[Dark RevenantX]

San Diego, Orange County, parts of Los Angeles, parts of northern Mexico, and much more are on FIRE
(I just googled a random article; google it and you will find hundreds of hits)

Not sure if any of you know (or care) about this, but these fires are worse than the deadly Cedar fires that we (San Diegans) had in 2003.  Tens of thousands of acres are already burnt in Southern California (145,000 acres on just the Witch fire - there are about seven more smaller fires to add to that), and the governator has taken no delay in lending aid to the cause and declaring a state of emergency.  Bush is also trying to send help (for once).  However, only a fraction of a percent of the fires are contained, and due to the santa-anna winds, we only just recently were able to bring in air support.

This is the second time in these last four years of living here in Poway (San Diego County) that we have been faced with a catastrophic series of wildfires.  I lost count of how many there currently are.  Earlier today, my family received the advisory evacuation notice from the "reverse-911" service.  We won't leave until that notice is mandatory, however, but we are currently packed up for departure.  Last time, during the 2003 Cedar Fires, our house wasn't in any real danger, even though the fires were just a couple miles away.  The smoke made the air unbreathable, however, so we left out of necessity.  This time, there is a chance of our house being put in immediate danger, in which case our house would share the same fate as a good chunk of the developed city.

Many say that these fires (which started on Sunday) are even worse than the Cedar fires that we had just four years ago, which happened in roughly the same place as before.  The combination of high winds, low humidity, high temperature, and burn-susceptible brushland landscape are an unholy combination for fires.  In fact, in four days, it will be the fourth anniversary for the legendary Cedar fires that burned nearly the same places.

I have no idea how long the power/internet will be on, nor when we will be forced to evacuate.  So far, over a quarter million have been removed from their homes; we could be next.

On the bright side, I have an excuse to not do my homework.  On the downside, Advanced Placement European Civilization is going to suck even more when our already crammed schedule is going to have to be scrunched yet another week inwards to be ready for the AP exam.

Update: My house isn't in any danger now, but the rest of the areas are still in question.

[WeatherOp]

The sad thing is man, I was just looking at the current models. The big ridge will keep the systems out of there while the big 1030mb high over the rockies may keep that Santa Anna wind blowing. The only hope I see is the models develop a surface low pressure by 72 hours out, that would give you guys an on-shore flow bring in moisture, but showers will be very limited.

You in our prayers man.

[DrewToby]

And I remember, just 12 hours ago, thinking "Well, this can't get as bad as those major Cedar fires I keep hearing about." And now in the last ten minutes I've seen this pop up on the front page of BBC, Wikipedia's news section, and HLP. Add to that the near-continuous coverage (my dad's been watching it off-and-on for over 12 hours---that's what happens when neither of us have to leave the house), and ...well, I was kinda-sorta massively wrong.

We're just south of 56, about ten miles down the road from Black Mountain, which I believe got the evacuation call a couple of hours ago. We actually got the Reverse 911 (nice system you guys have!) recently, but we're not planning on leaving. If it gets much closer we're getting the hell out, but we're not really in danger in our area. Eheh, yet.

Gotta say, this is absolutely insane. I was living in Michigan until a few months ago, and the biggest worry we had was the occasional blown transformer from lightning or somethin'.

Good luck to you, Revenant---and all of us, really. Here's to hoping they can get it contained soon.

This is a bit off-topic, but do San Diegan reporters always refer to burnt out pieces of furniture as 'carcasses'? Odd connotations there, when you think of it.

[Mefustae]

Damn. I was kinda hoping this would be about a female member named 'Wildfire' who managed to get on 'Girls Gone Wild'.

Fooey.

[Mars]

That woulda been nice.

Here in Denver we occassionally have a forest fire in the mountains bad enough that it rains ash down on the city

[Mefustae]

Still, Australian bushfires beat the **** out of anything you Northern Hemisphere tossers could come up with.

[DiabloRojo]

Well Mefustae, if you want to turn it into a 'who's wild-fire member is bigger' contest, California has a much higher population density.

Crap of it is that it's been raining here for about 36 hours straight with no end in sight, after having one of the driest summers on record.  Mother nature is an obese, psychotic crack-whore, for sure.

This is a bit off-topic, but do San Diegan reporters always refer to burnt out pieces of furniture as 'carcasses'? Odd connotations there, when you think of it.

It's more dramatic that way, of course.  'Good' reporting. 

[Dark RevenantX]

The fire has been blocked off at a major road near my high school, kudos to the fire department and their 40+ hours of work with no sleep.  There is little chance of my house or my school being burnt, but I can't say the same for the rest of the endangered areas.

[colecampbell666]

I remember someone (TheSizzler? S-99?) posting some tips about how to protect your house. I think they said that they were a retired firefighter. It was in TheSizzlers topic about his cottage.

[Nuclear1]

When is California not on fire?

Then again, when is any part of the United States not on fire?  Whenever the fires slow down in California, Georgia starts to burn, then New Jersey, Alabama, and then California starts acting up again.  Think these will still be around in the next couple of weeks?  I'm moving out to Monterey soon and I'll want to make S'mores.

[IceFire]

Word is that the firefighters have pretty much conceded defeat and I don't blame them one bit:

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2007/10/22/4596010-ap.html

Looks like these are going to burn themselves straight to the Pacific and there isn't much they can do to stop them.

[WeatherOp]

Doesn't look good from the weather aspect, the big high looks to keep that wing blowing.

[Nuke]

i didnt do it
  runs

[Dark RevenantX]

A million evacuees.  A MILLION!  Never before has so large of a peacetime evacuation happened in the US of A.  This is seriously the largest evacuation that's ever happened in this country since the Civil War.

[Kosh]

Mother nature is an obese, psychotic crack-whore, for sure.

You **** it, it will **** you back HARD.

[colecampbell666]

It's only half a million, as stated by IceFire's article.

[WeatherOp]

Also it is not the largest.

Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama. About 1.2 million residents of the Gulf Coast were covered under a voluntary or mandatory evacuation order.[1]

That was from Hurricane Katrina, and I think it still wasn't the largest evac.

[NGTM-1R]

Your efforts to interdict me have failed, Witch Fire.

Got evac'd, went back day later, hopefully we'll manage to burn down Ramona this time.

[Dark RevenantX]

Over 900,000 evacuees is not half a million...

Katrina devastated a city.  These wildfires are destroying vast masses of land and randomly annihilating homes and structures in those areas.  The range is from Mexico in the south, Los Angeles in the north, somewhere very close to the coast in the west, and lord knows how far eastward it's gone...

[NGTM-1R]

IN OTHER NEWS!

CFD is ****ing up again. Here's the drill.

In 2004, in the Cedar Fire, Navy Region Southwest assembled 15 helicopters and well over 600 ground firefighting personnel at MCAS Miramar in anticipation of a request for help from CalFire to help fight the Cedar Fire. Most of them were flown in and on the scene by the end of the second day.

They were never asked to assist; but they beat the Cedar Fire anyways, after it had burned clean through Scripps Ranch, and jumped the I-15, completely unhindered by any civilian authority. It jumped the 15, it was on-base at Miramar, and they stopped it in its tracks.

Flash forward to today. As of this afternoon, October 24 2007, there are 50 helicopters at NAS North Island; Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy. All of them are equipped for firefighting. There is a wing of Air National Guard C-130s with water/fire retardant bladders installed at Point Magoo further north. There are nearly 2000 firefighters from Navy Region Southwest in the San Diego area. The ground people have found gainful employment since there are fires burning on Camp Pendleton, but they have their own air units assigned and taking care of their problems.

Of the helicopters, six are flying. The rest are grounded by CalFire's refusal to assign them liason people and refusal to incorporate them if they don't have liason people. The same goes for the Air Guardsmen. Navy Region Southwest even asked if they could simply be given responsiblity for a sector and manage it seperately; CalFire turned them down. This is pure beaurcratic bull**** at work, these aircraft have been here for two days now, and the legal issue was settled on the first day when the San Diego Fire Department requested assistance from the military.

I will not deny that CalFire has managed this fire infinitely better than they did the Cedar Fire. But we're over 1 billion dollars in  damage and 1500 homes destroyed in San Diego County alone, and that could have been lower if CalFire wasn't afraid of getting shown up by the fact the military has more air resources than they do and can move them around more quickly. So there's an important lesson here, kids. Pride can hurt people.