Fires All Over California
CBS posted an AP story on California wildfires. They are popping up everywhere since the temperatures went up and the humidity dropped.
CalFire Incident Information and the Enplan Wildfire Viewer show them popping up the length of the state.
The fire conditions are so extreme at the moment that almost anything, a hot catalytic converter in the grass, sparks from a string trimmer, the exhaust from an off-road vehicle, as well as lightning and human stupidity can cause a wildfire to erupt. The brush is like a lake of gasoline, waiting for anything to become an inferno.
Update: Here’s the InciWeb on the Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest that is causing the most current concern as it just exploded today and is a possible threat to thousands of structures at the edge of the Forest.
This is the latest LA Times reporting on the fire which they identify as the La Cañada-Flintridge fire.
[For more information go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]
9 comments
It…is…so…freakin’…hot…and….dry….
We’re crossing our fingers we’re not going to be more Santa Bar-B-Que.
Used to live down in La Crescenta, the city just up from La Canada-Flintridge on the 210. Rough mountain terrain + drought + overdevelopment + fire x non communicative community = firestorm hell
The hottest that the thermometer read today was 101 degrees, around 2pm as I was dragging my carcass from one one storage warehouse to another moving all my crap. That’s here in Sodom By The Sea, only a mile from San Francisco Bay, where it just *does not get that hot* under normal conditions. It’s *hot* out there, folks :(.
– Badtux the Overheated Penguin
.-= last blog ..California Pizza Kitchen Crispy Thin Crust Signature Pepperoni =-.
I was at the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey twice, and the work uniform was was the summer with the short-sleeved shirt. I don’t remember a day that I didn’t wear a jacket. A couple of times I went with the class A uniform, because the classrooms weren’t heated.
Triple digit temperatures are just weird, and the lack of humidity is inconceivable to me. During a Santa Ana down in San Diego, fine, but not on the Northern coast, not West of the coastal mountains. That’s Salinas weather.
Here’s a sexy photo of a DC-10 fighting the Station Fire (La Canada-Flintridge/La Crescenta/Altadena)
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_13232906
The JPL campus sits right on the foothills of the San Gabriel. I’m sure there are some rocket scientists sweating bullets right now….
.-= last blog ..Say some prayers for the Vedanta Temple =-.
If they can’t defend Mount Wilson you choice of coverage may be extremely limited.
The JPL should have the aircraft fire equipment on station, given some of the stuff they do, and it is effective, if extremely messy.
They also have test bunkers which would protect personnel, but I would still hate to see it happen. Lots of history could be lost, and lots of missions could be interrupted.
some good photos of the fire, including some flames coming down JPL way.
http://yourscene.latimes.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?EventID=824262&CategoryID=20832
It’s really too freakin’ close, though.
.-= last blog ..Say some prayers for the Vedanta Temple =-.
The real problem is that they don’t know which way it’s going to run as it is starting to generate its own weather and winds.
It is obviously a very hot fire, just from the flame heights in light winds, so it is throwing sparks and embers well up in the air, and there is no predicting where they will land, only that wherever it is, there is tinder-dry brush ready to burn.
OT: that’s it for me tonight. I need to crash, as the cat fits have finally ended. New miniblind in the living room now on the shopping list. They just are built to support a ten pound tomcat attack.
2 words: vertical blinds.
2 words: too expensive.