November 16, 2008

Fall in Southern California

Fall in Southern California brings us the devastating fires. This year is no exception. This year is one of the worse as far as ash falling. My sister's house is getting hit really bad. Last night, as we drove up the street, the stuff falling looked like snow. These are pictures of the ash that has fallen on my cars. And a picture of the brown haze that is blocking the sun and making it feel like it's later than it is.

Article here

More people urged to leave homes despite calming winds

By Justin Pritchard, The Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/15/2008 11:09:36 PM PST

Fires burned in Los Angeles County, to the east in Riverside and Orange counties, and to the northwest in Santa Barbara County. More than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments were destroyed by fires that have burned areas totaling more than 34 square miles since breaking out Thursday.

"This has been a very tough few days for the people of Southern California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after touring damage.

The smell of smoke pervaded metropolitan Los Angeles. Downtown skyscrapers were silhouettes in an opaque sky and concerns about air quality forced organizers to cancel a marathon in suburban Pasadena where 8,000 runners had planned to participate.

Fierce Santa Ana winds that fanned the fires on Saturday weakened Sunday morning, allowing firefighters to set backfires to prevent flames from advancing to hillside neighborhoods. Air tankers swooped low over suburbs, red fire retardant billowing from their bellies as they painted defensive
Nearly 500 mobile homes are destroyed by the wildfire at Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar. (Tina Burch/Staff Photographer)
lines between brushlands and homes. Big helicopters shuttled back and forth on water drops.

The most threatening blaze had scorched 10,475 acres in Orange and Riverside counties after erupting Saturday and shooting through subdivisions entwined with wilderness parklands. By midday Sunday, multimillion-dollar homes were being threatened in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County as the fire pushed north. Firefighters had zero containment.

Fire officials ordered 1,400 more residents to evacuate Sunday morning. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said 26,500 people remained under evacuation orders for that fire alone.

Retired aerospace engineer Joe Gomez, who has lived in his palm tree-lined Diamond Bar neighborhood for 45 years, stayed put despite being under a mandatory evacuation.

"I'm trying to use some logic here," said Gomez, 72, trying to gauge the direction of the wind and flames. "I don't think it's going to come down this way."

Gomez packed a bag with important documents in case he decided to leave. His wife, a stroke victim, left with their daughters earlier in the day.

"My daughters were really thinking I was nuts. They said, 'These are mandatory evacuations." I said, 'You guys just relax.'"

In the early morning hours, winds pushed flames dangerously close to a church and adjacent mobile home park in the Olinda Village area north of Yorba Linda but firefighters were able to beat it back. Only one mobile home was lost.

Billy Bagsby, an inmate firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the flames suddenly shifted direction around 2 a.m.

"It was like the church was protecting itself," Bagsby said.

On Saturday, the fire burned 119 homes in the communities of Corona, Yorba Linda and the Anaheim Hills area of Anaheim. In addition, 50 units of an apartment complex burned, Orange County fire spokeswoman Angela Garbiso said.

Capt. Guy Melker of the Los Angeles County Fire Department stood on a balcony of a multimillion-dollar home in Diamond Bar, looking down into a canyon with flames on the far side. The street was under mandatory evacuation. Most driveways were empty, although some still had some luxury SUVs parked, with backseats packed with belongings.

"It's an interesting chess game right now," Melker said. "Sometimes mother nature puts us in check and our job is to put her in check mate."

As Melker spoke, a small spotter plane slipped low across a ridge, followed by a big air tanker that dropped its load along a ridge.

"Air Jordan 23," he yelled, referring to the plane's tale number.

Six firefighters from various agencies were injured in the blaze, including four Corona firefighters hurt when flames swept over their engine, Garbiso said. Two of the Corona crew members required hospital treatment but were released.

In the Orange County city of Brea, fire destroyed the main building of a high school.

About 50 miles to the northwest, a 9,500-acre fire in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley was 30 percent contained after devastating a luxury mobile home park early Saturday. The fire was largely burning in a rugged wilderness canyon.

Authorities initially reported that 500 mobile homes were burned but on Sunday said 484 of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park's 608 units were lost. The Sylmar fire also destroyed nine single-family homes and 11 commercial buildings.

The park was home to many elderly residents and though no fatalities were reported and no one was reported missing, investigators were searching the site using trained dogs. The search was about 30 percent complete by midday Sunday.

"To this point no human remains have been found," said Deputy Police Chief Michael Moore.

Fire officials estimated that at the peak of the Sylmar fire, 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate. However, many evacuation orders were lifted Saturday night, Fire Department spokesman Ron Haralson said. Five looting arrests were reported.

The gated park featured a pool, hot tubs, tennis court, clubhouse and landscaped grounds. One of those who lost almost everything was Linda Pogacnik, who said that after decades of driving a school bus full of noisy kids, she finally bought her dream house at "the Beverly Hills of mobile home parks."

"It had this beautiful oval bathtub, and just a few nights ago I lit candles and put on soft music and got in," she said, sighing with the memory. "The moon was full, and it made it look like the eucalyptus tree outside had little white lights."

She left with only her dogs, some clothes and a few essentials. Left behind were photography books and scrap-booking materials that she said were "going to be all I did for the rest of my life."

About 90 miles northwest of Sylmar, a 1,940-acre fire that began in the upscale Santa Barbara County community of Montecito on Thursday night was 75 contained by Sunday morning. County spokesman William Boyer said 130 homes burned in the city of Santa Barbara and 80 burned in adjacent Montecito. Some of those destroyed were multimillion-dollar homes with ocean views.

At least half of the 5,400 evacuees had been allowed to return home by Saturday night.

At least 25 people were injured in that fire.

Posted by Valkyre at November 16, 2008 05:16 PM
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