Fire Season

[Leni]

This is a very early start. I'm sure that you've heard about the big one in Ventura. I can see the huge smoke plume from my house. The smoke is covering half the sky. There have been several other small ones that were put out very quickly. Looks like it's going to be a rough summer.

 

[ki0ho]

Dont know where you are located [dont need to] just pray that you are spaired by the fires...stay safe!!!!!

 

[300 H and H]

This is a very early start. I'm sure that you've heard about the big one in Ventura. I can see the huge smoke plume from my house. The smoke is covering half the sky. There have been several other small ones that were put out very quickly. Looks like it's going to be a rough summer.

It would make me very nervous if I could see the smoke plume like that in the sky. I hope you and Tom are not in an area with timber and underbrush. Pay close attention to wind direction would be a plan for sure. Have a pre plan of action ahead of time, in case you need to leave in a hurry. Of course maybe a place to go as well..

I sure hope it stays away from your area. Keep us posted.

Regards, Kirk

 

[Leni]

I'm in Tarzana which is in the San Fernando Valley. I can see the smoke from my kitchen window but I am not in any danger. Fires are popping up all over the place. One just started in Glendale which is about 20 miles from me. They put one out in the Sepulveda Dam Basin which is close to my garden about 5 miles away. There was one up north near Santa Clarita, 10 miles away and I forget where the other one is. It's that time of the year but I sure don't like it.

I'll be okay. The Valley is 20 miles long and 10 wide. It has over a million residents and I'm far enough away from the hills that the fires should not bother me. I'm in a strictly residential area. I remember one time years ago when I stood on the roof of my house and saw smoke and flames completely surrounding the Valley. That's the year that fires joined up and whent from Chatsworth in the north right down to the sea.

 

[muleman]

The winds are what makes it bad for firefighters out there. We are under a burn ban here till May 15th. and the leaves in the woods are tinder dry. Things are greening up quick but the stuff on the ground will flare quick. The fires around here are easier to deal with as we don't have the steep canyons like out there.Saw a dozer working a fire line out there and he was working on the crest of very steep hills. Hope you folks get some early rain.

 

[Leni]

Normally we don't get any rain from early March until November. We are a Mediterrian climate, rainy winters and hot dry summers. We don't see fires like this until August.

The canyons are very steep and the wind just roars down them. The foliage is Chaperral. These plants have a high oil content and small leaves in order to survive the summer with no rain. They go up like a torch.

The fire has now consumed over ten square miles and is only 20% contained. All it takes is a shift in the wind and that goes bye bye.

So far no one has been injured but I don't know how many homes have burned.

 

[300 H and H]

So tell me Leni, have the same area's burnt years apart in those hills? I have to wonder if so, why they still build up there. And how they can still insure a house that is built in those area's?
Regards, Kirk

 

[Leni]

So tell me Leni, have the same area's burnt years apart in those hills? I have to wonder if so, why they still build up there. And how they can still insure a house that is built in those area's?
Regards, Kirk

Some areas have not burned for decades. That's a good part of what's burning now. I think that it's the same thing as people building in flood plains along rivers or on the coast where hurricans hit every year. The government helps them rebuild just in time to be destroyed again.

The areas are beautiful and you can buy fire insurance here. It is extremely expensive depending on where you live. Many people just do not have it.

Last year a womans house was burned to the ground. She did not have insurance because she couldn't afford it. She was the third generation to live in that house. She could not afford to rebuild and had to sell the property.

The Springs fire has now burned 16 square miles. A part of the Pacific Coast Highway is closed because the vegetation has burned and now the ground is unstable. They have geologists looking over the cliffs and figuring out to stabilize them. We don't need landslides on top of everything else. As it is we have a lot of rocks falling down onto the highwat.

 

[Leni]

It's now up to 43 square miles. Over 400 hundred fires in Ca so far. Normally at this time it is only 200.