LAC residents: Check in (2 Viewers)

[TSK]

Terry, thank you for that explanation. I had been wondering what started the fire. And I can't imagine dealing with constant 100+ mph winds.
Did you hear about the fire fighting airplane that hit a drone some knucklehead was flying at the same time the plane was doing an air drop of fire retardant? That plane is now out of service due to wing damage from the drone strike.
It's bad enough people are losing their homes and all their belongings, but the human toll is much worse. Hopefully, the firefighters can catch a break and make good progress.

 

[Mike]

Terry, I've lived So Cal all my life like you and I'm in southwest riverside county and honestly in our area we've been pretty lucky that the winds are no worse than any other year.

 

[J. S.]

I am so sorry for all involved. This should never happen on this scale but…..Politics!!!!! This is another reminder that if you’re not involved in politics, the politics will involve you one way or another. Start holding these people accountable!

BTW: Elections have consequences! Stolen elections have worse consequences!

Very correct statement. Politics have been a big factor in dealing with these fires. But people in CA have voted for these incompetents (see the mayor of LA, for example), and therefore they are getting exactly what they have voted for.

 

[Nick Rienstra]

The winds didn’t let the hydrants run dry.
The winds didn’t cut tens of millions of dollars from the fire department.
The winds didn’t hire degenerates and incompetence.
The winds didn’t cancel insurance policies.
The winds didn’t vote for any of this.

The winds HAVE fanned the flames (with some very suspicious timing as well) BUT… the scale of destruction is to be solely blamed on POLITICS and the VOTERS that enabled this, many of which are not Americans!

Now say goodbye to this thread in 3…..2…..1…..

 

[Marchboom]

Once the post-fire investigations start we will see how much politics affected this fire. Politicians are elected to make sure our police and fire depts are well staffed and ready for any emergency. No water in the hydrants. Are you kidding me?! What is the first thing you think about when you look at a fire hydrant? WATER!!! And there was none in the Palisades. Politicians took money away from the fire and police depts and gave it to LGBTQ+++ groups. And lets not forget the library system that got approx. 15 million. This fire involves politics more than you know. Hopefully it will all come out during the investigations.

 

[TSK]

If y'all want to talk politics, this thread can easily be moved to our political forum, and you can have at it. The OP was for checking on any 'mater members who may have been affected by the fires.

 

[Ramjet]

Gino's Dad Larry lived in Bell Canyon, his wife Kim still does. His Grandpa owned the property that became Bell Canyon. I am not sure if Gino still lives there or not, but it looks like they may have it (Kenneth Fire) temporarily contained on that side. Hope so.

 

[glofria]

I was out and about earlier this morning checking the property in the daylight. We're all good, but there is still a good breeze blowing. The Pacific Palisades fire is still roaring and the Cal Fire 707 flew over head. From the direction it was heading it looks like they're reloading at Fox Field in Lancaster (high desert).

The winds are expected to stay up next week too. What we need is the winds to die off and a coastal fog to come in. The temps should start dropping and tha will help.

Roger, the Kennith fire was started five miles south of us and burned away from the house. I think they got that one out.

 

[Ramjet]

I was out and about earlier this morning checking the property in the daylight. We're all good, but there is still a good breeze blowing. The Pacific Palisades fire is still roaring and the Cal Fire 707 flew over head. From the direction it was heading it looks like they're reloading at Fox Field in Lancaster (high desert).

The winds are expected to stay up next week too. What we need is the winds to die off and a coastal fog to come in. The temps should start dropping and tha will help.

Roger, the Kennith fire was started five miles south of us and burned away from the house. I think they got that one out.

The house is of course very important, but your Dads cars are pretty much priceless.
Keep an eye on it & stay safe. What a mess! Five miles is nothing in a Hurricane wind.

 

[Randy]

One other thing that I didn't mention is that they used to cut fire breaks all over the hills in California, and they quit doing it because it was affecting the rodent migration.

Regarding the 100 mile per hour winds comment, the truth is, there was one gust at a hilltop that hit one hundred miles per hour, which is not totally unusual with Santa Ana wind events. It wasn't blowing a hundred miles per hour in Pacific Palisades or Malibu.

In 2008 during the Finals at Pomona it was the Santa Ana winds blowing flames into Yorba Linda that had John Force and family on the edge of their seats while they were racing.

I lived in Southern California for 67 years before moving two years ago. These winds happen every year. It's the management of the areas at risk that's changed, besides the fact that population growth has moved into more dangerous areas.

 

[Big Ray]

I’m a mechanic for LA County Fire, and all I’m going to say is things are a mess, and I hope this opens people’s eyes to the dangers that we have been warning of for years. They keep diverting funds away from Fire. We are understaffed in every division, and the sad truth is 80% of our fleet is over 20 years old. We manage to keep big red rolling, but only just… LA city fire is in an even worse position because at least we have competent leadership….

 

[stitcherbob]

Because of the lack of water pressure from politicians diverting water into the sea to protect a fish, they are starting to pour seawater on the fires using Canadian Super Scooper planes. So the politicians that determined that to protect the environment it should be left alone and banned clearing of brush now have salt polluting their “nature”. If you pour salt on vegetation I think it kills it or harms regrowth. Not to mention the fish possibly being dumped on the fires.
Way to go politicians…

 

[sutton]

I hope more follow my (16 years) and Randy's (2 years) lead and get the hell out of HELLAFORNIA.
I love Utah and Randy loves Idaho.
Larry Sutton---

 

[M Jones]

I hope more follow my (16 years) and Randy's (2 years) lead and get the hell out of HELLAFORNIA.
I love Utah and Randy loves Idaho.
Larry Sutton---

I love texas, really miss California of the days gone by

 

[twostep]

They have decided that nature should take care of itself. Not too many years ago a fire started above Shasta City and they decided to let it burn because it was caused by nature (lightning strike). When it started burning down homes and business they decided to fight it. Only problem was it was so big by the time they decided to fight it, it was devastating.

There's a family near San Diego that cleared brush behind their home in an effort to be responsible, and were fined over $53,000 for doing it. The family got the local NBC News affiliate involved and they reduced the fine to $9,000.

City of San Diego fines family $53,367 for clearing brush in nature preserve behind home

The City of San Diego fined a family $53,367 after a homeowner cleared away brush in a city-owned nature preserve. The family say it was done to reduce wildfire risks by creating defensible space.

www.nbcsandiego.com

Back years ago when I was a kid, I remember they would allow people to gather firewood on the floors in the national forests, they would do controlled burns during off season to reduce risks of out of control wildfires, and they would maintain at risk areas to avoid all this. The environmentalists fought, maintaining that doing this was destroying the planet. Under the current leadership in California they've gone nuts, cutting off water, and cutting fire department budgets.

The environmentalists are already blaming these fires on climate change, too, claiming that it's responsible for the 100mph Santa Ana winds. Don't let the fact that those seasonal winds have been blowing since tens of thousands of years before recorded history get in the way of a good story.

I too grew up in southern California (the valley) and I remember the same thing you do.

 

[Dragracer]

Yes we have Santa Ana winds every year. Larry both you and Randy know we normally get through them OK. This wind event is different. The Fire Department Chiefs have all said they have "NEVER" in their careers have seen winds as high and violent as these. They all agree that in the first 2 days "NO" amount of resources could have stopped the fire. In the Palisades the winds were constantly over 45 mph with gusts to the 75 mph range. If you had seen the fire live as we could 24 hours a day you would see the fire going sideways and the embers were bad enough blowing sideways that you would have thought someone was shooting fireworks at you and they can carry over 2 miles in this weather, and they have. In many areas the embers were so bad the fire crews couldn't get to the actual fire. The National Weather Service has stated the last time a wind event like this occurred in LA city area was in the 50's. These 2 major fires are not forest fires. These are very similar to the great San Francisco fire of 1906 that burned down the whole city They are residential area fires. I have lived here my whole life and in the last 5 or so years the weather patterns have changed the same here as they have in the rest of the country/world.