We hadn’t heard from BigJimSlade since the first night when he learned his home was gone, so I wrote to him. (His mom lost her home, too.) They owned their homes and insurance claims have been filed, but who knows what kind of clusterfuck that will be. I’m still waiting to hear back from BigJimSlade to see what we can do to help.
UncleEb lost their rental home and all their belongings in the fire. Since they were renting, their loss is all belongings. They have a GoFundMe set up. So let’s see what we can do to help UncleEb, but maybe don’t blow your whole wad until we know what kind of help BigJimSlade could use?
How about the rest of you BJ peeps in California? Everybody okay? Is the fire a bit less crazy? I’m sure more people are still losing their homes.
My nephew had to evacuate and they were staying with friends. Then yesterday they got an evacuation order at the friend’s place. And there’s looting in their own neighborhood. Everyone’s ability to cope is surely stretched to the limit.
The horror of these fires knows no bounds. Love to all our California peeps.
Hiding in Plain Sight Open Thread
Another Scott
Thanks for this thread.
Has dmsilev checked in? Doesn’t he work at a certain 3-letter place down there?
CalTech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund
:-(
Hang in there, everyone. Please check in when you can.
Best wishes,
Scott.
something fabulous
Fire closest to me completely out now. Air quality remains terrible but otherwise ok, so trying to help a friend navigate her insurance stuff remotely, while she gets on with everything else. Not a prayers person, but sending all positive vibes out to everybody. It’s going to be a slog.
RedDirtGirl
Happy to be able to contribute something. Take care of yourselves!
MobiusKlein
Got woken up as 7 am by earthquake.
Only a 3.7, so no damage. But a reminder that California makes requirements for us
SiubhanDuinne
It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen burnspbesq in these parts. AFAIK, they’re in California, but I don’t know in which part of the state. Anyone know?
Will contribute what I can to our fire-affected jackals.
something fabulous
@SiubhanDuinne: was just thinking about him recently too. i think moved to tx a while back if i remember correctly
[miss Steep and his Dossier!]
Jerszy
Other than the smokey air, I’ve been real fortunate in the neighborhood of Palms, on the West side. My evacuated guest just got back to her house, which skirted the burns East of the Palisades. But 5 friends (so far) have lost everything but what they could throw in the car. This is gonna be fucked up for a long while.
Gonna go help out phellow phan Ebeneezer – is there’s anything I can physically do to lend you a hand, I’m local enough to do it – lmk!
MikefromArlington
My sis had to evacuate from Laurel Canyon area but fortunately the fire to the east was contained when the winds died down so they were able to return to their home last night.
Melancholy Jaques
Sky is clearer in West LA, AQI down below 100, but the air still smells like smoke.
FelonyGovt
My daughter and her girlfriend in the San Fernando Valley got an evacuation alert last night, but it turned out to be a false alarm (there have been many). Fortunate to be fine here, but I’m heartbroken for my friends and fellow jackals and for my city.
WaterGirl
@something fabulous: Steep always called it his Stasi file. They couldn’t get into Steep’s computer, so it is lost forever.
Dan B
Donated to Uncle Ebeneezer. They were at about $18,000. Pretty good for a half day but just making a dent.
WaterGirl
@MikefromArlington: That’s a relief.
opiejeanne
I’m so sorry to hear about people losing their homes. Will send good vibes and some funds when I’m able.
My sister is in San Dimas, lost power for about 36 hours, but that’s all. She says no smoke where she is, and not much wind. Relatives, in-laws, and friends were evacuated from Pasadena and Altadena, but I don’t know if they lost their homes yet
KatKapCC
According to CalFire, containment is currently:
That’s some terrific progress in such short time. Firefighters are absolute heroes.
Jay
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-sopfeu-plane-grounded-1.7427777
KatKapCC
@Jay: Saw that earlier. I hope the drone owner gets in some serious trouble for this. Idiot.
Dan B
The usual right wingers are lying about the cause of the fires. DEI, a lesbian fire chief and hiring from a wider racial and LGBT+ spectrum. How does that make the force weaker = not enough white men in a still very male force. Mayor Bass cut the budget but there’s $50 million in reserve while the new contract is negotiated. That would amount to an increase. And lack of forest management!? Most of the fires raged in densely populated, and we’ll groomed neighborhoods. What forest? Soon a group of firefighters from Mexico will arrive to help. Should they be kept out because they will surely bring drugs and crime!?? Makes me furious for them to demonize people working under enormous stress. Right wing loons want to pile on.
Renie
Donated to UncleEb but how long has GoFund me been adding “tips” and does anyone know what they use it for?
KatKapCC
@Renie: I think it’s just meant to help cover costs. There’s no fee to set up a GFM, so tips are supposed to take the place of fees, I guess. You can remove the tip if you don’t want to pay it.
dmsilev
@Another Scott: Checking in. Thanks.
I’m in good shape, all things considered. I live south of the evacuation zone, so all I had to deal with personally was the air quality and one downed tree that made a nuisance of itself at home.
Talked today with a colleague who didn’t quite lose her house, but effectively so. It’s structurally intact, but sprayed with so much water and firefighting foam that it’s not habitable and likely to remain that way for months. She’s grateful that her whole family is safe, and they do have a place to stay in the interim, but it’s still a lot to deal with. The people I’m really worried about are the ones who live in Altadena and _haven’t_ checked in with anyone. Too many of those.
Renie
@Jay: I hope they find the owner of the drone and throw them in jail with max time and fines.
dmsilev
@KatKapCC: I was listening to a press briefing about the Eaton Fire that LA County FD had a couple of hours ago, and it sounded like they were making good headway at increasing that containment number, but with higher winds expected tonight, they didn’t want to get ahead of themselves by formally declaring chunks of the southern edge contained just yet.
Certainly the air quality here has been much better today than yesterday, so there isn’t as much smoke getting spewed out. That’s a hopeful sign.
KatKapCC
@dmsilev: I can’t begin to imagine the exhausting nature of this work, in every sense of the word. Knowing that you’re doing everything you can and yet people are still losing their homes must be incredibly difficult to deal with.
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
I live about 10 or so miles east of the eastern edge of the Eaton fire and everyone I’ve talked to in my apt complex got the notice last night. And following about 10-15 minutes later a notice to ignore. The air to the west of us looked yesterday to be pretty bad. Just went out to see that most of the air around me now looks like smoke. Can’t see the area of the Eaton fire – smoke much more disbursed now. SoCal air looks like smoke in every direction.
FelonyGovt
@Dan B: The daughter of an acquaintance of mine joined the LAFD a few years ago and it is still very male dominated. The people dumping on these firefighters, the city, the state etc while they are fighting these fires make me livid.
JPL
@FelonyGovt: They’re sick. Make sure that if you have a chance to let them know we appreciate their daughter and what she is doing
Sister Golden Bear
@Jerszy: Former Palms resident, one a number of places I lived during my years in LA.
I’m safe in NorCal, nursing a cold all week, but absolutely heartbroken. I’m extremely familiar with all of the areas that burned.
opiejeanne
@FelonyGovt: Those people dumping on the mayor and the governor are all idiots. If you don’t want to raise your blood pressure, avoid all of the interviews posted by SkyNews. They sought out people who are angry that their homes weren’t saved, while all of their neighbors houses are gone too.
Watching James Woods weeping on tv 3 days ago was a bit much, before he knew his house was gone. So many people lost everything, and trolls on Twitter are screaming that these same people haven’t lost everything. Twitter is a stinking cesspool this week, worse than usual.
KatKapCC
@opiejeanne: It’s amazing to me that so many people’s only response is to shit all over people who they’ve decided aren’t doing enough, even though they can’t define what “enough” would be. Like, during those back-to-back hurricanes in Florida recently, I didn’t immediately hop into DeSantis’s social media posts to tell him what a shithead he is. But then I have some sense and a soul, which none of these jerks can seem to muster.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay: @KatKapCC: @Renie:
The FAA does not fuck around with this sort of thing, especially as the drone pilot very deliberated violated an FAA-ordered “no fly” zone (TFR). For that alone, they’ll be facing up to $75,000 fine and up a year in jail, revocation of their license (probably permanently), and will be responsible for paying for all damages to the plane. Might be other state/federal charges involved as well, e.g. interfering with firefighters, interfering with a disaster area, etc.
Drone pilot rumor mill is that a prominent YouTube/Instagram — who had been posting other LA fire stuff — was responsible. Not confirmed but their YouTube channel suddenly went dark today.
If it’s true, he better hope the feds find him before other drone pilots do. We’re beyond livid.
KatKapCC
@Sister Golden Bear: I hope they also get one good punch to the gut.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Offered without additional comment:
Mel Gibson’s house in Malibu burned down while he was on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Sister Golden Bear
@KatKapCC: Personally I’d aim the punch a bit lower. And it would be far more than just one punch.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
I lived in Palms a few decades ago, it’s a nice area.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
A solid kick with steel toed shoes seems appropriate….
Steve in the ATL
@Dan B:
You got that right!
Sister Golden Bear
@Dan B:
Worse yet, they were claiming the woke LAFD was letting the fire burn with no intention of putting it out. (Projection much…)
When their land gets hit by natural disasters, we send them money.
When our land gets hit by natural disasters, they tell us it’s God punishing us, and we deserve it.
We are not the same.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
Twitter is a stinking cesspool this week, worse than usual.
First – IT’S GOTTEN WORSE?
One of the reasons I left twitter a few years ago and have never had the desire to go back. It started getting worse some time ago.
Sister Golden Bear
@Ruckus: Spiked steel-toed shoes.
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
Quebec is sending more aircraft, BC Firefighters and helicopter’s are already on the ground.
The worst part of the drone incident, isn’t really the damage, or the threat to aircrews and people on the ground, it’s that it shut down the desperately needed air operations for hours.
VFX Lurker
Still alive. Last night, Glendale asked its residents to consider wearing N95 masks indoors due to the poor air quality. I’m wearing KF94 masks outdoors, keeping my doors/windows closed, and running my air purifiers.
I touched base with a friend in Temple City. We both suffered power outages this week, took notes, and plan to better prepare for the next outage. I ordered a hand crank radio, a rechargeable lantern, and nightlights with light sensors and battery backup.
Neither of us had a go-bag ready, even though we’re SUPPOSED to have one for quakes/fires. We both plan to do better on that front, too.
I either know people who lost homes, or I know people who know people who lost homes. It’s awful.
Bulgakov
Where are the highly paid LAPD and LA County officers to stop the looting?
Are they taking a Rodney King verdict break? I also lived in Palms and lived through it at the time. The cops were nowhere to be seen for 3 days.
Almost Retired
edited and then deleted. Not taking the bait.
Jay
@Almost Retired:
And that’s how you do it.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
I do like your style!
KatKapCC
@Almost Retired: People need better hobbies.
sab
The people really really hurting had their computers and their phones and their cars fried when their houses burned. So they can’t even ask for help yet.
Lots of people, some of them jackals, will need our help soon.
surfk9
@sab:
So true. There’s a lot of folks hurting badly
UncleEbeneezer
@Dan B: Aww thank you so much 😊
Jackie
@Almost Retired:
👍🏻
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Omg that almost makes it all worthwhile, lol
UncleEbeneezer
@opiejeanne: I know several people in Altadena who were spared and I’m sincerely happy for them.
UncleEbeneezer
@Dan B: Altadena has had a problem with some looters and the media is really playing it up. Not surprising since we have significantly more black people than surrounding cities.
Fair Economist
Down in OC, I’m barely noticing the fires – there’s smoke visible to my NW, and the late afternoon sun/sunset light is affected (reddened). I did just notice my inside particulate detector, which normally reads about 2, is up to 10, without any cooking (which raises it). Not problematic at all; sorry for those to the north who are getting really bad air. I have been getting notices from my medical provider (Altamed, a largely Socal nonprofit) about avoiding the bad air quality especially outside.
UncleEbeneezer
@Renie: Thank you so much :)
UncleEbeneezer
Thank you for this post WaterGirl. Much appreciated. We’ve been totally blown over by the support and generosity of our friends and family. It really helps not just our finances but gives us good feelings that have been hard yo come by through all this.
sempronia
My friends’ house near Pasadena HS was two blocks from the fire’s edge. Their house is fine, but a bunch of houses on their street were looted, including her mom’s place. Talk about adding insult to injury.
mvr
@sempronia: 40 years ago in PDX someone arsoned a house I shared (with us in it) so that they could save us from a fire. Guy was basically nuts and like many arsonists had studied to be a firefighter. We got out rather lightly – I lost my court clothes but I did not have much at the time and my record collection (except for the Peter Tosh record on the turntable when the windows broke from the heat) and books survived with some smoke damage.
But, and this is the point, the looters showed up after the fire was out so we had to move in the middle of the night and find a place for the things we still had that we cared about. That was really adding insult to injury. Our vegetable garden was picked clean as well.
Again, we were mostly OK, but looting really sucks.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
If somebody starts a GoFundMe for that bastard, I’ll find somebody to hack it, steal the funds and divert it into yours.
Ruckus
My sister’s house is very likely gone from the Palisades fire.
Now she passed away a few years ago but her business partner still lives/lived on the property and still runs the business. Have not heard back from him yet, his phone still works though so that’s a good sign.
BigJimSlade
Hi everybody, this is a day late… I was just busy yesterday with taking the kitty to her chemo, then picking my wife up from the airport. We’re in a 1br apartment (a pool house) that will do for a while. As long as we can avoid paying crazy LA rents, we’ll be fine. But thank you very much for the concern! And my mom is in an apartment in the same building where my brother lives – he did an amazing job getting to her right away!
WaterGirl
@BigJimSlade: Thanks so much for checking in. If anything changes, let us know.