Southern California Firestorms

[fan_since79]

This thing is enormous. It has tripled in size in the past 90 minutes.

Thomas Aquinas College has been evacuated.

 

edit: 5,000 acres now. The city of Ventura is threatened. Power is out in several areas.

Edited December 8, 2017 by fan_since79

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Its so flipping dry and windy here, and we're 2 hours north of Santa Paula, but that valley gets some big time winds through there. I'd be nervous living on the outskirts of Ventura. This wind should blow all night and tomorrow. Hope for the best.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Over 100 structures already burned, still out of control. Hate to say it, but its going to get worse before it gets better. Winds are way too bad to even start to fight it yet.

[Jason]

Watching the news and the helicopter panned out and it was nothing but homes burning. Incredibly sad for those people 

[fan_since79]

I just saw a remarkable interview with a resident on Scenic Drive in Ventura as a house just yards away burned to the ground. It took about five minutes for the home to be destroyed. Firefighters have moved on to try and save other neighborhoods.

Helicopters are dropping water but when the winds pick up it's unsafe for them to fly.

 

[Tank]

saw a couple of helicopter drops. the water was immediately in the wind and didn't come close to hitting the target. they're dropping from too high, but i imagine the winds are preventing them from going lower. that's going to prevent them from gaining control all that much more. this is pretty devastating.

[Blarg]

This is the perfect weather for arson.

[fan_since79]

4,000 acres now burning in the Sylmar area. Homes threatened north of the 210 freeway.

San Fernando Valley full of smoke.

Bad day, and the winds will be here for a couple more days. Awful.

 

Edited December 5, 2017 by fan_since79

[Angel Oracle]

LaNina can go to hell!

[fan_since79]

Channel 4 is showing dozens of homes burning in Ventura. Estimates are in one neighborhood above Foothill Ave at least 75 homes are gone.

Horrific.

 

[AngelsLongBall]

I have a good buddy that lives in the hills in Ventura behind Ventura High School.  His entire neighborhood is gone with his and his neighbor's house being the exceptions

[Amazing Larry]

3 hours ago, Blarg said:

This is the perfect weather for arson.

That’s what I was thinking. Seems intentional. 

[fan_since79]

The weather will also get worse. Highest winds are predicted for Wednesday night and Thursday.

 

[fan_since79]

Another fire, 25 acres, now burning on a hillside in San Bernardino, directly behind a neighborhood. Very suspicious.

Four separate fires now! The Sylmar one is 11,000 acres and growing. Large areas evacuated. The 118 and 210 freeways are shut down.

Edited December 5, 2017 by fan_since79

[Angel Oracle]

Santa Ana winds might as well be a Cat 1 hurricane.    Same destruction possible, without the water related damage

[ten ocho recon scout]

6 hours ago, Tank said:

saw a couple of helicopter drops. the water was immediately in the wind and didn't come close to hitting the target. they're dropping from too high, but i imagine the winds are preventing them from going lower. that's going to prevent them from gaining control all that much more. this is pretty devastating.

Yep. When the winds are raging, the airships cant do a whole lot. Not to mention, when the fires are moving as fast as this one, the sporadic drops cant do much.

[ten ocho recon scout]

Fwiw, ive noticed at work the last few weeks, weve had more and more countywide broadcasts for brushfires. A lot more than usual. Not sure what to make of it. 

I know fire was predicting this year to be real bad from the rains last year. So maybe thats it. But definetely far more than ive ever heard.

[ten ocho recon scout]

[fan_since79]

The problem with wall-to-wall coverage by the TV media is during the moments when a reporter really has nothing to report, but still has to fill air time:

Massive traffic jam on Glen Oaks Blvd as numerous small fires are being fought by about 10 firefighters right across the street in a large field. Reporter (who can hardly stand up in the howling wind) runs across the road and is trying to get people in their cars to talk to her.

Conversation: "Sir, how long have you been sitting in this traffic?"

"I don't know, a couple of hours."

"Do the fires over there (pointing to the field across the street) concern you?"

"Well...yes!"

Duh.

She then asked a fire captain in full gear to say a few words. He said he had a job to do and would get back to her, and kept walking.

Edited December 6, 2017 by fan_since79

[Angel Oracle]

The Polar Ice Caps melting could well be contributing to the increase in high pressure seen these past few years.    Stupid climate change!  

[Tank]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

The problem with wall-to-wall coverage by the TV media is during the moments when a reporter really has nothing to report, but still has to fill air time:

It drives me NUTS when it's a disaster that is more extreme/severe than anything before and some butthead reporter will ask the man on the street "have you ever seen anything like this?"

I'm  waiting for that one person to finally say "No, and neither have you, you moron!"

[Tank]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

She then asked a fire captain in full gear to say a few words. He said he had a job to do and would get back to her, and kept walking.

Saw that. It was awesome.

[gotbeer]

Being in Vegas right now. It's surprising how little coverage is getting. Local stations of course aren't covering it at all. But whenever I turned into the national stations all they talked about was politics 

[Amazing Larry]

Bel Air is now on fire. This is going to be expensive. 

The 405 is shutdown between the 101 and the 10. Talk about a traffic nightmare. Benedict Canyon and Laurel Canyon are going to get slammed. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I hope they get everything under control and there's as little loss as possible.

BTW, this thread title sounds like a good porn star name.