Six blazes currently raging...At one point an area the size of a football field was being consumed every second...
San Diego Blaze Sparks New Fears As Los Angeles Still Battles Spate Of Wildfires
As the Los Angeles area battles massive wildfires that have scorched more than 140,000 acres and forced nearly 200,000 people to evacuate, a rapidly advancing blaze in nearby San Diego County is sparking new concerns.
Firefighters from across California, some 5,700 in total, traveled to Ventura and Los Angeles counties on Thursday to help halt the massive wildfires that have destroyed more than 500 structures.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the country’s second largest with more than 640,000 students, said it closed more than a quarter of its nearly 1,100 schools for the second day in a row on Friday. The University of California Santa Barbara canceled Friday classes as well.
In San Diego County, firefighters worked to stop a rapidly intensifying blaze that prompted officials to clarify burn estimates from about 500 to some 4,000 acres in less than three hours. Authorities continued to release evacuation warnings throughout the night as the fire spread with zero percent containment.
The blazes are fueled by strong winds, which have made it increasingly difficult to get them under control. The Santa Ana winds, which blow in hot and dry from the California desert, could potentially reach hurricane-force speeds of 75 mph on Thursday, creating an “extreme fire danger,” according to an alert sent by the countywide emergency system in Los Angeles.
The National Weather Service has warned that winds are expected to increase from Thursday morning through Friday, with the strongest gusts hitting 80 mph, likely seen in the mountains. Damaging gusts up to 60 mph will also be possible in the valleys and parts of western Los Angeles and eastern Ventura Counties.
“At the end of the day, we need everyone in the public to listen and pay attention. This is not ‘watch the news and go about your day.’ This is pay attention minute-by-minute … keep your head on a swivel,” Ken Pimlott, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said.
Such warnings were shared with some 12 million people in seven counties around Southern California on Wednesday after the state’s Office of Emergency Services sent an unprecedented text alert about the fire dangers. It was the broadest alert ever sent by the office, deputy director Kelly Huston told the Associated Press.
“I would rather be criticized for potentially annoying someone, than for not delivering a critical alert under these dangerous fire conditions,” Huston said.
O hai, guess what else the GOP tax bill has, just for Californians who lose their homes and property to wildfires? A big "Fuck you, and your little dog, too." All so the super-rich and corporations making record profits can get a tax cut. Remember, SoCal, this fuckery was brought to you by Dana Rohrbacher and Darrell Issa.
Sorry Dales; but if I said that many North Californians don't give a shit what goes on in the south end of the state, I would be accused of insensitivity.
Look out for each other, and our thoughts are with you.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
I was going to start a thread, but I didn't know what to say. I've been following the fires closely, and especially the photographic documentation on TV and in print news . . . I'm speechless. It's beyond horrific. The images of the hills adjoining the 101 ablaze were breathtaking.
I have deep sympathy for the folks losing their homes and everything material that made up their lives. At least the natural landscape will spring alive with new life following the fires, as it always has and always will.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
When fires can leap across a six-lane freeway incl. embankments and &c. there is so little you can to do prepare. Like in the N. Cal. fires the heat flowing in front of the flames pre-heats and dehydrates all fuel in front of it so it flashes into flame very quickly. We're used to seeing this when fires flow up a hillside but not when it is horizontal.
My dad used to have sprinklers on the roof but they were removed when he replaced the roof. Because he has a swimming pool i've thought about installing a semi-automated high flow rate sprinkler system using a fire pump (150-300 GPM, 2in or 3in pipe diameter). A simple system should not cost more than $2,000. It would not be perfect protection but it would help.
rubato wrote:... Because he has a swimming pool i've thought about installing a semi-automated high flow rate sprinkler system using a fire pump (150-300 GPM, 2in or 3in pipe diameter). A simple system should not cost more than $2,000. It would not be perfect protection but it would help.
yrs,
rubato
What size electric generator would you use after the power fails?
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”
Joe Guy wrote:It’s always good to have a flammable resource when there is a large fire spreading all around you.
It is good to have an energy source which is not the electrical grid which is often knocked out in a fire. And if the pump is proximate to the property to be protected it is moot that it runs on flammable fuel since it is protecting that property and will thus be protecting itself. It is also good to have a water source of great volume which is not the domestic water supply which might be overtaxed by firefighting, which is inadequate (domestic water hoses are pretty useless) or damaged and useless.
