Like watering down physical and mental acquity requirements to fulfill DEI goals in both front line, and management.
SoCal fires thread
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Last: 1 hr ago by movielover
bear2034 said:
No one knew they were lesbians until they declared it publicly. We can only assume Gavin Newsom is straight but it's not definitive because has not made any similar announcements.
"Any Twosome Newsom" - Michael Savage.
wifeisafurd said:
The impacted houses for the most part, are not coming back. Another set of houses which will not be back soon absent legislation exemptions, while be houses that are in the CA Coastal Commission jurisdiction. This area will have some real issues recovering.
I'm a NorCal guy so don't know but I posited two days ago that all of Palisades would be rebuilt and that it would be Beverly and bel air folks who move there, because they are next!
Palisades will be built up with the best new infrastructure and with fireproof housing. Meanwhile, look how unsafe the old places feel now.
I grew up in the Oakland Hills and so know the area that got torched well. As does every cal grad here. All that got rebuilt and I suspect it was just as nasty as Palisades. I have the driving video tape I took. Absolutely shocking. 100% gone. But now it's all back. All of it. So why would you say Palisades won't come back better?? (Different. It will never have the same old feel, which is sad.)
Regarding the coastal commission zone. Are you talking about the stretch of homes along Las Tunas Beach? Yes, I've always wondered how anyone was ever able to build there.
Who can explain that?
And I was thinking that someone will say no to a rebuild because it would never be approved today, would it. But then who compensates the land owners when it's taken away?? That would be a shocking development to those owners.
Oh dear… pic.twitter.com/VBPPERMHr1
— Chief Trumpster (@ChiefTrumpster) January 9, 2025
You obviously are not up late enough to watch SNL, which regularly roasts Newsom. For example, https://fb.watch/x08oOr2Afi/calpoly said:You said: "Trump is just making noise, and as much as it would be fun to poke fun at candidate Newsom, it isn' on the State either"wifeisafurd said:
Trump is just making noise, and as much as it would be fun to poke fun at candidate Newsom, it isn' on the State either. The problems are local, and well known:
Rick Caruso is appearing on TV all over the place down here discussing mismanagement by the City, and unfortunately, there is something to that, and it doesn;t really have anything to do with lesbians.
(In fact the Fire Chief has been publicly predicting this disaster after the latest round of budget cuts).
Problem 1: A large potion of fire hydrants did not have sufficient water pressure.LADWP's explanation for the shortage comes down to only having three nearby water tanks, each with a storage capacity of about a million gallons, which sounds like a lot, but is minuscule to the demand for a wild fire in the Palisades, which is in foothills primarily. These tanks help maintain enough pressure for water to travel uphill through pipes to homes and fire hydrants but the pressure had decreased due to heavy water use, and officials knew the tanks couldn't keep up. In fact, the system couldn't handle the demand for more that a few hours. The infrastructure had not gown over the years to handle growth in the area. That LA City has chosen to ignore its capital needs in many areas is well known to those of us who represented governmental or private water purveyors and other governmental entities who are in the business of making capital improvements. LA is perceived as a joke truly only focused on short term social spending, made worse by an incredibly awkward governmental structure which leaves the Mayor little power, and was made incredibly worse by Dean Chemerinsky's well intended city charter amendments which focused on empowering local councilmen to move money to pet causes at the expense of needed regional projects, which have all been ignored. And it also means that LA County and other state agencies will not work with LA City (it is a bigger issue than just fire suppression).
Problem 2: a large number of hydrants simple did not work. The news of dry fire hydrants may be a shock to local residents (at least my friends and relatives who lost their homes), but it's a known concern to LA firefighters. As homes burn and water lines begin to leak, overall water pressure drops, meaning that hydrants can run dry before long. In order to have a system that could have handled the demands of continuous firefighting through fire hydrants, experts have said LA would have needed to keep much larger reserves of water physically on hand near the locations of possible wildfires. The problem is LA refused to build a reservoir in the area.
Problem 3: woefully inadequate supply of ground resources. This is purely a manpower budget issue which occurred overtime. No expansion of non-administrative personnel while the City grew. I was literally watching the attempts to save houses on TV while working out. This was spellbinding (a bunch of us were whatching for over 3 hours) and what the cameras showed was a 2 man crew would show-up and try to save a bunch of houses. One guy manning the front of the hose, the other guy moving to the back of the hose to water supplies (treir truck, hydrants, a pool, etc.). Sometimes it worked other time it didn't. My personal contrast was watching the Mandeville fire in 1978 where the was a fireman on the roof of every house in the canyon, armed with hose, as the fire crept down both side of the canyon. They waited until the fire got close enough to the houses, and then blasted the fire until it was defeated and could not advance. No water issues, no manpower issues, etc. But if you read the articles LA fire officials are saying they didn't have "even close" to sufficient ground resources to stop the fire (assuming the had water), despite as fire chief noted she "requested mutual aid from nearby counties, as well as additional crews and trucks from California's Office of Emergency Services and from out of state, all of which have responded and are on the way, but too late."
Problem 4: bad management. The basic plan behind not making the infrastructure improvements and adding staff as the City grew was the mantra that the wildfire instead can be fought from the air. And admittedly, LA City has invested in some air resources (you can debate if that is sufficient, but that debate is irrelevant to what happened to Pacific Palisades). The obvious retort to this mantra is that firestorms occur in windy, smokey conditions where air resources are grounded. That is exactly what happened in the Palisades and as a result, LA City basically stood by while its arguably wealthest enclave burned down. And I don't mean just some houses, but massive areas including shopping districts, schools, houses of worship, etc. no longer exit. Look at the picture in the linked Jon Turteltaub artricle.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/la-fires-live-updates-2nd-fire-escalates-quickly?id=117448186&entryId=117518699
One other aspect to this is a state issue (though not exactly on Newsom). Many homeowers were not insured or underinsured (Cal Fair Plan without a wrap) due to cancellation or non-renewals of fire insurance and inability to place the new polices as major insurers and reinsurers have left the California market (there is an insurance crises going on, which is another discussion issue). The impacted houses for the most part, are not coming back. Another set of houses which will not be back soon absent legislation exemptions, while be houses that are in the CA Coastal Commission jurisdiction. This area will have some real issues recovering.
Why do you find it necessary to poke fun of the governor? Did Biden do it when Florida had the hurricanes? Poking fun of someone during a disaster is not normal. Time to grow up republicans!
Time to chill out from someone not a registered Republican, and by the way, not only did I not make fun of Newsom, I said he wasn't to blame. Maybe it is time you Democrats learn some reading comprehension.
The inference in several posts, was that problem was LAFD management was lesbian (concern with woke hiring practices I guess?). Actually the Chief has been complaining about fire department budgets for some time and predicting a disaster was imminent. Hard to blame her when she so publicly warned this all was coming.Zippergate said:
unfortunately, there is something to that, and it doesn;t really have anything to do with lesbians.
What a bizarre take. THEY are the ones who have made their sexuality such a public issue. No one cared until houses burned. Now they care. Maybe Madam DEI did all she could but when she says that the mission is DEI across the LAFD, what does that tell you about priorities? It looks like she was very successful in achieving her those DEI metrics. I'm sure the Hollywood crowd who lost their homes are very grateful for that. A competent person taking over that job would have done a readiness assessment and prioritized fixing the issues. If she needed resources, she should've been in front of the public demanding better. Do we have any evidence that this occurred? I doubt it.
If that is the reality, I stand corrected and retract my prior comments.
Downtown LA only received 0.16" of RAIN since Oct. 1st vs Normal which is 4.5"
It's not too difficult to figure out what Santa Ana Winds can do in this kind of environment.
Gusts reached 100 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains at 8 am on Wednesday morning.
It's not too difficult to figure out what Santa Ana Winds can do in this kind of environment.
Gusts reached 100 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains at 8 am on Wednesday morning.
The insurance companies saw this coming, it should not be a shock to the LA mayor and other leaders. The reason they cancelled fire insurance is because the risk was so high they had to raise premiums, but LA blocked them from doing that, so they cancelled policies. The whole thing is a failure of leadership, there's no other way to deny this. Oh and btw, they are going to have to count on the feds to bail them out. The scale of this eff up is going to be felt by the entire country.
Well written wife.
TY
TY
MinotStateBeav said:
The insurance companies saw this coming, it should not be a shock to the LA mayor and other leaders. The reason they cancelled fire insurance is because the risk was so high they had to raise premiums, but LA blocked them from doing that, so they cancelled policies. The whole thing is a failure of leadership, there's no other way to deny this. Oh and btw, they are going to have to count on the feds to bail them out. The scale of this eff up is going to be felt by the entire country.
You mean like when Hurricane Helene flooded North Carolina in October and the GOP legislature did the bidding of the Builders Association, lowering the building codes?
What was the FEMA tab for that?
This is incredibly naive and simplistic. Fire fighting, at its most basic level is technical and apolitical. However, leadership of government agencies like Cal Fire - and the setting of water/fire/wild life policy - is highly political. Much (maybe all) of the executive staff is appointed by the governor. He selects people that reflect and will enforce his policies and political preferences.DiabloWags said:BearGoggles said:I'm not understanding your post and link to Cal fire leadership.DiabloWags said:Zippergate said:
If people want to acknowledge both realities and propose solutions, that is fine. What I see is a reflexive, unthinking rush to preexisting partisan camps in an attempt to score points, and that is manifestly unhelpful.
That's awfully diplomatic of you but here's the problem. There is only one camp involved here, the radical progressive left. They're in charge. They run everything. And they do a remarkable job of running everything straight into the ground.
Do they also run CAL FIRE?
Is the head of CAL FIRE also gay?
Why would that even matter to you?
Executive Staff | CAL FIRE
Are you suggesting that the Cal Fire executive staff, many of whom are political appointees and all of whom have risen in the ranks of California bureaucracy, are not overwhelming liberal/progressive?
Fire fighting, like any other "first responder" profession is entrenched in POLICY. that has been on the books for decades and gets fine-tuned and updated as changing conditions demand.
For some reason, your political bias and "goggles" don't allow you to comprehend that.
For you, everything is political.
Next thing you're going to tell me that Coastal Commission and CARB are agencies lead by non-partisan professionals and experts without political agendas.
Amphibious 'Super Scooper' airplanes from Quebec, Canada are picking up seawater from the Santa Monica Bay to drop on the Palisades Fire. Great vid from Las Vegas reporter @CristenDrummond. pic.twitter.com/sbgwsHLlA9
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) January 9, 2025
For anyone asking “why don’t they use the ocean to fight the fires” here is a Super Scooper plane getting water to fight the Palasades fire. view from Santa Monica. pic.twitter.com/cerCjj16cd
— Toontrap (@toon_trap) January 9, 2025
We’re now down to one Super Scooper.
— CannaKingCA 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@CannaKingCA20) January 10, 2025
Hopefully California got the rental insurance. 🤦🏼https://t.co/jJYPv5ZhkB pic.twitter.com/HTv68LPU1U
"While Trump is braying like an ass about annexing🇨🇦, Canadians are in LA tonight dropping water on the Palisades fire."-@joshuahind
— Trump's election fraud hoax undermines democracy. (@RWwatchMA) January 9, 2025
Could 🇺🇸 govt. save life and reduce property damage from wildfires by investing in regional fleets of CL-415 waterbombers? @edmarkey #mapoli https://t.co/EBZDfAFeTm
For the past 2 days, scooper-style water bombers like the CL-415s from Quebec have been refilling from a lake north of the city (Castaic Lake). Now they're scooping right out of the Pacific Ocean. This is QUE245, which has been at it for nearly 2 hours. pic.twitter.com/raudGAWSag
— Joshua Hind (@joshuahind) January 9, 2025
Were you this upset at the federal government bailing out Louisiana, Texas, etc.?MinotStateBeav said:
The insurance companies saw this coming, it should not be a shock to the LA mayor and other leaders. The reason they cancelled fire insurance is because the risk was so high they had to raise premiums, but LA blocked them from doing that, so they cancelled policies. The whole thing is a failure of leadership, there's no other way to deny this. Oh and btw, they are going to have to count on the feds to bail them out. The scale of this eff up is going to be felt by the entire country.
Two out of shape DEI first responders.
Don't forget over 100 fireman fired for not taking the untested Covid shot.
Don't forget over 100 fireman fired for not taking the untested Covid shot.
This is insane
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 9, 2025
LA Assistant Fire Chief addresses the concern about whether she could carry a man out of a fire
“He got himself in the wrong place” being in the fire
WHAT?! Nobody *plans* to be in a fire. That’s why firemen exist!
DEI is a suicide pact
pic.twitter.com/fY3LRk31Ys
Worth a watch on this video.
One billionaire couple owns almost all the water in California.
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) January 8, 2025
In 1994, the Resnicks secretly seized control of California’s public water supply.
Now their companies use 150 billion gallons every year while working class people suffer under drought conditions. pic.twitter.com/1xu1LzvJYS
Tom how many of those house were rebuilt without insurance proceeds? And how many of those houses had to complly with CA Coastel Commission requirements and process (answer is none on this). I'm assuming you don't understand the complexities of either to these issues, or you wouldn't have bothered to make this post.concordtom said:wifeisafurd said:
The impacted houses for the most part, are not coming back. Another set of houses which will not be back soon absent legislation exemptions, while be houses that are in the CA Coastal Commission jurisdiction. This area will have some real issues recovering.
I'm a NorCal guy so don't know but I posited two days ago that all of Palisades would be rebuilt and that it would be Beverly and bel air folks who move there, because they are next!
Palisades will be built up with the best new infrastructure and with fireproof housing. Meanwhile, look how unsafe the old places feel now.
I grew up in the Oakland Hills and so know the area that got torched well. As does every cal grad here. All that got rebuilt and I suspect it was just as nasty as Palisades. I have the driving video tape I took. Absolutely shocking. 100% gone. But now it's all back. All of it. So why would you say Palisades won't come back better?? (Different. It will never have the same old feel, which is sad.)
Regarding the coastal commission zone. Are you talking about the stretch of homes along Las Tunas Beach? Yes, I've always wondered how anyone was ever able to build there.
Who can explain that?
And I was thinking that someone will say no to a rebuild because it would never be approved today, would it. But then who compensates the land owners when it's taken away?? That would be a shocking development to those owners.
The is a correct concept - it was very dry on Wednesday due to the wind. We often get this fire weather In the last several years. The measured gusts in Pacific Palisades during the time of the fire on Wednesday were between 60 to 70 MPH which is plenty fast. There have been a lot of October through December periods during recent drought years where there was essentially no rain. Most of the huge fires recently have been during these much more common weather patterns. Anyone trying to explain this away by saying this was unusual is trying to create a narrative. It happens every year now.DiabloWags said:
Downtown LA only received 0.16" of RAIN since Oct. 1st vs Normal which is 4.5"
It's not too difficult to figure out what Santa Ana Winds can do in this kind of environment.
Gusts reached 100 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains at 8 am on Wednesday morning.
wifeisafurd said:The inference in several posts, was that problem was LAFD management was lesbian (concern with woke hiring practices I guess?). Actually the Chief has been complaining about fire department budgets for some time and predicting a disaster was imminent. Hard to blame her when she so publicly warned this all was coming.Zippergate said:
unfortunately, there is something to that, and it doesn;t really have anything to do with lesbians.
What a bizarre take. THEY are the ones who have made their sexuality such a public issue. No one cared until houses burned. Now they care. Maybe Madam DEI did all she could but when she says that the mission is DEI across the LAFD, what does that tell you about priorities? It looks like she was very successful in achieving her those DEI metrics. I'm sure the Hollywood crowd who lost their homes are very grateful for that. A competent person taking over that job would have done a readiness assessment and prioritized fixing the issues. If she needed resources, she should've been in front of the public demanding better. Do we have any evidence that this occurred? I doubt it.
Can I publicly warn people that a hurricane will strike Florida, or that trump is going to F up America again?
DiabloWags said:
Downtown LA only received 0.16" of RAIN since Oct. 1st vs Normal which is 4.5"
It's not too difficult to figure out what Santa Ana Winds can do in this kind of environment.
Gusts reached 100 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains at 8 am on Wednesday morning.
The new requirement for finding that ideal place to live:
Temperate climate
Low crime
Decent restaurants
No traffic
*never windy during dry season
(This eliminates the ideated California Forever city near Suisun - that part of NorCal is a wind tunnel!)
MinotStateBeav said:
The insurance companies saw this coming, it should not be a shock to the LA mayor and other leaders. The reason they cancelled fire insurance is because the risk was so high they had to raise premiums, but LA blocked them from doing that, so they cancelled policies. The whole thing is a failure of leadership, there's no other way to deny this. Oh and btw, they are going to have to count on the feds to bail them out. The scale of this eff up is going to be felt by the entire country.
As always.
I was looking for a sign that said "Bailout Nation" but this book looks better!
Cal88 said:
quebec water planes
Wow, you were/are on it with this story!!!
Now maybe you can find a report on the level of efficacy in LA. I'm curious how much a difference it made.
Cal88 said:Amphibious 'Super Scooper' airplanes from Quebec, Canada are picking up seawater from the Santa Monica Bay to drop on the Palisades Fire. Great vid from Las Vegas reporter @CristenDrummond. pic.twitter.com/sbgwsHLlA9
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) January 9, 2025For anyone asking “why don’t they use the ocean to fight the fires” here is a Super Scooper plane getting water to fight the Palasades fire. view from Santa Monica. pic.twitter.com/cerCjj16cd
— Toontrap (@toon_trap) January 9, 2025We’re now down to one Super Scooper.
— CannaKingCA 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@CannaKingCA20) January 10, 2025
Hopefully California got the rental insurance. 🤦🏼https://t.co/jJYPv5ZhkB pic.twitter.com/HTv68LPU1U"While Trump is braying like an ass about annexing🇨🇦, Canadians are in LA tonight dropping water on the Palisades fire."-@joshuahind
— Trump's election fraud hoax undermines democracy. (@RWwatchMA) January 9, 2025
Could 🇺🇸 govt. save life and reduce property damage from wildfires by investing in regional fleets of CL-415 waterbombers? @edmarkey #mapoli https://t.co/EBZDfAFeTmFor the past 2 days, scooper-style water bombers like the CL-415s from Quebec have been refilling from a lake north of the city (Castaic Lake). Now they're scooping right out of the Pacific Ocean. This is QUE245, which has been at it for nearly 2 hours. pic.twitter.com/raudGAWSag
— Joshua Hind (@joshuahind) January 9, 2025
I figure Quebec is helping us so that they can become our 51st state... and leave the rest of Canada out in the cold. Literally.
movielover said:bear2034 said:
No one knew they were lesbians until they declared it publicly. We can only assume Gavin Newsom is straight but it's not definitive because has not made any similar announcements.
"Any Twosome Newsom" - Michael Savage.
Good stuff, you two! Funny, poignant... the works!
DiabloWags said:wifeisafurd said:
This thread may set a record for misinformation and lack of understanding.
I bet there are a lot of Trumpers here that think that LA gets its water from NorCal, fed by Northern California rivers and snowmelt.
Well… it does. At least some of it comes via the Aqueduct from the Feather River.
wifeisafurd said:Tom how many of those house were rebuilt without insurance proceeds? And how many of those houses had to complly with CA Coastel Commission requirements and process (answer is none on this). I'm assuming you don't understand the complexities of either to these issues, or you wouldn't have bothered to make this post.concordtom said:wifeisafurd said:
The impacted houses for the most part, are not coming back. Another set of houses which will not be back soon absent legislation exemptions, while be houses that are in the CA Coastal Commission jurisdiction. This area will have some real issues recovering.
I'm a NorCal guy so don't know but I posited two days ago that all of Palisades would be rebuilt and that it would be Beverly and bel air folks who move there, because they are next!
Palisades will be built up with the best new infrastructure and with fireproof housing. Meanwhile, look how unsafe the old places feel now.
I grew up in the Oakland Hills and so know the area that got torched well. As does every cal grad here. All that got rebuilt and I suspect it was just as nasty as Palisades. I have the driving video tape I took. Absolutely shocking. 100% gone. But now it's all back. All of it. So why would you say Palisades won't come back better?? (Different. It will never have the same old feel, which is sad.)
Regarding the coastal commission zone. Are you talking about the stretch of homes along Las Tunas Beach? Yes, I've always wondered how anyone was ever able to build there.
Who can explain that?
And I was thinking that someone will say no to a rebuild because it would never be approved today, would it. But then who compensates the land owners when it's taken away?? That would be a shocking development to those owners.
Pfft.
I feel like you did not read my post clearly.
I thought you said none of what burned in PP or on PCH (las tunas?) would be rebuilt.
I said I thought PP WILL be, just like Oakland Hills.
Then I asked about the PCH houses, because I don't know how they got built on the first place.
I don't give an F if insurance is present or not.
If yes, prior ownership can elect rebuild, anywhere that is allowed. Or sell and someone new builds.
If no, prior ownership can sell the land and a new buyer will build, if allowed.
Why would any governing body prohibit PP rebuild?
movielover said:
Two out of shape DEI first responders.
Don't forget over 100 fireman fired for not taking the untested Covid shot.This is insane
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 9, 2025
LA Assistant Fire Chief addresses the concern about whether she could carry a man out of a fire
“He got himself in the wrong place” being in the fire
WHAT?! Nobody *plans* to be in a fire. That’s why firemen exist!
DEI is a suicide pact
pic.twitter.com/fY3LRk31Ys
Mods, please move this post to the Classic Posts/Good Laughers forum, where it belongs!
wifeisafurd said:The is a correct concept - it was very dry on Wednesday due to the wind. We often get this fire weather In the last several years. The measured gusts in Pacific Palisades during the time of the fire on Wednesday were between 60 to 70 MPH which is plenty fast. There have been a lot of October through December periods during recent drought years where there was essentially no rain. Most of the huge fires recently have been during these much more common weather patterns. Anyone trying to explain this away by saying this was unusual is trying to create a narrative. It happens every year now.DiabloWags said:
Downtown LA only received 0.16" of RAIN since Oct. 1st vs Normal which is 4.5"
It's not too difficult to figure out what Santa Ana Winds can do in this kind of environment.
Gusts reached 100 mph in the San Gabriel Mountains at 8 am on Wednesday morning.
I think we all understand the weather patterns, no?
I live in Pasadena right near where the Eaton fire started. My house is less than one mile from the Nature Center in Eaton Canyon and I often go there just to eat lunch, especially on rainy days when it gets quiet and much less crowded.
I have been under mandatory evacuation since Tuesday night. I had booked a room at a hotel even before the fire because I was worried about the winds.
We had a lot of wind damage in the 2011 wind storm. It was hard to sleep because of the noise and we have several large trees on the property. We had also lost power for four days back in 2011 so we expected we would lose power again and my power actually went out before 8am so I was right.
The prospect of a fire was not lost on me.
This is what one weather blog wrote the night before:
"Let me make something clear: If a wildfire breaks out, it will not be stopped. Firefighters cannot fight fires in these conditions. There will be no helicopters or planes dropping phos-cheks. There will be no structure protection. There will be no hand crews cutting lines.
Fire fighting resources will immediately be directed to life-saving procedures evacuating as many people as possible. If you smell smoke, see flames, or hear of a fire in your area, you need to pack your things immediately and get out. If the thought of evacuating even crosses your mind, that is a red flag to evacuate immediately. Just go, don't stop and ask questions.
I've been doing these forecasts every 48 hours for 11 months now. I hope in that time I've established myself as a conservative forecaster who does not mince words or hype up storms. I save up my bullets for times like this, because when I make a warning, I want you to heed it and not write me off. I'm not messing around. You pay me for this. I hope you know what I am about to say is serious and in no way, shape, or form an exaggeration. This is not a drill.
If a wildfire breaks out in Southern California this week, the number of human lives lost could be in the hundreds, and the number of homes lost could be in the thousands. It doesn't matter that it'll only be 65F as a daytime high. Earth does not generate better wildfire conditions than this. A wildfire would have no problem leaping to the 210 freeway anywhere along its route. Your home and your stuff can be replaced. You and your family cannot."
With that in the back of my mind I checked into my hotel around 3pm. Before long the hotel lost power because of the wind. It did not have a backup generator. Checking my phone at around 6:30pm I saw a neighbor reported a fire in the hills.
He wrote at 6:20pm:
"Fire alert! There's a fire in the hills, Eaton Canyon, on the toll road. Reported and the fire department's on it."
Two minutes later someone posted this photo of the baby fire which is now at 14,000 acres and growing:
https://imgur.com/a/J6UkzkT
To be continued…
I'm sorry Dimitri.
Thanks for sharing.
I hope you, your home, and everyone you know is okay.
We are all in shock.
(My mom grew up in Pasadena)
Thanks for sharing.
I hope you, your home, and everyone you know is okay.
We are all in shock.
(My mom grew up in Pasadena)
LA Fire Chief warned last month about budget cutsNBC4 Los Angeleshttps://www.nbclosangeles.com california-wildfires l...Zippergate said:
If that is the reality, I stand corrected and retract my prior comments.
NBC4 Los AngelesLA Fire Chief warned last month that budget cuts would affect response to large-scale emergencies1 day ago
I wasn't sure if it was serious or not but I was relieved that the fire department was aware.
I have an elderly cat that needs insulin which requires refrigeration. The idea had been to take her with us so we could refrigerate her medicine, which we did. I had left my other cats at home with the idea that I would retrieve them later if the wind got really bad.
When I left the hotel I could already see a red glow in the distance. The hotel was 7.5 miles from my house. I left my SO with the cat at the hotel and drove home. As I got closer and closer things looked worse and worse. I could see the canyon in flames.
The smoke was so thick I turned on my fog lights and drove slowly for that last mile home. There were people in the street wearing masks and pushing wheelchairs from the nearby nursing home. The smoke was like pea soup fog but I could see the palm trees above me bursting into flames throwing burning embers all around my truck like angry fireflies in showers of sparks. I did not expect that. Where were the police? How come the road wasn't blocked off? Was it safe to be driving there and why were there people scattered across the dark road in the midst of thick smoke? I was on a street with medical offices, a florist, a McDonald's, and a 7-11. My elderly relative's orthopedic surgeon had his office there and there's a vet as well. I wasn't up in the hills.
I have lived through a few big wildfires in the area. The strategy is always to let them burn themselves out in the mountains and preserve structures below. My neighbors experienced an evacuation in 1993 but only about 100 homes were lost and they were the ones closest to the mountains. No homes were lost between my house and the canyon in that fire.
When I reached my street I saw the smoke wasn't any better. In fact, it was getting worse. A police officer was driving and blaring on his bullhorn that we needed to evacuate immediately! I had just gotten there! The street was eerily quiet. There was one family loading a car and everyone else was gone. The power had been out all day so it was pitch black except for some solar or battery-powered Christmas decorations.
I pulled up to my house in the howling wind. Gusts were over 60mph at least. Ash was falling like rain. I ignored the policeman and he just kept going. I would tell him I had to get my cats if he insisted I leave.
I called my SO and told her what was going on. I told her I didn't have much time and I asked her what she wanted to save. She said to just get the cats and leave. My phone was blowing up with calls and texts from people wanting to know if I made it out. I answered a couple and then put it on silent because it was a distraction.
I had left some battery powered candles on in the house and so I had a little light but not much. My phone and a couple of lanterns was all. The entire house smelled like smoke.
We have 6 cats. One of them was already at the hotel but I had to evacuate the other five. That wasn't the plan for the day unless the wind broke a window or something.
I grabbed a cat carrier. Well, the cats were scared and they were hiding. It was hard to find them in the dark and they ran from me when I approached. I managed to get three of them fairly quickly but I couldn't find the others. I called my SO and asked her what to do. She said to put those three in the truck and leave if I had to.
The police circled the block again. I stayed really still so as not to be seen and put my light out. I had already taken some really important things like my laptop earlier. I grabbed a bag with the fine jewelry and some cash in it which my SO had packed in advance along with a new Mac laptop I had just bought and never unboxed. I also grabbed a really big cat kennel I had set aside so that when back at the hotel we could crate the cats.
In between all of that I would occasionally glimpse a cat running. I even grabbed one and she slipped out of my grasp. I felt like time was running out. I went to the photo albums and decided to forget them. If they were gone I'd live. I couldn't take them all and I had no priority (lesson learned). My SO wanted her baby book but I couldn't find it. I called her to tell her the photos weren't coming and that I was going to make one last effort for the remaining cats but that is all. She was resigned to that. Maybe the house would survive. It had before. It was built in the 1920s. My eyes were stinging from the smoke. Could the cats survive that? Maybe. They are pretty resilient.
I looked around the house. I decided to take video for insurance purposes and went to every room of the house and took 20 seconds of narrated video to show the contents. I used that chance to see if I had forgotten anything. That is when I made my peace that "stuff" - even expensive stuff, even sentimental stuff, is just stuff. I could let it all go. I wondered why I even had all of that stuff. It was very freeing to think of life without it.
That said, there was an original painting from a local artist we know perched in front of me. It hadn't been rehung. It's not worth that much money, maybe a few thousand, but we like it. We have other art but I couldn't be bothered to find it. We had recently moved things around for Christmas. That is why this painting was off the wall. I don't know where my SO stored it and it seemed unimportant.
I could see a red glow on the horizon and flames in the far distance as they climbed the mountain. The fire was so distant. Was I really in imminent danger?
I could see the red and blue lights as the police came around for what would be the last time. I loaded the truck and I saw one other pair of taillights down the street but it drove off. I was alone, wind blowing, smoke everywhere. No sign of fire despite me driving through the embers of the burning palms.
How close was it really? The embers can soar for over a mile. No firefighters were to be seen. If the cop was serious wouldn't he be banging on doors? I made the decision that I was going to make a last effort to find and take the last two cats.
It wasn't easy. I had to systematically search the house. When I searched one room I closed the door and considered it "clear." By being methodical I was able to find a cat and cage her despite her scratching me and trying to bite even. Whew! One left but he has always been the best hider.
I figured that anyone would be satisfied that I tried my best. I also didn't want to be trapped and killed myself or all that good work would be for nothing. I called my SO and told her the good news. I asked her if she wanted anything else in the house and she said no. I told her I was going to leave and the last cat would fend for himself. She seemed resigned. She praised me for even doing what I had.
I loaded the cat in the truck. I took some video to show the neighbors that their houses were still standing - at least they were then. I had been running the sprinklers since I got there but I turned them off. No need to waste more water.
In retrospect I should have left them running but the wind was scattering the water everywhere anyway. I probably should have hosed down the roof as well although my roof is tile. I sprayed some water half-heartedly across my planters and went to go lock the house for the last time.
I knew that the last cat could only be in our attic. I searched everywhere else. He liked to go up there. I had looked several times already. I convinced myself I would feel guilty forever if he died in that attic when I knew he was up there. My SO converted it into an office space and a dance studio. There was also a lot of storage so all kinds of random items.
I decided to take the kid gloves off and just take the attic apart. I dropped the mirrors (on stands) to the floor. I tipped over everything. I made a gigantic mess searching behind and under everything. No cat. Impossible. Maybe I missed him in the dark.
I was about to give up when I looked underneath some hanging racks of clothing - I had looked under them previously - and saw orange fur. I grabbed him and threw him in a carrier and took him downstairs. I took one last, possibly final, look around the house and I left.
I called the SO from my truck.
"I got him," I said. "I got them all."
"You are amazing," she said.
She doesn't usually say that about me.
"I am not sure we will have a house to go back to," I said.
"You got what matters most," she said.
I can relate what has happened since then later. It has been a week for sure!
dimitrig said:
I live in Pasadena right near where the Eaton fire started. My house is less than one mile from the Nature Center in Eaton Canyon and I often go there just to eat lunch, especially on rainy days when it gets quiet and much less crowded.
I have been under mandatory evacuation since Tuesday night. I had booked a room at a hotel even before the fire because I was worried about the winds.
We had a lot of wind damage in the 2011 wind storm. It was hard to sleep because of the noise and we have several large trees on the property. We had also lost power for four days back in 2011 so we expected we would lose power again and my power actually went out before 8am so I was right.
The prospect of a fire was not lost on me.
This is what one weather blog wrote the night before:
"Let me make something clear: If a wildfire breaks out, it will not be stopped. Firefighters cannot fight fires in these conditions. There will be no helicopters or planes dropping phos-cheks. There will be no structure protection. There will be no hand crews cutting lines.
Fire fighting resources will immediately be directed to life-saving procedures evacuating as many people as possible. If you smell smoke, see flames, or hear of a fire in your area, you need to pack your things immediately and get out. If the thought of evacuating even crosses your mind, that is a red flag to evacuate immediately. Just go, don't stop and ask questions.
I've been doing these forecasts every 48 hours for 11 months now. I hope in that time I've established myself as a conservative forecaster who does not mince words or hype up storms. I save up my bullets for times like this, because when I make a warning, I want you to heed it and not write me off. I'm not messing around. You pay me for this. I hope you know what I am about to say is serious and in no way, shape, or form an exaggeration. This is not a drill.
If a wildfire breaks out in Southern California this week, the number of human lives lost could be in the hundreds, and the number of homes lost could be in the thousands. It doesn't matter that it'll only be 65F as a daytime high. Earth does not generate better wildfire conditions than this. A wildfire would have no problem leaping to the 210 freeway anywhere along its route. Your home and your stuff can be replaced. You and your family cannot."
With that in the back of my mind I checked into my hotel around 3pm. Before long the hotel lost power because of the wind. It did not have a backup generator. Checking my phone at around 6:30pm I saw a neighbor reported a fire in the hills.
He wrote at 6:20pm:
"Fire alert! There's a fire in the hills, Eaton Canyon, on the toll road. Reported and the fire department's on it."
Two minutes later someone posted this photo of the baby fire which is now at 14,000 acres and growing:
https://imgur.com/a/J6UkzkT
To be continued…
stay safe.
I'm glad you and your family (I of course include cats in that category) are safe. Wishing you all the best.dimitrig said:
I wasn't sure if it was serious or not but I was relieved that the fire department was aware.
I have an elderly cat that needs insulin which requires refrigeration. The idea had been to take her with us so we could refrigerate her medicine, which we did. I had left my other cats at home with the idea that I would retrieve them later if the wind got really bad.
When I left the hotel I could already see a red glow in the distance. The hotel was 7.5 miles from my house. I left my SO with the cat at the hotel and drove home. As I got closer and closer things looked worse and worse. I could see the canyon in flames.
The smoke was so thick I turned on my fog lights and drove slowly for that last mile home. There were people in the street wearing masks and pushing wheelchairs from the nearby nursing home. The smoke was like pea soup fog but I could see the palm trees above me bursting into flames throwing burning embers all around my truck like angry fireflies in showers of sparks. I did not expect that. Where were the police? How come the road wasn't blocked off? Was it safe to be driving there and why were there people scattered across the dark road in the midst of thick smoke? I was on a street with medical offices, a florist, a McDonald's, and a 7-11. My elderly relative's orthopedic surgeon had his office there and there's a vet as well. I wasn't up in the hills.
I have lived through a few big wildfires in the area. The strategy is always to let them burn themselves out in the mountains and preserve structures below. My neighbors experienced an evacuation in 1993 but only about 100 homes were lost and they were the ones closest to the mountains. No homes were lost between my house and the canyon in that fire.
When I reached my street I saw the smoke wasn't any better. In fact, it was getting worse. A police officer was driving and blaring on his bullhorn that we needed to evacuate immediately! I had just gotten there! The street was eerily quiet. There was one family loading a car and everyone else was gone. The power had been out all day so it was pitch black except for some solar or battery-powered Christmas decorations.
I pulled up to my house in the howling wind. Gusts were over 60mph at least. Ash was falling like rain. I ignored the policeman and he just kept going. I would tell him I had to get my cats if he insisted I leave.
I called my SO and told her what was going on. I told her I didn't have much time and I asked her what she wanted to save. She said to just get the cats and leave. My phone was blowing up with calls and texts from people wanting to know if I made it out. I answered a couple and then put it on silent because it was a distraction.
I had left some battery powered candles on in the house and so I had a little light but not much. My phone and a couple of lanterns was all. The entire house smelled like smoke.
We have 6 cats. One of them was already at the hotel but I had to evacuate the other five. That wasn't the plan for the day unless the wind broke a window or something.
I grabbed a cat carrier. Well, the cats were scared and they were hiding. It was hard to find them in the dark and they ran from me when I approached. I managed to get three of them fairly quickly but I couldn't find the others. I called my SO and asked her what to do. She said to put those three in the truck and leave if I had to.
The police circled the block again. I stayed really still so as not to be seen and put my light out. I had already taken some really important things like my laptop earlier. I grabbed a bag with the fine jewelry and some cash in it which my SO had packed in advance along with a new Mac laptop I had just bought and never unboxed. I also grabbed a really big cat kennel I had set aside so that when back at the hotel we could crate the cats.
In between all of that I would occasionally glimpse a cat running. I even grabbed one and she slipped out of my grasp. I felt like time was running out. I went to the photo albums and decided to forget them. If they were gone I'd live. I couldn't take them all and I had no priority (lesson learned). My SO wanted her baby book but I couldn't find it. I called her to tell her the photos weren't coming and that I was going to make one last effort for the remaining cats but that is all. She was resigned to that. Maybe the house would survive. It had before. It was built in the 1920s. My eyes were stinging from the smoke. Could the cats survive that? Maybe. They are pretty resilient.
I looked around the house. I decided to take video for insurance purposes and went to every room of the house and took 20 seconds of narrated video to show the contents. I used that chance to see if I had forgotten anything. That is when I made my peace that "stuff" - even expensive stuff, even sentimental stuff, is just stuff. I could let it all go. I wondered why I even had all of that stuff. It was very freeing to think of life without it.
That said, there was an original painting from a local artist we know perched in front of me. It hadn't been rehung. It's not worth that much money, maybe a few thousand, but we like it. We have other art but I couldn't be bothered to find it. We had recently moved things around for Christmas. That is why this painting was off the wall. I don't know where my SO stored it and it seemed unimportant.
I could see a red glow on the horizon and flames in the far distance as they climbed the mountain. The fire was so distant. Was I really in imminent danger?
I could see the red and blue lights as the police came around for what would be the last time. I loaded the truck and I saw one other pair of taillights down the street but it drove off. I was alone, wind blowing, smoke everywhere. No sign of fire despite me driving through the embers of the burning palms.
How close was it really? The embers can soar for over a mile. No firefighters were to be seen. If the cop was serious wouldn't he be banging on doors? I made the decision that I was going to make a last effort to find and take the last two cats.
It wasn't easy. I had to systematically search the house. When I searched one room I closed the door and considered it "clear." By being methodical I was able to find a cat and cage her despite her scratching me and trying to bite even. Whew! One left but he has always been the best hider.
I figured that anyone would be satisfied that I tried my best. I also didn't want to be trapped and killed myself or all that good work would be for nothing. I called my SO and told her the good news. I asked her if she wanted anything else in the house and she said no. I told her I was going to leave and the last cat would fend for himself. She seemed resigned. She praised me for even doing what I had.
I loaded the cat in the truck. I took some video to show the neighbors that their houses were still standing - at least they were then. I had been running the sprinklers since I got there but I turned them off. No need to waste more water.
In retrospect I should have left them running but the wind was scattering the water everywhere anyway. I probably should have hosed down the roof as well although my roof is tile. I sprayed some water half-heartedly across my planters and went to go lock the house for the last time.
I knew that the last cat could only be in our attic. I searched everywhere else. He liked to go up there. I had looked several times already. I convinced myself I would feel guilty forever if he died in that attic when I knew he was up there. My SO converted it into an office space and a dance studio. There was also a lot of storage so all kinds of random items.
I decided to take the kid gloves off and just take the attic apart. I dropped the mirrors (on stands) to the floor. I tipped over everything. I made a gigantic mess searching behind and under everything. No cat. Impossible. Maybe I missed him in the dark.
I was about to give up when I looked underneath some hanging racks of clothing - I had looked under them previously - and saw orange fur. I grabbed him and threw him in a carrier and took him downstairs. I took one last, possibly final, look around the house and I left.
I called the SO from my truck.
"I got him," I said. "I got them all."
"You are amazing," she said. She doesn't usually say that about me.
"I am not sure we will have a house to go back to," I said.
"You got what matters most," she said.
I can relate what has happened since then later. It has been a week for sure!
Gary Hall Jr loses everything.
"It was worse than any apocalypse movie you've ever seen, and 1,000 times worse," he told the outlet in an article published Thursday, two days after the fires erupted.
"It's mayhem in Los Angeles. We were surrounded by flames. The embers were raining down on me as I jumped into my car," he recounted.
US Olympic hero Gary Hall Jr. says he lost everything, including his 10 medals, in California fires
"It was worse than any apocalypse movie you've ever seen, and 1,000 times worse," he told the outlet in an article published Thursday, two days after the fires erupted.
"It's mayhem in Los Angeles. We were surrounded by flames. The embers were raining down on me as I jumped into my car," he recounted.
US Olympic hero Gary Hall Jr. says he lost everything, including his 10 medals, in California fires
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