The fires in California are horrifying and the coverage is so overwhelming and devastating and horrible that it has actually pushed Trump and all his bullshit off our radar.
And the fact that there is something else awful happening that I can do nothing about is depressing.
VFX Lurker
Hang in there, John.
-+-
The Los Angeles Times has a list of places to donate money, camping gear (ex: sleeping bags), and other supplies to help my fellow Angelenos.
I just donated a small amount to World Central Kitchen. I also plan to donate to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation later tonight.
zhena gogolia
@VFX Lurker: Thanks!
dmsilev
If you’d like to help, a couple of options. World Central Kitchen is onsite and feeding displaced people. Pasadena Humane is organizing rescue efforts for animals, both pets and larger animals.
The LA Times has a longer list of organizations.
Chief Oshkosh
Yes, it’s overwhelming on one level. My niece, her wife, wife’s mom, and their dog, and cat evacuated at 6 am this morning. They’re pretty sure their apartment is gone. They’re all fine, though, and family across the nation who they just saw at Christmas are sending offerings of help (money, places to stay, etc.). For an entirely different reason, my niece says that the response has been overwhelming for her. She didn’t know all those aunts, uncles, and cousins really meant it when they said they loved her! :)
Poe Larity.
This new west hollywood fire is going to be a nightmare. I don’t see how people get out of that canyon as it only started an hour ago.
youtube.com/watch?v=VFIIOGDR2vU
Scout211
CNN has set up a direct donation site via pledge to several local non-profits (World Central Kitchen and LAFD Foundation are on the list). You can split your donation among all of them or separately to one.
Steve LaBonne
The most frightening thing is that there’s no longer such a thing as fire season.
dmsilev
I’m, so far anyway, outside the fire zone, but the wind knocked over a tree on our property last night. We did the best we could with tools on hand to clear the road and make the sidewalks passable, but at some point this afternoon somebody, and we no idea who, came by with a chainsaw and cut back a bunch more to really clear the road.
A Good Samaritan with a chainsaw. That seems like a …mixed blessing.
(Or it could just have been Pasadena DPW )
KatKapCC
Wow, FTFNYT really living up to the name. They have a “where you can find updates and shelter” article…and you have to log in to see it.
dmsilev
@KatKapCC: The LA Times has …issues, but it’s probably a better go-to in this case.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@KatKapCC:
….why wouldn’t they make something like that free for anyone to see? It’s an ongoing life-threatening emergency!
Shakti
I have a friend who went on a delayed birthday vacation/honeymoon and she came back with her husband to LAX to all of this. Her FIL was picking them up and the power went out in the parking garage and they spent the night at their in-laws, who have their dogs. AFAIK, her home has minimal damage but everyone needs KN 94s and it’s messing up her lungs. She hasn’t unpacked because they might have to evacuate again and 20 minutes ago the Sunset fire got close enough to Runyon Canyon that her phone is exploding with alerts.
NotMax
Has Doofus Maximus blamed the fires on caravans of immigrants cooking Mexican street corn outdoors yet?
//
VFX Lurker
The behavior of the owner infuriates me…but they can be so good about reporting on state and local issues.
Case in point — one of the organizations on the Times list is a BIPOC climbing club. I had heard about other organizations on the list, but not this club!
Kay
@VFX Lurker:
Thank you. I love Los Angeles. I’ll donate.
Almost Retired
@Poe Larity.: The new Runyan Canyon fire is terrifying. I’m watching the live coverage and it went from “we can knock this one down” to maybe not. I’m trying to think if a major U.S. city has ever seen this level of destruction (outside of the Civil War).
KatKapCC
@NotMax: I don’t know, but a bunch of his minions are blaming the governor, because apparently he controls the weather now, which is weird because I thought it was us Jews who did. I’m unclear whether they think Newsom is a secret Jew or that they now think Catholics control the weather.
Rusty
In the middle of all this fear, tragedy and death, Trump referred to the California governor as Gavin Newscum. He is such a loathsome individual, he debases everything he touches. What an ugly four years to come.
My LA based friends and family are posting pictures of raging fires and towers of smoke just miles from their homes and apartments. No one has had to evacuate yet, but they are ready to go.
realbtl
I spent the 50s-70s and 80s-2000 in CA. We always had the Santa Anas (bleh) and fires measured in sqmi not acres but never to this extent. Add in the massive development/town/city growth and climate change and you have a nasty cocktail.
ArchTeryx
@Rusty: You just watch. He’s going to say all the people who died in this wildfire deserved to die, and a plurality of this country will cheer him on. That’s where we are now.
Aussie Sheila
My heart goes out to all affected. There is nothing more terrifying or devastating as fires like this. We have had a lot of them of course. The toll on people, animals and emergency services is simply terrible.
People will need food, shelter and their animals likewise if they have been rescued.
Its simply awful and devastating.
RaflW
The Hollywood fire is pretty freaking scary (they all are!). But I mean the density of people there, and seeing the deep red traffic jams as people try to heed evacuation warnings. My god.
different-church-lady
@Rusty: Just spent the last hour thinking, “Trump will spend all his time trying to figure out who to blame,” and sure enough. The man is a ghoul and he’s adored for it. Our society is sick.
eemom
@Rusty:
It’s beyond ugly. It is fucking terrifying. What’s going to happen when there are catastrophic wildfires, hurricanes, and God knows what other natural catastrophes in the four years to come, and that thing in the oval office uses them to advance his
political genius agendamouth foaming insane vendettas??That’s before we get to the catastrophes he will cause.
I hate, hate, HATE this country that elected this horror.
eemom
@Kay:
Out of curiosity, why would someone with the views you have expressed on this blog love Los Angeles? Honest question.
RaflW
@KatKapCC: Trumpism is a post-policy abyss. And the Republicans in D.C. have largely failed to pass any laws, certainly not any laws that might have mitigated what is happening now.
But Newsom will be held to a standard that is absolutely not ever, not once applied to Trump or Republicans.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@eemom:
What views has Kay expressed?
Juju
@KatKapCC: I thought it was the Jews who control the giant space laser. I think the pope controls the weather.
Almost Retired
@eemom: Why on earth would you attack Kay for expressing sympathy and wanting to donate to victims of this tragedy? Kay doesn’t need me to defend her, but your comment is indefensible. Sorry to be impolite but I’m a bit raw here with seven friends who have lost their homes and counting.
Will
@Almost Retired: Chicago
Juju
@RaflW: Newsome is very good at his job and has much better hair. That’s enough to set Trump off right there.
Almost Retired
@Will: good point.
mrmoshpotato
@Scout211:
Is CNN’s top brass going to be donating?
Sister Golden Bear
@Almost Retired:
Small bits of good news, 1) the Sunset fire is in park, so no one in Runyon Canyon itself to evacuate, 2) the winds have slowed enough there’s multiple helicopters working the fire (per Watch Duty), and wind is expected to drop even further overnight.
Potential bad news, like the Eaton fire, there’s densely populated areas directly south of Runyon Canyon, so if embers blow across Hollywood Boulevard, the fire could really devastating. The area to the west is hilly with narrow windy roads, so it’s gonna be tough to evacuate and tough to get fire crews in.
Harrison Wesley
@Almost Retired: Galveston hurricane or San Francisco earthquake, but this might wind up worse than either of them.
Harrison Wesley
@KatKapCC: No, he didn’t use a Sharpie to redirect the fires.
Almost Retired
@Sister Golden Bear: Surface streets in Hollywood are jammed with voluntary evacuations. Just spoke to a friend who said it’s complicated by Sunset Boulevard being partially closed as a fire fighting staging area.
Will
@Almost Retired: I would say New Orleans is probably the closest I’ve seen in my lifetime to this, but I’d qualify NO as a large city rather than a major city like NYC, LA, or Chicago.
It’s wild that Katrina was less than 20 years ago and how different the news environment is. The horrors of Katrina being broadcast to Tiktok and Instagram would have been insane. Would have had Kanye having a non stop social media fight with Bush on Twitter.
mrmoshpotato
@Juju:
Newsome also isn’t a whiny, insecure, narcissistic, tiny-fingered, orange shitstain.
Aussie Sheila
@eemom:
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
mrmoshpotato
@Will:
That would’ve been fun to watch.
wjca
The real good news: Biden is still President. So we got a disaster declaration without someone having to convince Trump (true or not) that it’s mostly MAGA voters being impacted.
prostratedragon
@Will:
Peshtigo, WI still holds the fatality record, 1200 or more, on the same night as Chicago; 1871 was a red flag year throughout the Great Lakes. But of course neither of these places was urbanized anything like the degree of Los Angeles.
KatKapCC
@Juju: But we use the space lasers to start the fires!!
Origuy
The Oakland Hills firestorm of 1991 destroyed 2,843 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium units. That was the most destructive fire in California until the Camp Fire of 2018.
prostratedragon
@Juju: Think that bastard has noticed anything but Newsom’s hair? Remember he got a kick out of shaving that wrestling announcer for a stunt.
blindyone
@Juju: And Newsome definitely has bigger hands. ;)
hotshoe
@Harrison Wesley:
Terrifying and unprecedented about LA’s fire storm:
we can all see it happening in real time, so it feels worse.
it’s random and unpredictable (I mean, except in the sense that climate-change driven disasters are predicted to happen, but not specifically where/when) versus a sense that people who build on a sandbar like Galveston should expect to get washed away.
Well, some are going to say something similar about folks who built in the dry twisty canyons above Pacific Palisades — “should expect” a fire in one’s lifetime — but no one in an ordinary flat city in north San Fernando Valley “should expect” that a random wind-blown ember is going to destroy a whole neighborhood.
Galveston was unspeakably worse. At least 8000, maybe 12000 people died. One third of the population homeless.
But it’s not just recency bias which makes it feel as if nothing as terrifying as these LA fire storms had happened before. There are 12 million people in the LA basin. And now we know, every single one of those people are at risk through no fault of their own. That’s a frightening reality.
prostratedragon
@Harrison Wesley: Let’s hope and pray not.
@prostratedragon:
By record, I mean for a fire in a U.S. urban area. Katrina killed a similar number, and the Galveston hurricane and 1906 San Francisco quake both killed considerably more.
Aussie Sheila
@hotshoe:
Fires like this create their own ‘local’ weather. They the most terrifying and destructive thing in Nature. Bar none.
NotMax
@Harrison Wesley
Also the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Too, the Great Fire of New York in 1776, the Great Fire of Pittsburgh in 1845 and the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917.
hotshoe
@Origuy: I was in NorCal for that one. Honestly I barely remember it, so much has happened since then. I recollect there was round-the-clock news coverage, but of course only by media companies; mobile phones existed but not with streaming video.
Just now looked up how many people died in Oakland hills: 25 people died, 150 injured.
Thank all the gods that relatively few folks in the LA fires this time have died or been seriously injured. Also thanks to all people who worked on such things as disaster alerts (ie Watch-Duty) which clearly make a difference this time.
I hope we can hang on to some of that collective help in the next couple years. Gonna need it.
NotMax
@Aussie Sheila
Pompeii and Harculaneum might express another opinion.
hotshoe
@Aussie Sheila:
A couple people in other thread have been using the phrase “fire hurricane”.
To me, that says it all.
Aussie Sheila
@NotMax:
I would argue against that actually. Unless those volcanoes erupt now or in the future before any warning and the evacuation of people, that isn’t true. It is easier to predict volcanic eruptions than such wildfires. Much easier. We have lost so many lives to bushfires here that just got out of control in an instant that I believe there is no comparison whatsoever.
hotshoe
@Aussie Sheila:
Was it three or four years ago that a wildfire trapped all the people in one coastal town and they walked into the water at the beach to keep from burning?
scav
@Aussie Sheila: But, then again, volcanic eruptions can mess up the weather of the entire planet for a good couple years so. . . . The worst type will probably depend on what we choose to measure. For unpredictability and speed though, fires can rate right up there.
Aussie Sheila
@hotshoe:
Yes, it was. I don’t think unless you are familiar with this thing that anyone quite understands it’s absolutely fierce and furiously fast nature. And it destroys everything it touches.
Everything.
karen gail
Getting ready to shut down for the night, so was just reading headlines; seems the idiots are now taking to the media spouting that we should be charging California politicians with criminal negligence over the wildfires. The most “vocal and obnoxious” are those who are climate deniers; our all time favorite idiot who believes that Jews have space lasers leads the parade.
In all honesty they seem to lack enough brains cells in the whole parade of them to understand words like; drought, Santa Ana winds, steep hill sides and evacuation.
eemom
@Aussie Sheila:
@Almost Retired:
Oh ffs, you people are as lacking in reading comprehension as trumpfucks. I just asked why she loves LA, not why she’s supporting the recovery.
Jay
@karen gail:
Keep in mind, that aside from the “Known Suspects”, a large number of comments on Social Media, all social media, are going to be trolls and foreign actors out to sow disinfo, chaos and lies.
NotMax
@Aussie Sheila
Predictability can lessen immediate fatalities but in no way makes volcanoes any less terrifying and destructive, capable of causing extended global climate effects.
Aussie Sheila
@scav:
Well with global warming we will see how enough fires like these across the temperate latitudes can also affect weather for a couple of years. It’s already happening.
Jay
@eemom:
You are absolutely full of it.
Aussie Sheila
@NotMax:
Sure, of course. But compared to volcanoes, wildfires like these have caused far more destruction, in lives lost, property destroyed and ecosystems ruined than volcanoes have in my lifetime.
They are a scourge and will become far more frequent, especially here where I live.
My heart goes out to the people affected by this. I know how terrifying it is.
scav
@Aussie Sheila: As well as floods, droughts and a number of other things. Not going to be fun any way we measure it.
eemom
@Jay:
So you don’t do reading comprehension either? I thought you did.
But whatever, fine, fuck off.
There’s enough horror to deal with rn without engaging with morons who remind me why I once had the sense to GTFO this sheep bleating cesspool.
Aussie Sheila
@scav:
True. All of it. My god the people responsible for slowing down the response to global warming should all be lined up and shot.
I mean it. I’m not a violent person at all, but I I feel such rage when this kind of thing happens I can hardly see straight.
Jaybird
@hotshoe: I lived in the Oakland hills, just south of the fire, at the time. I think a major contributor to the difference in fatalities has been due to (in no particular order): social media, mobile alerts, alerts ahead of time from officials. There was essentially no infrastructure to enable an evacuation in place then.
I remember hosing down embers on the deck all night. These fires are terrifying.
RaflW
So many frayed nerves.
I’m going to bed.
KatKapCC
@eemom: Maybe you’ll call me stupid too, but:
I truly don’t know what you’re referring to by “the views you have expressed” regarding Kay. Has she said she hates Los Angeles? Hates California? Blue states? I think we’re just not sure what you are referencing.
Jay
@eemom:
Do it again.
Jay
@KatKapCC:
Kay has called out the US on Gaza, amongst other things.
eemom is trying to drag her shit talking of Kay in past threads, forward into this one.
eemom
@KatKapCC:
Thank you for asking an honest question, which is what I attempted to do.
I only meant that the woman puts herself out as the champion of the oppressed, which of course we all hopefully aspire to be. But as I understand Los Angeles, it is a place where the some of the very worst of the oppressors rule without any serious challenge. So, saying the she “loves” the place struck a discordant note.
eemom
@Jay:
Hey asshole, go find where I shit talked Kay about anything, ever.
Go on. I’ll wait all night.
Aussie Sheila
@eemom:
Imma calling ‘bullshit’ on you. You were being deliberately insulting in a cowardly opaque way. Absolutely uncalled for, and worse, stupid.
eemom
@Jay:
Or….is is just that your antisemitic ass automatically records any opposition to the party line on Gaza, which has been called out by many others here besides me? Could that be it?
Because I don’t recall Gaza having anything to do with the topic of wildfires or LA.
KatKapCC
@eemom: Okay, but…forgive me, I don’t think this makes sense. There are nearly 4 million people in Los Angeles, probably twice that if you expand to the surrounding metro area. Most of those people — most of the people being impacted right now — are just regular people. They’re not oppressors, they’re not titans of industry. To be honest, I’m not even clear why you think “some of the very worst oppressors rule without any serious challenge” in Los Angeles? It’s not, like…some global financial hub, or the center of the right-wing evangelical movement, or something. It’s the center of the entertainment world, yes, and some of the higher-ups in that world are indeed shitheads, but “the very worst of the oppressors”?
Plus, someone can like a city without loving every single thing about it. I love NYC but I can recognize there’s a lot of bullshit that goes on there in terms of politics, social injustice, etc.
This is just an odd stance you’re taking here, and it feels like you just hate Kay and are looking for any reason to be crass toward her. And I disagree sharply with Kay much of the time on things that are extremely personal to me. But I don’t feel the need to yell about that fact any time she comments on anything at all.
Melancholy Jaques
@eemom:
Tell me you know almost nothing about Los Angeles without saying you know almost nothing about Los Angeles.
Jay
eemom is just here to start fights and sow discord.
NotMax
@Aussie Sheila
Montserrat’s eruptions weren’t all that long ago.
eemom
omg. I am seriously out of my fucking mind to engage with you people. I will try not to do it again. Good night.
Jay
If anybody is interested, CBC has a slide show of photo’s showing some of the conditions people are dealing with.
cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/quebec-british-columbia-wildfires-los-angeles-1.7426060
The photo of embers being blown down the street and through the air like a meteor shower,……..
eemom
@Jay:
You haven’t answered my question, asshole.
eemom
@KatKapCC:
I did not yell. I asked a question.
Once again, sorry to have assumed reading comprehension was a thing. And sorry to have overestimated people I thought were reasonable.
And more than anything, once again, sorry to have wasted whatever time I have left in this doomed world on the idiocy in this place.
KatKapCC
@eemom: So because people don’t agree with your confusing statements, we’re just a bunch of dummies who are too dimwitted for you to engage with? You sound like a child throwing a temper tantrum now, so maybe it’s a good idea that you’re going to bed.
You said “as I understand Los Angeles”, which sounds like you don’t live there and never have. So let me help you: You do not understand Los Angeles at all. And yet you are ready to shoot all of us in the face because we’re not leaping into lockstep agreement with your bizarre pronouncements about a place you don’t live and a person who says she likes that place, because she’s not allowed to like it if she cares about oppressed people.
If we’re enraging you, that’s because you are not making any sense while the rest of us are desperately searching for it in your comments
Also, you can shut the fuck up with your insults to everyone’s intelligence. Go fuck yourself with that shit. Because you of all people do not sound like an intelligent person right now.
Aussie Sheila
@NotMax:
Sure, but how many people died? Without wanting to start a mortality competition here, I can assure you that deaths from bushfire in my country has run to thousands in my life time.
The property loss and ecocide has been incalculable.
There are parts of NSW where koalas have been all but wiped out.
Aussie Sheila
@KatKapCC:
I worked in LA 25 years ago as a union representative for an Australian union. Anyone who thinks LA is a ‘seat of the ruling/oppressor class’ knows absolutely fucking nothing about the city. Nothing. It’s very working class. A multi racial, courageous and fucking tough working class. eemon can go fly a kite.
He is full of it.
hotshoe
@KatKapCC:
12+ million in the great Los Angeles basin — which is definitely the whole area we’re talking about since we’re talking about fires from Pacific coast inland to Pasadena and north into northern San Fernando Valley — it’s one hell of a decentralized urban system.
Wikipedia stats for Los Angeles city (census of 4 million, not the whole area):
educational status of residents over 25 years (2,407,775 total) was as follows:[6]
Less than 9th grade: 15.9% (383,385)9th to 12th grade, no diploma: 11.1% (267,833)High school graduate: 21.1% (509,021)Some college, no degree: 16.7% (402,973)Associate degree: 5.9% (141,764)Bachelor’s degree: 19.2% (462,701)
income status of residents was as follows:[6]
Median household income: $48,610Mean household income: $76,557Median family income: $53,008Mean family income: $83,965Median non-family income: $38,227Mean non-family income: $61,155
poverty status of residents was as follows:[6]
All families: 15.6%Married-couple families: 10.2%Families with female householder, no husband present: 30.1%All people: 18.9%Under 18 years: 27.8%18 years and over: 16.0%18 to 64 years: 16.5%65 years and over: 12.9%
So LA is hardly Masters-Of-The-Universe territory which might have justified that bizarre comment about “how can you stand to like them when they’re populated by oppressors?”
LA as a whole has zero effect on American politics. Hollywood itself has barely any effect either; it’s just not that important nowadays — unless you’re a MAGAt and you’re looking for someone to blame for decadent wokeness.
maybe eemom is a secret MAGAt ???
sorry I tried to edit and in the process messed up the table of stats, looks messy now, still true facts.
Aussie Sheila
@hotshoe:
Whatever s/he is, s/he knows squat about LA. I love it and have fond memories of my time and the people I worked with there. The focus should be on the people who are now homeless, terrified and bereft because of this scourge.
KatKapCC
@hotshoe: It’s honestly baffling to me, but I think it’s also quite telling that she refuses to answer our questions and instead is just stomping her feet and calling us idiots.
KatKapCC
@Aussie Sheila: (Since the name is “eemom” I am assuming the commenter is a woman.)
(A woman behaving like a toddler at the moment, but a woman.)
Aussie Sheila
@KatKapCC:
Got it and corrected. But my point stands. And I don’t care about her gender.
At all.
She is cruel and lacking in empathy.
That’s all I need to know.
Llelldorin
@eemom:
That is a startlingly poor description of LA.
LA is, as others have noted, immense. If LA County were to become its own state, it’d 11th most populous — a bit less populated than Michigan, a bit more than New Jersey.
It’s the home of 88 cities, 15 of which have populations over 100,000.
It’s broadly working-class, as others have noted. There are certainly absurdly wealthy Angelenos, but they don’t “rule without serious challenge.”
Aussie Sheila
@Llelldorin:
They sure don’t ‘rule without serious challenge’.
eemom might like to look up the working class history of LA.
She might learn something.
Or not.
hotshoe
@Jay:
I think you know about a lot about destructive wildfires. Was it last summer that you were posting news about the fires overtaking Jasper?
Nature bats last.
Always.
ArchTeryx
Firestorms, which at least one of these fires appeared to be, are absolutely no joke.
I’m not going to get into a pissing contest over which is a worse disaster than others. I guarantee you if you’re in the middle of it, it doesn’t matter if it’s an EF0 tornado or the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting: It will be the worst disaster of all time for you. And frankly, that’s what matters here.
But I will say that these fuckers generate their own weather and feed off their own strength. That’s why they are called firestorms and not just wildfires. When you hit a certain point, the fire intensifies and accelerates out of all human control until it runs out of fuel or until conditions change against it. The Camp Fire was a firestorm when it roared through Paradise, CA. So was the terrible Peshtigo Fire of the late 1800s. And it was a firestorm that blew up out of nowhere that killed the entire Granite Mountain Hotshots team, save one survivor, not that many years ago.
These people need help, not gadflies like the Orange Orangutan and James “D-list” Woods running around trying to turn a fucking firestorm into a partisan issue, just like they did 2016-2020 with COVID. How many people died so Drumpf could play the attack dog?
I know a number of folks who live in that basin who already have been forced to run for their lives. Nobody knows the fate of any of them yet.
This isn’t Festivus, people. It’s a catastrophe. Treat it like one. That’s my rant for the night. I’m putting my agonized body to bed.
Anyway
@KatKapCC: eemom is indulging in the worst stereotypes of LA/“Hollywood” — much like the Trumpie guys in our break-room.
ETA Heart goes out to everyone affected — recovery’s gonna be a hard slog.
SectionH
@Aussie Sheila: San Diegan here, and replying to much earlier comment: I’m well aware of wildfires. We had what was then the largest burnt area ever in California (recorded anyway) in 2003 (Cedar Fire). That one killed a 15 yr. old girl and slightly older brother, who were only 2 removes from me. I have had friends in Oz in fire danger too (mostly Tazzie friends).
And now I can’t even keep track, Paradise and others one year, AZ and CO and the PNW…
We’ve lucked out so far here last few days. Even sent some county trucks and some experienced fire fighters and a fire team mgmt guy up to LA. Mostly afaict the point being the LA guys need relief. Our Humane Society is already helping, and yeah, they’re our neighbors.
Aussie Sheila
@ArchTeryx:
Yes, this all of it!
It’s a fucking human and ecological disaster zone. These fires can run until the fuel runs out.
Just think about that for a minute.
Jay
@hotshoe:
Yeah, used to be July-August here when I was a kid, and only in the dry interior. Now it’s April to November, and even the RainForest, burns now. Also lived for 20 years on 40 acres of TF1, (forest, meadows) with one two lane logging road in and 4 bad 4×4 trails out.
Spring meant clearing my 4 firelines back down to bare dirt, clearing around the house and barn, filling the cisterns. Weekends were spent driving and clearing the 4×4 trails of debris and fallen timber. If a fire had come in from the north, east or west, we would have been cut off from evacuation, other than the 4×4 trails.
As we were high up, only sometimes would we be awash in smoke, but you could see it hanging in the valley. So masks and an air purifier were staples.
In the time we lived there, there were 37 major fires around us, and 52 minor fires. I had buckets of water in the trucks from spring to fall, chainsaws, two Pulaski’s and 2 backpack sprayer units in the truck at all times.
Smelling dirty woodsmoke always got the hairs on the back of our necks standing up.
Aussie Sheila
@SectionH:
I’m so sorry. I hope our government is offering assistance. We have a lot of experience of these kinds of fires, and very up to date equipment. It would probably take 24 hrs to prepare it and fly it across the Pacific.
smike
@Jay: Yeah, that photo is scary amazing. But the surfer guy? Really? Trying to get another wave in LA? Really?
Jay
@Aussie Sheila:
Canada has offered, Spain has offered, Quebec and BC already have aircraft on the fire, it takes a while to ramp up aid, it takes no time for a fire to blow up.
Aussie Sheila
@Jay:
Yes, I know. God help the people of LA. I’m a born atheist, but I am thinking hard about them and keeping them in my thoughts. Unless you have been through it, you have no idea of how terrifying it is.
Jay
@smike:
If you arn’t in an evac zone, you continue on with life as best you can.
During the Monte Creek fire, I couldn’t work my jobs, (air quality), so for 14 days I drove into town every day to the Fairgrounds, loaded up sheep, cattle, horses, a lama, some donkeys, and trucked them up to our place where we had clean air, pasture and water. Then I would walk for the road to the lake, and flyfish.
Ruckus
I was born in the city of Los Angeles. I’ve lived here most of my life. A bit in the USN got me to other places, I lived 10 yrs in OH for a job and traveled to 49 of the states, and I owned a business in northern CA for a short while. Other than that my 75 yrs have been spent here. I’ve seen major fires, earthquakes and the number of humans increase seemingly exponentially. It’s humanity, in all it’s sides. Poor, rich, somewhere in between. There are mountains and valleys, canyons, and yes actual flat land. The weather is normally rather nice, although within the last few days we had winds blowing as much as 50 miles per hour. Or more. Major disruptions to life are part of Los Angeles.
Aussie Sheila
@Ruckus:
With the greatest of respect, this fire isn’t ’normal disruption of life’. It’s a catastrophe. Its effects will be felt for years and the death toll isn’t just from the fire. The pollution it creates will be killing people for months.
Asthma sufferers are dying as we sit here.
ArchTeryx
@Aussie Sheila: My oldest friend and mate lives in Melbourne. He was witness to a lot of the worst bushfires and their effects during the terrible Oz fires of Black Summer. The stuff I saw just made me cry. Nobody should have to endure what either the people on the ground or the fire brigade had to endure fighting that megafire.
Aussie Sheila
@ArchTeryx:
Indeed. Nobody who hasn’t seen it up close and personal has any idea of what it is like. I have emailed my Federal Rep who is in government requesting an update on what assistance is being offered. I am a member of her Party, and I have ensured she knows this.
Aussie Sheila
@Aussie Sheila:
As soon as I hear anything I will pass it on.
If I don’t hear from her tomorrow, I will be ringing her.
Personally.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay:
Yep. It’s why she was the first person I pied long, long ago. Life is too short.
Sister Golden Bear
@Aussie Sheila: With the greatest respect, Ruckus wasn’t being flippant. Yes, we know.
But thing is, we’ve gone through horrific wildfires almost every year, and multiple extremely destructive earthquakes. I’ve honestly lost track of how many I’ve personally experienced.
So it’ll probably be the worst fire disaster in LA’s history, but it’s far from our first time at the rodeo. It changes one’s perspective.
Ruckus
@Aussie Sheila:
No disrespect intended but in a land area the size of LA County and the number that live here and the nature of the wild plants that grow here, the recent winds of over 50 miles per hour, the number/level of earthquakes, that while we have public transit, it really doesn’t meet the concept of transport that most citizens need all that well, the possibility of brush/home fires. I’ve lived in an area very near today’s major fire, where we had homes on fire once across the 2 lane street from us, and have a friend I was unable to contact in that area this afternoon, I’ll say that as much as I’d like to, I can’t really look at this day as all that out of place. This county has a larger population than 40 states. 9.6 million. And as I’ve lived here most of my life but have traveled extensively and to many parts of the world, rarely have I seen this level of population and it’s growth rate over my lifetime. And what amazes me most is that it is still a pretty decent place to live.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
I’m not sure it’s the worst in LA history. It might be but I’m thinking not likely. The Northridge earthquake was worse I’m pretty sure. 1994_Northridge_earthquake
I lived in the house I talked about above, within the danger area of this fire.
Jay
@Ruckus:
It’s not over yet. We will find out how bad it is, after the fires are out, and the consequences tallied.
Aussie Sheila
@Ruckus:
Well I live in a city of 5 million. I can assure you in my experience these kinds of fires leave much more devastation in their wake than the immediate physical destruction.
Again, the air pollution is killing people as we speak. And will go on doing so. These fires aren’t just something to shrug off, with respect.
Jay
cbc.ca/news/world/pacific-palisades-wildfire-1.7425485
Ruckus
Ruckus
@Aussie Sheila:
Believe me, I am not shrugging them off. I’ve been through a number of earthquakes, I’ve lived in the danger zone of a couple of major LA County fires. I was lead hose man in a fire crew in the USN. And had to extinguish a gasoline fire in USN firefighting school.
I have been on the side of no fires for all of my life because I’ve seen what fires do and what they can cost just trying to put them out.
Liminal Owl
Much sympathy and condolences to all the residents of LA and environs.
I was living in Oakland (flatlands, not hills) during the 1991 firestorm. About half a mile outside the evacuation zone, terrified that it would expand because I had no car. I remember sitting on the front steps of the apartment building under the blackening sky, ash and bits of burned wood whirling through the air, until breathing became too painful and I went inside.
FortunateIy I and people I knew were unharmed, as I hope all BJers (and everyone else possible) will be. I had one Berkeley acquaintance who lost her home right in the area where the fire started. What blew my mind was learning, later, that she had built it on the site where she lost her previous home, in a fire some years earlier (maybe 1971?)—and was rebuilding again because “it can’t happen a third time.”
Aussie Sheila
@Ruckus:
I appreciate your experience. But I have experienced these types of fires. They are not the stuff of ordinary issues or inconveniences in my opinion. They are deadly and in the ‘right’ or rather wrong conditions, impossible to contain.
Ramalama
@blindyone: would be fun to start an internet trend that anytime someone refers to Newsom, they include the phrase, “the large helping hands of Newsom.”
Nancy
@eemom: what are you hoping to learn?
Jay
bbc.com/news/articles/cj0r01n79lno