Fire is hot hot hot!

[Mitch]

Well, as some of you may know, Southern California is on fire again. And, I am in SoCal. Fun.

Home from work today because the city in which I work has been evacuated, joy. So, yeah, fire is a blast... Just hope the winds die down, or at least keep due West as they have been. If the winds don't stop, odds are it'll burn all the way to the coast down here in the San Diego area. I'll try and keep you all updated as to how things are, but for now, well, I've got a short list of what to take with me if I need to evacuate.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Wow! I heard that there was a state of emergency called in California, but hadn't looked to see where the fires were affecting. Hope it stays away from your place, but being prepared for evacuation is probably very smart. ^_^;

[Mitch]

Wow! I heard that there was a state of emergency called in California, but hadn't looked to see where the fires were affecting. Hope it stays away from your place, but being prepared for evacuation is probably very smart. ^_^;

It'll have to burn through a few other placed before it gets to me, but, if it does get down here, about the only place to go might be.... Mexico... *shudders*

[Yog]

I hope you Californians are ok :(

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN23230512

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/6806/so1calif1fires12003np9.jpg

[Dasquian Belargic]

Wow, that picture is so surreal, Yog.

[Morgan Evanar]

I watched it on the news last night, jeez. It sounds almost as bad as Australian fires :(

[Jedi Master Carr]

It is horrible right there now.

[Lady Vader]

I just came back from a trip in WV to this. Needless to say, it's extremely scary. Especially since the fire came within 10 miles of where I live:

I live in the city of Laguna Hills, south of where the fire is/has blazed (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=107327873899641045650.00043d1de33aaa4eb6ffb&ll=33.719038,-117.704987&z=11&source=embed)

I keep watching the OC Register (http://www.ocregister.com/news/fire-canyon-blaze-1902172-santiago-road) for updates. I'm a little paranoid/freaked out right now. Even though they say the fires are moving north and south respectively away from the area, we've had such high and unpredictable winds... so, yeah, I don't know. I keep praying for rain, even if it's just a small one. Something to help those firefighters out there. They're so low in resources.

I called in sick to work yesterday and today just in case and due to awful sinus headaches because of the smoke and wind (it smelled like a freakin camp fire ALL day long yesterday, and it was raining small amounts of ash outside), but I think I'll be going in tomorrow. Never the less, I'm gonna give my phone number to some neighbors who usually stay around their homes during the day just in case something happens. I have kitties at home, after all. :(

(One of my friends from work just called me and said it's like a ghost town there. So many people from the company live in this area. So, hopefully, if I go into work tomorrow and have to leave for any reason due to these fires, they'll most likely let me. There's a little weight off my shoulders.)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hooray for firebugs and the Santa Anas :rolleyes

Hope your home stays okay Rie!!!

[Mitch]

Still doing okay, here. My roomates and I have made room for a friend of ours who has been evacuated from his home, so the house is a little crowded, but it's good to be able to help.

At the moment, one of the fires is creeping slowly toward where I live, and I've lost cellular signal, but I should be okay. Just wanted to let you all know I'm not char-broiled yet.

[Wyl Staedtler]

Yikes! Stay safe, guys.

[Cat X]

I watched it on the news last night, jeez. It sounds almost as bad as Australian fires :(

I'm looking at them thinking "If they are actually having something close to an Australian bushfire there, what the hell is it going to be like here at home in December?????" Going to put forward bushfire planning to this weekend for sure.

Contrary to belief, you stay at your home if a bushfire is approaching, it is the safest place. You clean the property of rubbish, clean the gutters and be ready to defend against ember attack. Have wet towels onhand, stay low.

And make sure you DONT decide to run at the last moment. You either leave early or you stay. Do NOT leave it for the last second to go. That's how the majority of people die.

So stay safe and decide what to do early.

[Mitch]

Thanks for the advice, Mark. Officials have been handling things incredibly well, and all evacuations have been going fantastically. I am ready to leave if I have to, but for now, me, my roomates, and our friend we are hosting as he's had to leave his home, plan to stay put. I've cleared as much as I can, and I've been watering the lawns and bushes to keep them wet, but, there's so much dry brush around that it won't do much good.

As of now, there's only been one casualty reported, and most of the injured have been firefighters. Relief efforts for over a half-million evacuated people have been phenomenal, and shelters are having to turn away donated food because they have too much and don't want it to go to waste. As much as I thought SoCal was a purely selfish place, I'm seeing that in a crisis, it shapes up in a hurry.

With luck they'll be able to get these fires under control, but, you just never know.

[CMJ]

Sometimes it's good living smack dab in the middle of the city. I'm quite safe here, but I know it's bad on the fringes. I haven't heard from my ex girlfriend(from Santa Clarita) who I emailed acouple of days ago to see if she's okay(and she's always prompt about returning messages). I'm guessing she may have evactuated.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Heard that there is a possible terrorist connection to the fires, though of course this is unconfirmed right now. Something about an Al Qaeda person said that the next attack on US soil would involve setting wildfires. I heard this very briefly on a news update on the radio, and didn't hear it again so don't jump down my throat.

[Mitch]

If it was a terrorist attack, it would have been announced by them a few days ago. I highly doubt this is terrorism, as it would have been much more effective to have lit fires all along the Pacific coast as to really screw up efforts to fight it.

These appear to be just regular wildfires, from everything the news has been able to turn up, though one of the smaller ones may have been started from possible arson to someone's house out in the backwoods.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/24/fire.wildfire.ca/index.html?eref=time_us#cnnSTCPhoto

CNN has some pretty awesome pictures up. Awesome in the original sense of the word.

[Martin Le Roux]

Heard that there is a possible terrorist connection to the fires, though of course this is unconfirmed right now. Something about an Al Qaeda person said that the next attack on US soil would involve setting wildfires. I heard this very briefly on a news update on the radio, and didn't hear it again so don't jump down my throat.That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

Stay safe down there in SoCal.

[Yog]

These appear to be just regular wildfires, from everything the news has been able to turn up, though one of the smaller ones may have been started from possible arson to someone's house out in the backwoods.

At least 3 of the fires are now believed to be arson.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/rapidreport/2007/10/wildfire-arson-.html


Orange County officials confirm to ABC News that they believe the Santiago fire raging in Southern California was intentionally set.

"There were three points of origin; it is definitely an arson," Orange County Sheriff's Department Public Affairs Director Jim Amormino tells ABC News.

[Lady Vader]

Yeah, OC's Santiago fire has been confirmed as arson due to the evidence they have found, and there was (briefly) a reward set up for any leads as to who may have set the blaze, but it was quickly taken down to "determine the amount" for the award.

I also know the Malibu fire is being blamed to downed power lines and the exceedingly dry brush in the area.

As for the other fires... meh, same stories: arson, power lines, spontaneous combustion, etc.

Honestly, this happens every year around this time, but each year definitely brings a different set and number of fires. These clusters just happen to be among the worst SoCal has seen.