BIG FIRE in SoCal ................breaking ............

[kestrel91316]

We have a big brush fire to the west of the San Fernando Valley, started yesterday, not it's up to 7000 acres and only 5% contained. Borders are SimiValley to the north, Chatsworth to the east; on the southern flank it is threatening Bell Canyon, Woolsey Canyon, Agoura Hills, and Oak Park. Homes in these areas have been evacuated. Horses and livestock are evacuated to Pierce College in the Valley. Small animals (dogs, cats, etc) to the West Valley Animal Shelter (LA City). Schools in Las Virgenes, Oak Park, and west part of the Valley closed.

Bad area to burn, LOTS of heavy brush for miles. I used to live out that way. I can see the smoke from here. It is supposed to be 100-105 degrees today, with winds again from the north. They have only lost one home so far, up on the Santa Susana Pass.

Time to go to work. No link yet, I will check back in tonight.

[kestrel91316]

1. Some buildings at Rocketdyne have burned (toxic waste site).

[acmejack]

5. Where's moorpark, ca?

Rocketdyne had a reactor there once. Is it around there?

[SW FL Dem]

9. Moorpark is just west of Simi Valley,

it's about 15 miles NW of Oak Park, directly north of Thousand Oaks.

[acmejack]

23. FWIW...

In 1957 the world’s first commercial nuclear reactor—the Sodium Reactor Experiment—was used to generate electricity for the city of Moorpark, Calif. and continued to provide power until 1966.

[livetohike]

2. Bad news. I used to live in Newbury Park years ago

I'm very familiar with that area.

[tompayne1]

3. That is not very bad

I lived through Hayman (1,000,000 acres+) in colorado.

[livetohike]

10. These towns are densely populated

While this may not seem like lots of acreage, the potential damage would affect thousands of homes and tens of thousands of people.

Welcome to DU :hi:

[tompayne1]

17. oh

hmmmmm. We had better just hope that FEMA is not handling it.

[livetohike]

18. More photo ops for Bush

I volunteered during the massive wildfires we had down here in San Diego County back in 2003. Fortunately, I avoided seeing him in person.

[tompayne1]

19. maybe he will run around with a chainsaw

The same way he does on his "working" vacations. He has spent one day out of every 5 on vacation since 2001 innaguration, right?

[MalibuChloe]

43. maybe he can stop by the agoura hills/calabasas community center

and i can show him how to be compassionate towards people who have been evacuated and don't know if they will have homes tomorrow.

god i hate him.

[livetohike]

44. Nah, no one can teach him anything

He is an idiot.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Did *your* house burn down? I think your remark is rather callous.

[tompayne1]

16. yes it did.

Pardon me for it sounding callous sir. I did lose my house (and many other things)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, but without that addendum, it's callous.

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. Your post did not mention it, and without your addendum, your post did sound callous and tossed off. Best to mention it when you have such direct, major personal experience. Once again, sorry about your loss and I hope you are recovering and getting back on your feet, so to speak.

[tompayne1]

25. thanks no problem

i did not lose my job so things could be worse.

[Beaverhausen]

47. I too am sorry about your house

My boyfriend had a housefire 5 years ago and lost almost everything.
Hardly a day goes by that he doesn't mention something that he used to have but lost - a book, a CD, a piece of clothing, his really nice guitar, photos of...

At least he and his father (who also lived there) were OK.

[pitohui]

49. oh jesus

there has got to be an end to these fires & storms

we need better technology

[KingFlorez]

4. The sky is orange, I live near where the fire is

I live maybe 30-40 minutes from the fire and ash is raining down and there is a heavy smoke smell.

[Richard D]

6. It's really bad . . .

. . . if the winds pick-up it could easily go all the way to the ocean.

[Sequoia]

32. Yes, it could like that Topanga fire around 1992 (?)

My (now) husband's home, work and car burned up in minutes and the wind carried the fire down to the PCH where the flames were about 80 feet high. It was very horrid and I feel bad for all of you living in harm's way. Southern Cal fires are very bad.

[SW FL Dem]

7. SH*T I used to live in the TO area

and we still have lots of friends and family in the west valley. I haven't heard anything about this.

[Richard D]

8. Here's the scoop as of 8am pacific time

CURRENT FIRE CONDITIONS
Date Posted: September 29th, 2005 8:00 AM
Last Updated: September 29th, 2005 5:00 AM
Message: There is a fast-moving brush fire burning that started at the 118 freeway at Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Chatsworth yesterday afternoon. At 7:25 am, LA Co. Fire Dept. reported that the fire was still burning westerly and southerly toward Kanan, but is well north of the 101. NOTE: At this time, no evacuation orders or warnings have been issued for any areas south of the 101 freeway. The following areas have mandatory evacuations. Note these are all located NORTH of the 101: Woolsey, Box, Bell Canyons, Lake Manor, Oak Park areas among others. Also mandatory: communities in G3, H3, & J3 grids on Thomas Map guide p. 558. Also mandatory: portions of Mt. View estates, Chesebro area, areas north of the Thousand Oaks Blvd including Mt. Calabasas, areas east of Kanan through Old Agoura, and Malibu Cyn-Las Virgenes areas north of 1000 Oaks Blvd. Though the fire is burning away from Hidden Hills, an Evacuation Warning is still in effect for Hidden Hills. A warning means to maintain a level of readiness to evacuate, ie. having cars packed, animals contained and a plan of what to take and where to go. Approx. 7000 acres have burned. We will update this message as soon as more information is available.

[cascadiance]

52. Please keep this updated...

My sister just lives south of the 101 in Thousand Oaks where these evacuations are. Was on the phone with her last night and she says that the fire was only a few miles away from her then. Her neighborhood's under voluntary evacuation, while just north of the freeway is mandatory evacuation. She's got a golf course as a "buffer zone" between her and the freeway, but that likely wouldn't stop it if it got out of control.

[LiberalEsto]

12. Now why didn't Dubya go clear brush there last month

and do something useful for a change in his spoiled, sorry life.

I'm sorry about the fire - hoping nobody gets hurt.

[Skidmore]

13. How many of the NG of CA are in Iraq now?

[Xithras]

27. NG don't fight wildfires

Except for the rare massive fire, wildfires are the domain of the CDF and CCC. I can only think of two fires in my lifetime that involved the NG, and in both cases they simply managed the evacuations or helped to run the base camps.

[Skidmore]

31. Boxer is talking about this now on CSPAN2 because

she says the best firefighting equipment in CA belongs to the NG and it's all overseas now.

[Xithras]

33. Huh? That's not quite true

One of my best friends is a captain in the CDF here in NorCal. From what I understand, some equipment has been taken, but it's mostly transport trucks and Humvee's that they use for transportation. They've compensated for this by renting equipment, which has increased the cost of fighting the fires but hasn't diminished their capabilities. His area also lost one bulldozer (also temporarily replaced with a rental) and their access to planes for smokejumpers has been diminished (which doesn't matter for the big ones).

Most of the work involved in fighting fires is very manual, done on foot, and with a minimal amount of equipment. Firelines are cut by guys on bulldozers and by other guys with chainsaws and axes. Backfires are set by hand. These are things that can't be sent to Iraq :)

IIRC, the only major firefighting equipment that belongs to the NG that are no longer available are the heavy lift choppers that carry the water bags. That's a little bit of a hit to their strategies, but to be entirely honest California relies more on the planes anyway (which are CDF property, and as far as I know are still in CDF hands).

Understand, however, that all of this information is second hand and may not apply to the entire state. I was just talking to him last weekend about our "luck" so far this year in escaping major fires here in Northern California, and all of these details came out in the conversation. I'm not sure how familiar he is with the situation in Southern California and whether this all applies there.

[political_invader]

37. your right I was with CDF in 93-95

The CCC and Prison hand crews are the main support to CDF

[jim3775]

14. Live streaming news coverage:

Post this link into windows media player

CBS:
http://kcbs.dayport.com/viewer/content/special.php?Art_ID=3570&Format_ID=2&BitRate_ID=8&Contract_ID=2&Obj_ID=4

Edit:

ABC:
mms://a463.l1190731971.c11907.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/463/11907/v0001/reflector:31971

[Richard D]

15. Great link. Thank you

I'm close to the area.

[SW FL Dem]

21. Thanks!! Great link

I know the area really well - the coverage is great.

[Lilyhoney]

34. Thanks for the link. nt

[tatertop]

20. Does home insurance usually cover this?

Let's hope they can put this one out

[Xithras]

26. Yes

Fire is almost always a covered loss.

[tatertop]

29. that's good to know

I could not imagine losing my home AND
not getting reimbursed.

[pitohui]

50. yes fire is covered on yr homeowner's

it can't replace items of sentimental rather than economic value however

[fed-up]

24. Sign on San Diego News Story/Active Wildfire Map

I live in Northern CA in a "high wildfire danger" area. I hope that this gets put out quickly. I found that Sign on San Diego had great coverage of the fires down south that occurred a few years ago.

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/#

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050929-0635-wst-socalwildfires.html

Evacuations ordered as SoCal wildfire doubles to 7,000 acre

By Jeff Wilson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:35 a.m. September 29, 2005
LOS ANGELES – A wind-whipped brush fire on the northwestern edge of the city's San Fernando Valley doubled in size overnight to at least 7,000 acres by Thursday morning, spurring authorities to order evacuations and issue warnings to communities to the west and south of the blaze, officials said.
The fire, which straddled Los Angeles and Ventura counties, grew despite the efforts of more than 1,000 firefighters who were battling the blaze, said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Mark Savage

The fire threatened canyon homes in Los Angeles, and flames crested a ridge and were creeping west toward a cluster of dwellings in a neighborhood near Thousand Oaks in Ventura County to the west, said Michele Faina, a fire inspector and spokeswoman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Firefighters planned an all-out assault on the blaze at daybreak using water-dropping helicopters and tanker planes, Savage said. The biggest concern was that wind-fanned flames would leap over the Hollywood (101) Freeway and roar toward Malibu 10 miles to the south, he said....

...Another large fire in Riverside County had burned 1,160 acres in San Timoteo Canyon between the cities of Redlands and Moreno Valley, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the Riverside County Fire Department. Smaller fires were burning to the west in the Moorpark area of Ventura County and to the east in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

[Richard D]

28. This site has really good information

http://cityofcalabasas.com/

[ET Awful]

30. I used to live just up the road in Woodland Hills and have friends

who used to live in Agoura :(.

When you get those hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing in through the canyons, fires spread FAST.

I used to hike up by Santa Susana Pass. :(

[taught_me_patience]

35. Checking in from Woodland Hills

Can see the fire in the distance but it is many miles away. There is a heavy smell of smoke and small ash bits.

taught.

[MalibuChloe]

38. i'm in calabasas - my workplace is an evacuation center...

we have about 50 people here so far...we made them coffee and they have places to go to the loo and freshen up. i should be the president of the US. :-)

[lse7581011]

36. Anywhere Near Oxnard? n/t

[SpiralHawk]

39. The North Wind

flows from the lungs of the Grandmothers and the Grandfathers.

Nota Bene: Gov. Arnold, and earth-destroying cronies

[ronnykmarshall]

40. Traffic was awful last night.

It was hot and dry. When I got home I had to turn on the A/C.

I have a friend that lives in Newberry Park (just over the Ventura Co. line) and she could see the flames from her deck.

Scary sight.

[Pithy Cherub]

41. KCAL 9 is featuring Dr. Phil on how to evacuate...

:eyes: Part of the CBS branding strategy in times of trouble...:puke:

[pitohui]

51. like dr. phil knows!

he prob. has a private jet

[all.of.me]

42. cnn says 17,000 acres!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/29/california.fires.ap/index.html

stay safe.

[Beaverhausen]

45. We have animal evacuations down to a science here in So Cal

Lots of people in the evacuated area have animals- including horses.

There is a great system in place to get them out and keep them safe.

Glad to see we know what we are doing here!

[Mutley]

46. Oh, no!

I hope everyone will be okay!!! Be safe, EVERYONE in that area. :scared:

[kestrel91316]

48. Back home with a few minutes to post .........................

the fire is not expanding as rapidly as it was earlier. The prevailing winds are mild, but have shifted to the west, so the HUGE cloud of smoke and ash is now over the west San Fernando Valley. Burning eyes, nose, and lungs..........ash falling out of the sky like snow, covering my car..............the sun invisible behind massive red/gray clouds of smoke.

The good news - so far, no deaths, only one firefighter slightly injured, only one home burned down.

I have several clients in the evacuated areas - one of them called first thing this AM to arrange to board her cat until they could re-enter her neighborhood. Her home is at terrible risk with these shifted westerly winds, so we don't know what is going to happen.

My old neighborhood of Old Agoura/Chesebro Canyon has been evacuated, and the national parklands at Chesebro where I used to hike are burning. This is a sad day, but maybe we dodged a bullet. There are over a thousand firefighters trying to keep the flames from taking out entire neighborhoods. It was REALLY hot and dry today - over 100. Tomorrow things may cool slightly, and no winds.

[Nikki Stone 1]

53. Pierce has agricultural programs; makes sense

I've been watching these carefully too, So Cal. I just heard there was a fire in San Diego as well. Is that true?