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- DaveFred 1:45AM
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Thanks JR. I live a ways north, but I grew up there and am familiar with some of those neighborhoods.
In 1975 we lived at the edge of a flood control district, and the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. It was November, and the Santa Ana winds kicked up. A fire started (miles away) but at 3 a.m. was across the street. Parents woke us up, we got in the car and split. What a scene. Wind blowing 60, burning branches and embers flying down the street, fire trucks, cops, just total chaos. Came back later that day expecting house to be gone. It wasn't, but others were. I'll never forget it. The Santa Ana are deadly - warm strong winds off the desert, single digit humidity. Its hard to imagine a wildfire being pushed by strong wind - it takes everything (think Maui).
Many years ago we lived in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne and experienced a 'small' wild fire first hand, even in that scale it was terrifying. The noise, radiated heat and debris in the air was like nothing we'd ever seen.
The fire was approaching our property and we were on the roof filling gutters with water, etc getting ready to evacuate. Luckily for us, there was a wind change and the fire was blown back on itself.
Our worst recent fires were in 2009, when almost 200 people lost their lives and towns were destroyed.
The footage and photos from Los Angeles are a grim reminder of that time.
Geoff
I've participated in enough prairie burns to know that any wildfire driven by winds in excess of 50 MPH would be terrifying. Put that into a hilly urban environment and I can't even imagine. My heart goes out to them.
A long time ago I went to California to visit friends in Valencia. I spent the first day traveling around to salvage yards with my host looking for a replacement door for his Saab because the door was blown off by the Santa Ana winds the day before.
A quote from a firefighter on TV tonight went something like, "with a 10mph wind I'm a firefighter, with a 30mph wind I'm an observer." They were in a bad place when the winds were so high they couldn't fly.
And now a completely different kind of fire. This one closer to home. We are about 14mi. SSW as the crow flies. Fire personnel will not engage bc lithium ion fire virtually impossible to extinguish. They will let it burn itself out. Lot of toxic smoke in meantime. Keeping an eye on wind direction. https://www.ksbw.com/
Hope you're all OK; that stuff is really nasty - not so much a fire as an uncontrollable chemical reaction which can't be extinguished.
Geoff