San Diego Area Fires Suck

RogersDA

Quick overlay of two maps. The blue dot on the left is my 80+ year-old, wheel-chair-bound grandmother's house. The red is the fire line.

This sucks.

wildviper

Rogers, I wish her the best. I am sure the neighbours will help her and/or you can let the emergency crews know. Perhaps by calling 911 and letting them know.

I am in Corona, CA and the fires are not where I am, but the smoke is all over. Like snowflakes, we have ashes coming down.

I think Californians seriously need to consider radical solutions to prevent this type of fires.

I have always said, that if we can fly these planes and just do water drops every month or so, it may help the trees and shrubs not be so dry. Perhaps just do a 2 mile radius from where all the houses are. It would be a massive operation, but fighting these fires now is enormous task in itself.

DavidTO

wildviper wrote:

Rogers, I wish her the best. I am sure the neighbours will help her and/or you can let the emergency crews know. Perhaps by calling 911 and letting them know.

I am in Corona, CA and the fires are not where I am, but the smoke is all over. Like snowflakes, we have ashes coming down.

I think Californians seriously need to consider radical solutions to prevent this type of fires.

I have always said, that if we can fly these planes and just do water drops every month or so, it may help the trees and shrubs not be so dry. Perhaps just do a 2 mile radius from where all the houses are. It would be a massive operation, but fighting these fires now is enormous task in itself.

Spit in the ocean, my friend.

A) it would never work.

No need for helicopters, just run irrigation lines.

C) Nature is as nature does. You might as well try to stop the hurricanes, floods and tornados elsewhere in the world.

docwalker

As a firefighter I can tell you one of the best things you can do is to build a defensible space around your home. Living near and in the trees is nice, but having brush and shrubbery, or mulch, close to the house is a big problem. Once they dry out it is a direct source for an ember to catch your house on fire. I have seen this more than once here in the eastern mountains.

DoctorIt

I wouldn't be surprised if the smoke made it all the way down here! Best wishes to grandma and everyone else over there

RogersDA

Rogers, I wish her the best. I am sure the neighbours will help her and/or you can let the emergency crews know. Perhaps by calling 911 and letting them know.

Thanks for that. I know she had some type of arrangments in case of evacuation. She has no phone at all so I am unable to contact her though.

RogersDA

DavidTO wrote:

Spit in the ocean, my friend.

A) it would never work.

No need for helicopters, just run irrigation lines.

C) Nature is as nature does. You might as well try to stop the hurricanes, floods and tornados elsewhere in the world.

With the gross size of the land I don't think that irrigation lines would be useful. Besides, one couldn't just go and pump salt water over the land - that 's not good. So somewhat fresh water would be needed - and that amount of water would not come cheap.

RogersDA

DoctorIt wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if the smoke made it all the way down here! Best wishes to grandma and everyone else over there

Thanks, Doc.

RogersDA

claudermilk

docwalker wrote:

As a firefighter I can tell you one of the best things you can do is to build a defensible space around your home. Living near and in the trees is nice, but having brush and shrubbery, or mulch, close to the house is a big problem. Once they dry out it is a direct source for an ember to catch your house on fire. I have seen this more than once here in the eastern mountains.

That's about it. There was a piece in the Times covering a newer neighborhood that survived because of that. The buildings were up to the latest codes & they had a wide greenbelt around the propery. Apparently the firefighters didn't even bother to have them evacuate.

Most of the fires are out in wilderness areas, so it would happen anyway. The addition of really strong Santa Ana winds off the high desert & high heat just all combined to make this a really bad situation. Add in a few "helpful" firebugs join the fun, too. :bluduh

I'm sure your grandmother is fine. They are being really cautious with the evacuations & from what I'm hearing everyone's pulling together well to make sure they all get through this fine.

docwalker

David,

I just took a minute to look at the google sat map for that area. The homes there are spaced out more, fewer trees, and possibly hydrants. It is also flatter. It does look like the fire has gotten closer to her. But, the homes that burned were in the tree line.

I hope that she is safe and sound.

JenGrace

Wow, I'm sure your grandmother will be okay, but I can totally understand your worries.

RogersDA

docwalker wrote:

David,

I just took a minute to look at the google sat map for that area. The homes there are spaced out more, fewer trees, and possibly hydrants. It is also flatter. It does look like the fire has gotten closer to her. But, the homes that burned were in the tree line.

I hope that she is safe and sound.

I was getting in on Google Earth - neat map overlays of the fire areas.

So far I think all is good for her. The evac notice was rescinded for her area tonight. So hopefully she'll be home soon and I'll be able to call her again. Now we have to figure out how to get all of the ash away.

RogersDA

JenW wrote:

Wow, I'm sure your grandmother will be okay, but I can totally understand your worries.

Thanks, Jen.

claudermilk

From what I've heard as of now basically all evacuation orders are cancelled. Apparently none of the San Diego fires is in populated areas now (can't say the same for the Lake Arrowhead ones...).

Google Earth has several great maps covering what's going on. Check out www.gearthblog.com, they have a number of good links.

DJ-S1

Now folks are returning to see what they lost. I read this in an AP story:

The lucky ones will find their homes still standing amid a blackened landscape. Others, like Robert Sanders, are not so fortunate.

The 56-year-old photographer returned to a smoldering mound that once was his rented house in the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo. Among the possessions he lost were his transparencies, melted inside a fire-resistant box, and a photograph of his father.

"I've lost my history," Sanders said. "All the work I've done for the past 30 years, it's all destroyed."

That sucks, but at least he's safe. I looked him up, his website bio is here; he's done some cool stuff.

jdryan3

DJ-S1 wrote:

Now folks are returning to see what they lost. I read this in an AP story:
Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">The lucky ones will find their homes still standing amid a blackened landscape. Others, like Robert Sanders, are not so fortunate.

The 56-year-old photographer returned to a smoldering mound that once was his rented house in the San Diego neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo. Among the possessions he lost were his transparencies, melted inside a fire-resistant box, and a photograph of his father.

"I've lost my history," Sanders said. "All the work I've done for the past 30 years, it's all destroyed."
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I am certainly not making light of his situation, but being in IT, I hear about this all too often. Fireproof means the safe won't burn up. But it easily gets up to 120 -140 degrees (if not more) inside those things, where upon film, transparencies, floppy disks, DLT, CDs/DVDs, etc. can start to warp or melt. Paper may be safe from combusting, but not plastic.

While they do make safes that can stand extreme heat and keep a steady internal temperature, your average big box store doesn't sell them, they aren't cheap, and most certainly not for the volume of media 30 years produces.

Duplicate & segregate! :