Terrible fires in Southern California

[cbayer]

We are about 75 miles ESE of the fires and the smoke here is really bad.

I was complaining about the smoke until I realized that there are people in the middle of this losing their homes and scared to death.

I hope that all people and animals get out of the way. Plants are doomed.

Natural disasters - a necessary part of life but one I shake my fist at sometimes.

:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Santa Barbara is the affected area, I believe...

It's scary, and damned early for the fire season to be starting...

There are ordered evacuations.

[Merlot]

2. Looks to be in the hills above the city

It's very dry up there. Nice houses with great views. I've driven around up there and it is beautiful, great views of the pacific. I remember wondering if it would be worth it, always worrying about fires.

[PBS Poll-435]

3. California DUers, please stay safe

And I agree with CaliforniaPeggy that it is way too soon in the season for this.

If anyone needs extraordinary help, please let me know.

[Initech]

4. Holy shit, not again!

After my house almost burned down last year, I'm afraid to think it will happen again this year. Too early for fire season. :scared:

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Kicking this...

Because this is really scary.

[cbayer]

6. Thanks PBS.

:pals:

[PBS Poll-435]

7. Scares the hell out of me.

I have folks in Napa, Canyon Country, Eureka, Brawley, basically all of California.


How the hell I ended up in Texas...? :crazy:

[dgibby]

8. The weatherman on CNN warned today that if you smell

smoke, be prepared to evacuate because it means the wind is blowing from the fire toward your house. Stay safe and be prepared. Good luck to all in harm's way.

[cbayer]

9. I'm on an island 26 miles from the mainland, so I am sure I am personally safe.

But you are right about all the communities around Santa Barbara.

I have seen lots of weather, but fires just seem scarier than anything I have ever seen.


:hi:

[PBS Poll-435]

11. To me this is terrifying

And I am sick.

I am really sad that you have to go through this.

I wish you didn't have to.

[cbayer]

13. Not to worry, PBS. They are doing a great job of getting people out.

So far, it's only property, and property is temporary anyway.

I hope that all the people you are worried about are safe and sound.

:hug:

[Jane Austin]

10. My niece and her family and dogs

had to evacuate tonight.

They are at her in-laws down in town for now.

[cbayer]

16. They have evacuated over 1,000 families, but better safe than... well you know.

I hope your family is able to go home tomorrow.


:hi:

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. I came home to the SFV & thought someone was smoking near my condo... SERIOUSLY... it's so SMOKY!

cough cough. Seems like we just had a bunch of fires.

[Raine]

14. I was in SB just a few days ago

I'm up there often. It's a beautiful place, this is so sad all the fires there.

[BlueIris]

15. ((((( So Cal Residents ))))). My sister lives there now,

so I hope this doesn't get any more out of hand.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

17. Being evacuated because of fire is incredibly frightening,we've been through it

a couple of times since we are near Malibu Canyon in the far North/West SFV.

I can't even believe this is happening in MAY!!! MAY???

Can ANYONE remember fires like this in May?

I'm fearing September and October this year. We almost lost everything last October.

Praying for those affected in Santa Barbara...:cry:

[K8-EEE]

29. I know, right??? FIRE SEASON IS ALL YEAR ROUND NOW!

Even the close-in city, we had that scare in Griffith Park a couple of years ago....Damn I hate fires!!!

[Hepburn]

18. Yes....I know....

...starting 11 hours ago, I have PMd and emailed the Admins on the DU with a request to post a donation thread for a family with a disabled son and no home owners insurance who lost everything in a fire on Monday.

The response so far has been underwhelming...not one reply of any nature to my request for permission to post. I have been totally ignored.

I am, to say the least, extremely disappointed in this response.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

19. I'm betting you will hear from the admins soon...

It's always a busy time when new moderators come on board.

:hug:

[Hepburn]

20. Yep, I sure as hell hope so.

Here is what they are left with:



My friend and I scraped up enough money for two more nights in a motel for them and a $100 gift certificate to the Sizzler. That was $400 that we could not spare, but they needed it more than we did.

This is a couple where the husband was laid off and to pay for food and space rent, they let their homeowners lapse. The husband and wife are in their late 50s - early 60s and their adult son is disabled with a severe heart condition and is on SSI.

They deperately need help and I have emailed DU about 4 times today ~~ literally begging for permission to post a donation thread for them.

I am very upset and sad that I have been completely ignored by everyone I have contacted who is in charge at the DU. I am so upset, I am sitting here crying.

:cry:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. I am so very sorry to hear all of this...

From their terrible misfortune, to your inability to be heard here...

Try to hang on...

:hug:

[Hepburn]

22. Thanks....

...I sent three pictures and a scan of donation request letter from the Mobile Home Park where these people live...and I have gotten for nearly 12 hours TOTAL silence to my requests. Never in a million years would I have imagined that this is the response I would get from the DU. I took the pictures of the place myself and spoke with the Mobile Home Park office and others involved. This is a desperate mess and there could be help for them here...but I cannot get a thread posted to help them. I stood there with the husband and wife today and cried my eyes out over this.

:cry:

[Hepburn]

27. So far you have been proven wrong.

It is now doing on a day since I emailed and PMd the Admins requesting permission to post a donation thread and not one response of any nature.

I am very upset about this.

[JDPriestly]

23. What streets are the fires on? We stayed in a house on Spyglass Rd. some years ago.

It was a beautiful house. Does anyone know whether the fires are around that area?

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

24. here is a link to the story, part of Santa Barbara evacuating

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/06/homes-burning-fire-raging-all-hands-deck/

[JDPriestly]

25. Yes. The house we stayed in was on up beyond the botanical

gardens. It was just lovely up there.

[Hekate]

26. Our daughter and family cleared out -- their little boy and dogs are with his parents tonight...

They dropped off their computers with us -- and a crate with 4 chickens, LOL. I tried to make them promise they wouldn't spend the night in their house tonight, but they insist it's only in the "warning" zone. I'm not so sure -- Mayor Marty Blum got on the radio right after all hell broke loose this afternoon and told everyone to just get out.

I was in downtown Santa Barbara this afternoon and the two appointments I had were both canceled due to power outages. I drove away from the dentist into ashes like snowflakes and a whipping wind. I stopped at a bookstore on my way home to Goleta, and from the parking lot got a good look at what had happened to the smoke cloud. It had very suddenly gone from gray on the mountain to huge billows of yellow and black that covered half the town: that kind of smoke comes from manmade fuel.

They're calling this the Jesusita Fire, after the Jesusita Trail up by where it started.

It's chewing through a lot of residences; nobody knows how many. My daughter and son in law just put dibs on a house for a lease-to-buy deal, and it's right in the fire zone. She's philosophical, like me: IF this had to happen, it's good (for them) it was this week and not next, when they would have started to move in. It's awful for the folks that live in that area.

In Goleta we had the Gap Fire breathing down on us not so long ago and I still occasionally find a burned leaf blown by the fire in my yard. At least from my perspective the air isn't so bad just now, as we are currently upwind of the fire. But I can't take a chance on the wind shifting in our direction, so for yesterday and today I had the house shut up and it got really hot. Finally in the evening I opened everything up for about an hour.

The foothills and canyons of California are lovely to live in, but they often come with winding narrow roads to go along with the chaparral and other vegetation that dries to tinder. CBayer, don't worry about the plants being "doomed" -- California evolved to burn. We have many plants here that grow seeds that need to pass through fire to germinate at all. We need to build defensively, and we need to get ourselves and animals out of the way, to be sure, and a wildfire is as awesome and destructive a force of Nature as a tsunami or tornado. But over the decades of living here, just realizing that the state evolved to burn has helped my understanding.

I'm pretty sure this particular fire was arson though, and I hope the law catches up with the bastard that set it.

Hekate

[tabatha]

28. I have heard that it was shooters that caused the fire.

It makes me sick. Shooters should go to approved ranges. Wherever one goes in some of the back mountains one finds spent bullets. There are places where wildflowers grow that are littered with them.

Burn areas can recover properly if those areas do not have another fire for several years - in some cases way more than 10-15. If fires are repeated too often, some of the native plants do not have the time to recover where they are able to procreate, and then vegetation type change occurs - mostly to non-native grasses that are even more inflammable. A characteristic of some of the non-native plants/weeds is that they dry out faster and provide fuel for fires. It takes many years of drought for native plants to dry out to the same extent.

So repeated fires are not good.

Also, fire influences global warming more than previously thought.

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/environment_sciences/fire_influences_global_warming_previously_thought_131561.html

[Hekate]

30. Right you are on the over-frequency of fires & non-native plants. We now have permanent fire season

The drought cycles are intensifying.

All kinds of human activity can spark a fire, including use f firearms. Use of machinery -- anything that can strike a spark off its own parts or from metal striking stone.

Hekate