November 16, 2008

"Santa Ana winds, blowing at times near hurricane strength, sparked two more monstrous wildfires Saturday...."

Are you near the fires in L.A.?
“We know we have lost dozens of structures,” [Mayor Antonio R.] Villaraigosa said, speaking loudly to be heard over the swirling wind. “It is certainly more than we have lost over the last decade.”

“These winds are treacherous,” Mr. Villaraigosa added. “People really need to understand that because of these winds this fire can be upon you in a moment’s notice.”

40 comments:

rhhardin said...

KFI (am640) suspended its normal programming to go with live fire infotainment.

It's a public service from their news department.

Unknown said...

Been "ashing" at our house for almost 24 hours... And we're about an hour west of the fires. It's kinda like flurries, but not as tasty.

George M. Spencer said...

Close your eyes and you'll be there
It's everything they say
The end of a perfect day


Shake it.

Anonymous said...

The four seasons in California:
1. Fire
2. Mudslide
3. Earthquake
4. Riot

Unknown said...

Yes, I'm near the Corona/Yorba Linda fires. Half the people I work with live in the zone.

It was so dark yesterday I had the lights on in my house at 2 p.m. Ash covers everything today--yesterday it looked like snowfall. I may go up to the lookout and get pictures. I did yesterday but it was so scary to look down to the hills and see a continuous ridge of fire, I vamoosed.

Here's a legal opinion: life in prison for the yahoos who start these things.

Anonymous said...

I figure either God is punishing the Obama voters in California or God is a bit light in the loafers, if you get my drift.

Swifty Quick said...

Nah. This is more or less and annual event.

Paddy O said...

Not too near them this year. After being in a mandatory evacuation zone last year around this time and in 2003 I am okay with not getting the bit of excitement.

In the Yorba Linda fire coverage they're occasionally talking about how a lot of the burnt homes were newly built, with the highest fire code standards. Still caught fire.

A big reason is that embers get caught in the wind, land on a rose bush or something low to the ground, and start a small fire. A guy with a garden hose could put it out at the first instant, but after a bit the whole house catches.

It's never recommended, but not evacuating, while not panicking, can save your own home.

save_the_rustbelt said...

In the mid 80s I told some of my consulting clients in CA that building homes in the middle of thousands of acres of dry brush and on hill sides was not so smart.

They informed me (in a good natured way) I was a flat land hick who didn't understand how the modern world worked. Then we went to the hot tub with a couple of wine bottles.

All of them have had their homes either burn or slide down a hill since 1985.

Like duh.

Zachary Sire said...

It's not a coincidence that all the homes that are burning are homes in the inland, conservative areas of the state.

God hates haters.

MayBee said...

The only bright side is that some new construction jobs have been created in the past 3 days.

Unknown said...

Go to hell, Zachary.

Ryan said...

Where I am, the air smells like smoke, the sky is a bit dark, and everything is lightly covered in ash.

MayBee said...

It's not a coincidence that all the homes that are burning are homes in the inland, conservative areas of the state.

Sylmar is represented in Congress by two Democrats, Berman and Sherman.
Montecito is represented by Democrat Lois Capps.

So you wasted your hateful comment.

Zachary Sire said...

Also, all of the homes that burned were homes of Mormons and Blacks, so it's obvious what is going on here. Payback is a bitch.

Zachary Sire said...

I am in coastal Orange County right now and it is absolutely disgusting here. All of the ash and smoke is blowing westward, right on top of us. I wish people in inland Orange County would stop their houses from burning down so their smoke and ash would stop raining down on us in the coastal cities. It's not fair.

chickelit said...

Oceanside was spared about a month ago by the quick work of the USMC, surrounding fire companies and the aircraft of Cal DFFP. This is what it looked like from near me.

My hat goes off to the fire fighters and my heart goes out to the families who lost their homes this weekend.

@ZPS: shame on you, what you wrote at 11:14 and 11:53 is beneath contempt.

Zachary Sire said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-CAcdta_8I

chickelit said...

Well so was that. So what's your point?

Zachary Sire said...

HAGEE: Yes. The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. … What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

Unknown said...

ZPS, you throw out your hate filled BS and then try to draw a comparison to Hagee. Well that just proves you're both stupid losers. Grow up, idiot.

Anonymous said...

ZPS, stop with the downtownlad imitations.

One dtl in full hissy fit mode is enough.

Zachary Paul Sire said...HAGEE: Yes. The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. … What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

Plenty of vindictive, Karma pimping freaks out there on all sides.

blake said...

Building houses is sort of irrelevant (except to those who buy them, of course).

The plant life is designed to catch on fire. I'm not sure what the evolutionary plus is there, but God and/or random chance work in mysterious ways.

I feel like I've taken up smoking. One of the kids had a seizure.

Maxine Weiss said...

ZPS.....Santa Barbara is not inland, and it is very liberal, and they voted against Prop 8, by a wide margin. Why did the fires destroy their homes ?

The Laguna Beach wildfires in 1993 that came right up to Newport Beach city limits too. Laguna is not 'inland'. And, Laguna Beach is very liberal.

In the Ghetto, Baldwin Hills and Ladera Heights is all-Black, but it's a canyon and hillside, and wildfires periodically come roaring through there, too.

Malibu and Pacific Palisades aren't 'Inland' either, and liberal.

ZPS: you better study up your topography/geography of Southern California.

About 68% of Southern California is close, or adjacent, to some sort of hillside, or canyon.

There are very few areas that are completely flat and have that mild marine climate. Much of this area is rugged chapparel, and hilly canyon.

Maxine Weiss said...

Seattle and Portland Oregon don't have wildfires. It's very much a marine climate, with heavy rain and overcast grey days and fog.

Sounds wonderful to me !

People that move to Southern California should be aware of the cycles of dought, vicious Santa Ana winds, followed by wildfires and then flooding. The rugged terrain and heavy brush works as a kind of tinder, and it will never change. The wildfires come roaring through as natures way to clean out the brush that's built up.

These are completely natural things, miserable but natural. If you don't like it, you can always leave California.

rhhardin said...

You'd think there would be two n's in Ana.

There's this fine 4x4x4 word cube, that reminds me, giving the poetic topology of a nooner.

A N N A
N O O N
N O O N
A N N A

N O O N
O T T O
O T T O
N O O N

N O O N
O T T O
O T T O
N O O N

A N N A
N O O N
N O O N
A N N A

Problem for the reader: construct one for Otto alone when Anna is unavailable. It involves toot.

chuck b. said...

"The four seasons in California:..."

***

The four seasons back east:

1. Almost winter
2. Winter
3. Still winter
4. Road repair

John Stodder said...

What an idiot Zachary is. I bet he hopes none of his friends find these dumbass comments. They probably think of him as some kind of intellectual because of his pretentious name. Sad.

I was hoping to read and contribute to an intelligent conversation on the So Cal fire phenomenon. Instead, we get to watch this narcissistic troll jacking off.

Anyway, I've lived in this area for most of the past 40 years, and while fires this time of year are not unusual, it does seem like there are a lot more of them.

I wonder if it's the Internet plus the blanket TV coverage Firebugs can get information more quickly and do the deed.

Los Angeles Magazine had a fine article on the Santa Ana winds this month: http://tinyurl.com/5k9qhu. These winds are according to a UCLA climate scientist, "the opposite of precipitation."

The air quality is horrible -- makes you choke.

Paddy O said...

They caught an arsonist.

This is what we have to deal with. It's not the winds as much as it is the crazies, who get lit up by watching the fire coverage and want to spread their chaos.

Zachary Sire said...

For the record, my comments were inspired by the comment from jdeeripper at 9:52. Bizarrely, he came back and commented later as if he never made his first comment.

I don't know if you guys are merely stupid, or just really hungry to tear someone down who is saying things that are blatantly illogical ("all of the homes that burned were homes of Mormons and Blacks")...but, I'm disappointed.

blake said...

I figured you were--oh, I had to say this twice in two minutes but--employing irony, ZPS.

But only Nixon can go to China.

chickelit said...

I don't know if you guys are merely stupid, or just really hungry to tear someone down who is saying things that are blatantly illogical...

I fell for your comments because they seemed completely in character for you. I'll be more guarded in the future.

sonicfrog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sonicfrog said...

The Four Seasons Of California:

1. Santa Anna Fire Season.

2. Fog Season.

3. Mudslide Season.

4. Flex-Alert Season.

sonicfrog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sonicfrog said...

The Four Seasons Of California - Revised:

1. Santa Anna Fire Season.

2. Fog Season.

3. Landslide Season.

4. Complain For Months That The State Budget Is In Deficit, Waive Your Arms Exclaiming That This Is Illegal According To The State Constitution, Then Spend Three To Four Months Listening To Teachers Union Ads Exclaiming How Horrible Republicans Are Evil For Wanting To Freeze Education Spending, Watching The Legislature's Partisan Bickering While It Finds Time To Pass Stupid Laws That Make It Illegal To Have Fifi In The Front Car Seat While Your Driving, Then, Finally, Pass A Crappy Budget Deal That Will Go Into Deficit Two Weeks Later, Just As Santa Anna Fire Season Starts.

former law student said...

Angelenos ward off burglars by having signs for "Armed Response" security companies in their front yards, yet they don't take elemental preparations like brush-clearing to prevent their houses' burning down. Which potential loss weighs more heavily?

If I lived in a SoCal canyon, the house would be of concrete and steel, with a thousand gallon water tank connected to sprinklers.

sonicfrog said...

Angelenos ward off burglars by having signs for "Armed Response" security companies in their front yards, yet they don't take elemental preparations like brush-clearing to prevent their houses' burning down. Which potential loss weighs more heavily?

In many areas, it's against the law to do so - environmental rules forbid it.

RR Ryan said...

I was walking west on Sunset to meet friends at a restaurant Saturday evening. First the smell of smoke hit me and then I saw a red glow at the top of the hills. It took me a minute to realize it was just the sunset filtering throught the haze, but it sure looked like the Malibu fire headed toward Santa Monica years back. Yikes.

veni vidi vici said...

Mr. "Ponch" Villar, our esteemed news-anchor-boinking mayor (the "raigosa" portion of his name is his ex-wife's surname, so he's always going to be Villar to me), is only exacerbating the problem spewing his hot air into the mix.

This douchebag mayor probably still thinks he's got a chance to reach higher office. Idiot.