said this morning. "That number is probably going to go up today. Things are looking good.''

 

The fire grew by about 1,500 acres Saturday within a 24-hour period, fire officials said. By contrast, when fire broke out Oct. 21, it grew by 15,000 acres in the same time period.

 

The battle was aided by cooler temperatures and even a drizzle of rain Saturday, although drier conditions and warmer temperatures returned today. However, the weather was nothing like the wind-whipped heat that plagued the region last week.

 

Residents who could smell smoke, especially in the Saddleback Valley area, were advised to remain indoors and not exercise, said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

 

“No one should be exercising, even indoors,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the agency, which oversees regional air quality in Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. “If you can still smell smoke, teak it easy and reduce your outdoor activities.”

 

In other areas of Orange County, air quality was forecast to be unhealthy for sensitive individuals, meaning those with health problems like heart and lung disease or asthma should minimize outdoor activity.

 

Some canyon residents, who had been told to evacuate for the third time in a week Friday when the fire took a turn back toward their neighborhoods, were allowed to briefly visit their homes Saturday, accompanied by Orange County Fire Authority personnel.

 

On Saturday, about 300 canyon residents took advantage of the opportunity to grab a few belongings. They lined up in the Albertsons parking lot at Jamboree Road and Chapman Avenue – some having to wait up to an hour and a half – to be driven to their homes. Once they arrived, they had 10 minutes to grab items before they were driven out again.

 

“It's been a roller coaster ride. The worst part is thinking the fire is under control, then finding out it's not,'' said Silverado Canyon resident Don Davis.

 

“I didn't think I'd be gone this long,'' said Davis, who evacuated his three-bedroom home on Sunday. “But we're not out of the woods until this fire is out.”

 

Residents dashed in and out of homes, carrying computers, luggage and boxes of photos and documents.

 

Deb Thomas, who evacuated Monday, returned to her Modjeska Canyon home and saw that her children's playhouse in the back yard was damaged by the fire. Thomas and her two children had just enough time to grab a computer monitor and clothing before they were escorted out again.

 

The slope behind her home also was singed.

 

“It was a bit devastating,” she said, her voice faltering. “But we're very blessed.”

 

Thomas said she drove past friends' homes that had been destroyed.

 

Residents of the damaged and destroyed homes were brought separately Friday and Saturday, accompanied by fire chaplains.

 

Jim Eversoll grabbed a video camera and videotapes from his Silverado Canyon cabin. He was relieved to see his home undamaged, and that a roughly 200-year-old oak tree in his front yard also was untouched.

 

But he knows things can change at a moment's notice.

 

“If the winds come back tomorrow, my home is gone,” he said.

 

Some 500 canyon homes – affecting more than 1,300 residents – remained evacuated.

 

Making progress

 

While optimistic, officials stressed that the fire could worsen again, depending on the weather and the thick and abundant “ancient fuels” – old forest growth – of the Cleveland National Forest.

 

The woods “are in the 100-year-old age class,” Rawlings said. “We don't have a lot of recent fire history in the Cleveland National Forest.”

 

Silverado was still under mandatory evacuation, though about 40 residents continued to defy that order; police cannot forcibly remove those residents from their properties. Officials warned residents that fire retardant dropped from helicopters also could be hazardous.

 

With so few residents there, Silverado was strangely quiet for much of the day, aside from the periodic rhythmic beat of water-dropping helicopters overhead.

 

Firefighters rested beside their engines as aerial crews took on the heavy work. Every minute or two, a helicopter flew low overhead, dropping water on a smoldering hillside.

 

Firefighters from Tucson, North Tahoe, Alhambra, Monrovia and Pasadena lined the narrow road.

 

In all, 1,982 firefighters battled the fire Saturday – about 368 more than the day before. More than 200 engines and trucks – and their firefighters – came from Los Angeles, Modesto and as far away as New Mexico. Many were called in to help snuff the Malibu fire, but then moved on to help save Orange County from the flames.

 

“They're tired, but they are ready for the worst,” said Ray Valenzuela, an Orange County Fire Authority battalion chief.

 

Some going home

 

The number of firefighters battling the blaze reached its peak Saturday and no more are expected to be called in unless the fire takes a turn for the worse, said Rich Phelps, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

 

“We have the personnel we need,” Phelps said.

 

Some exhausted firefighters were ready to be relieved. Rick Jenkins of the South Pasadena Fire Department was counting down the final hours until a replacement crew was set to arrive.

 

Jenkins and his crew were called to the Malibu fire at 5 a.m. Oct. 21 and arrived in Silverado Tuesday afternoon.

 

“We finally get to go home,” Jenkins said.

 

Chip Prather, the Orange County Fire Authority's fire chief, said that firefighters were lighting backfires to burn up the hill toward the fire in hopes the two fires would consume each other.

 

“We want the fire on our terms,” Prather said.

 

Officials from Riverside County and the city of Corona met Saturday to discuss contingency planning should the fire continue its northeasterly route through the Cleveland National Forest and into Riverside County. But they said they were optimistic that the weather would halt the fire before it arrived.

 

As the fire continued to burn, law enforcement officials continued to track tips that they hope will lead to who is believed to have started the fire.

 

Authorities were looking for the driver of a 1998 to 2004 white F-150 Ford pickup truck, who police say is a “person of interest” they'd like to interview in connection with the arson investigation.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke to fire crews and media in Orange County on Saturday. He warned about potential scams related to the fires and said the state will strongly pursue scam artists, price-gougers, insurance cheats or anyone else who takes advantage of those burned out of their homes.

 

Schwarzenegger also acknowledged that improvements could be made to the state's deployment of firefighting aircraft, softening his previous stance that criticism about the state's response was “nonsense.”

 

He said that some C-130 planes were delayed because they had to be retrofitted to carry water, and he will investigate whether those planes could have been retrofitted in advance. “As sad as it is, it takes a disaster to wake everyone,” Schwarzenegger said at the command post for the Santiago fire. “With any kind of disaster, there are things we can do better next time. And we will.”

Well, the Santiago fire (which is the one by my house) has receeded enough that it no longer smells like crap here! Glad to hear since the weather has gotten better the firefighters are getting the upper hand on the blazes. Glad to hear everything is better!

---Brent

[Manny In England]

That is good news, finally you So Cal guys can get some breathing space, literally.