California fires

[Bugeye58]

Ever fly a Napalm attack!

Many of them. Have you?
Jeff

 

[John Loftus]

Steve_S, those photographs are fantastic, I assume that they are yours? The scarecrow picture is absolutely breathtaking.

https://www.latimes.com has a pretty incredible photo section on the fires. The newspaper had the scarecrow on page A23 but the composition was even better. The little birdhouse was lined up to become the 'nose' on the house and it was just eerie.

Here's the latest on catching one arson suspect and killing another.

arson suspects

 

[Steve_S]

LA Times is where I found many of the photos. Their web site is horrible. You click a link, it won't show you anything until you log in, so you do, it puts you back to the main page and it starts all over again. You have to trick it into doing what you want. Argh!

 

[John Loftus]

LA Times is where I found many of the photos. Their web site is horrible. You click a link, it won't show you anything until you log in, so you do, it puts you back to the main page and it starts all over again. You have to trick it into doing what you want. Argh!

I've been reading articles and looking at pictures this morning without logging in or any problems at all.

 

[Bret]

I think this thread should get back on point. This is not a freaking political issue. Mistakes will happen in every disaster. How about we turn our attention to help, rather than finger pointing. I know what it is like to have a fire - I have friends that have lost homes in this one. Sorry if I sound a bit put-off, I am. Some b@stard is caught lighting another fire in Arrowhead this morning. What politics stops that? It is Evil, pure and simple. The fire consuming Orange County is arson. That is Evil. Not all of them are arson – none of them are political.

Urhmm? I think we’d all agree that in cases of arson we should throw the full weight of law enforcement and the legal system to capture and prosecute these arise wipes. But I’m confused as to how a decision to use (or not to use) military aviation assets to fight this fire is somehow political? I mean as I already said before we don’t have a problem using regular troops to fight on the lines, so to me it makes perfect sense to me that we should be using military aviation too.

Back to using military assets to fight the fire. Another thought is we could even make use of military pilots who haven’t been trained in fire fighting and/or making bucket drops. It seems to me, that we could use the larger troop transport helicopters to move firefighters from place to place – leapfrogging from one hot spot to the next. As apposed to having to hike miles in or out of an area on foot and then taking vehicles down miles & miles of service roads just to get to the next endangered area they could use helicopters to move them about. Kind of like what they did by taking the aspect of paratroopers and creating Smoke Jumpers. But in this case instead they’ed be using helicopters like the Army (Airborne/Air Cavalry) & Marines (vertical envelopment) do when performing Combat Air Assault, they could add a third dimension to fighting wide fires.

 

[sideache]

But I’m confused as to how a decision to use (or not to use) military aviation assets to fight this fire is somehow political? I mean as I already said before we don’t have a problem using regular troops to fight on the lines, so to me it makes perfect sense to me that we should be using military aviation too.

That's not what I was responded to.

 

[Bret]

But I’m confused as to how a decision to use (or not to use) military aviation assets to fight this fire is somehow political? I mean as I already said before we don’t have a problem using regular troops to fight on the lines, so to me it makes perfect sense to me that we should be using military aviation too.

That's not what I was responded to.

Ahh! When I was referring to finger pointing that was during the last go around four years ago. To the best of my knowledge none of that has started this time yet.

Again nothing remotely political was intended by brining this stuff up. In fact I'm quite happy our political officials (both on the left & the right) saw beyond politics and came up with a solution in a real time situation, rather than pointing fingers & going into damage control mode after the fact.

 

[beaulieu]

to people who do not live out here,

it looks like the weather is starting to help,
the Santa ana winds are pretty much over,
the winds are turning and the cooler wind off the ocean is expected to start some Wednesday...

That does not put the fires out , but at least keeps them from spreading quickly, and make the water drops easier,

Good luck to those in danger

Beaulieu

 

[Sherlock]

Wow! This looks very bad, those photos that Steve posted, the news images I'm seeing... I have heard that at least one plane and/or fire crew is on the way from Canada to help out in the effort... I just hope all our California members are okay and stay okay, this is scary stuff...

 

[Steve_S]

They call in the Canadian planes when it's really bad. There is a company up there who makes the best fire planes in the world. After some particularly bad fires years ago, we got a few of those planes leased to us so they are close by if needed.

 

[jsneddon]

Laguna Beach with all the canyons surrounding the city is in fire danger whenever the fires break out. The city has been very proactive since the last big fire by installing more water reservoirs, more fire equipment and using goat herds to keeping clear a wide swath of brush around the city.

Goats! Now there is a splendid idea.... I wonder how long it would take for the BLM to notice if a dozen or so of these garbage disposals with legs "spontaneously migrated" to the other side of my fence????

I'm always amazed at the voracity of these buggers when we take the kids on the Tram at the San Diego Wild Animal Park - they show you a section of near vertical hill covered with vegetation and then turn a corner and the same topography is fenced in with about 40 african goats in it. The entire hillside is completely nude of vegetation and they say that it only took these goats 4 months to clear it out.

There are plenty of people with roosters out back of me somewhere so I'm sure nobody would mind a few goats running around to add to the 'local flavor'

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I just saw an updated map with some more detail and it looks pretty bad for forum member David (Grantura_MKI) in the Rice Fire in Fallbrook. Still not enough detail but it has curved around the south end of town along the 78. I still can't tell if it has made it quite to the southern access to Fallbrook where his farm is. I gotta bad feeling about this one though.... doesn't look good and they have evacuated a bunch more people because there is another fire that is about to meet up with this one. If he's still standing there is not much between his place and the fire but bone-dry scrub and avacado orchards.

Keep him in your thoughts.....

 

[Baz]

Keep him in your thoughts.....

Will do.

 

[Steve_S]

That's scary. We're keeping our fingers crossed. I hope he pulls through unscathed.

 

[vping]

Will do here too. It's amazing looking at the satelite pics of how the wind is blowin the smoke out over the Pacific/ Santa Anna winds sure are strange.

 

[drooartz]

We're thinking about all y'all out that way. I had been wondering about how David would be doing in all of this -- I knew he lived down that way. Hope he (and all of you) come out okay.

 

[AngliaGT]

They sent down an engine (OES) from Eureka Fire
Department.They get the engine for something like
a dollar - but have to be able to have it manned,& on it's way on short notice.
They're involved in the Rice Fire.Sounds pretty intense.

- Doug

 

[John Loftus]

Goats! Now there is a splendid idea.... I wonder how long it would take for the BLM to notice if a dozen or so of these garbage disposals with legs "spontaneously migrated" to the other side of my fence????

Appears that more communities have been using goats to keep fire breaks clear. goat article
I believe the Laguna herd was reduced this year because of the drought. There wasn't enough for them to eat and it was costing more for supplemental feed.

 

[beaulieu]

Just talked with my friend and his brothers restoration shop and house on 8 acres completely burned down

Hug your kids and your cars

Beaulieu

 

[Sherlock]

Wow! As much as it may seem crass to say it, I know the caliber of vintage cars down in California, and one can't help but wonder how many one-off, coachbuilt and otherwise ultra-special cars were lost...

But then reality check kicks in, that human life is so much more important and so much more valuable than cars...

Did anyone hear from David and his TVR's? (mentioned earlier in this thread)