Santiago Fire/South OC FIRE

I've kinda been waiting for this..We live at the bottom of Skyline and have watched the smoke billow off the range all week. This morning was different, the smoke was hovering over the top (kinda like it was further up the mountians). Hopefully they can get a handle on it more homes are lost.

 

good to know. let's start doing our rain dances. I'll wash my car when the ash stops falling. (best raindance i've got)

jeebus- why does that look like some of the Armageddon scenes from Terminator 2???

 

I hope you sed a prayer for the dealry departed, young lady......

 

At lunch, my buddy and I went up to take a look at Whiting. Surprisingly, Borrego didnt look as bad as I thought it would. Many trees still have leaves on them, with just the ground scorched. Of course, the trail itself looks unchanged. I really dont know what the rest of the park looks like, though from our vantage point we could see that the top of Dreaded and Vista Point were burned pretty good. But the good news is that lots of trees and vegetation survived, so a couple of decent rains, and Whiting will spring back to life.

 

Clear the air!

PUBLIC HEALTH NOTICE

In the aftermath of the Southern California Fires, residents will be left with unprecedented poor air quality. The air quality is the most unhealthful air most people will breathe in their lives. All residents within 15 miles of any burn areas should keep home, office and car windows up, while driving keep air recirculating air buttons on.


For the next few weeks, avoid all outdoor activity. At gyms, schools and churches, request to keep all windows closed. Most air conditioners have air filters, residents should be aware that these will need to be changed much earlier then usual due to the increased air particles. Pets should be kept indoors if possible and kept from activity that causes them to breath rapidly.



The air currently has a hugely elevated soot content, much of which consists of PM10, totally suspended particulate matter 10 microns in diameter (approximately the thickness of human hair) or less. PM10 can penetrate all layers of the lungs and cause lung damage. It can aggravate all manner of respiratory ailments, including asthma and emphysema. It can penetrate and enter the bloodstream and change the way that blood coagulates, exacerbating problems for people at risk of stroke and heart attack. Once ingested it cannot be "un-ingested" through coughing or sneezing.

Risks and decisions residents make on breathing the current quality of air can affect lung health for the rest of their lives.

 

has anyone seen the plane from Canada making water drops? It's one of the biggest water planes and can fill up in 25 second's.

new google UPDATE

 

Just got back from Whiting. Dang batteries died on the first video.

Its gone. There are trees at the entrances to the park, where the trucks could try to fight the fire. All hilltops/sides/bottoms are burnt to the dirt. scattered trees and cactus. nothing else.

only wildlife was a vulture.

 

Yeah I saw that on the news this morning, it was sitting in Lake Elsinore.

 

It ended up getting in late yesterday (I believe? Day before? The days are melting together) due to storms in WA that delayed the travel a bit.. then it had to go through customs. After that I heard it was waiting for its orders ? No idea if it's still there or not. Hopefully they can get it up and have it drop water on CNF!!

 

Ok, Here is what Whiting looks like. It's bad but to put things in perspective, not a TOTAL loss. With that said, I was with 3 OCFA firemen that are assigned near Whiting, but was fighting the Malibu fire and they got their first look at Whiting. I also had dinner with Keith E.(President of SHARE) and along with what he and the fire captain said, it will be some time before we can go in and do any type of work. I told them both as well as Chris V. that we will be standing by ready to go when the time comes. Here are the pics I took today.

 

Really nice to see that some green survived, even if just at the entrance. There's still some left to build on for next spring.

 

thanks. i think i might cry now.

 

Thanks for the great pictures. I believe that when SHARE and the Warriors do go in, they will have to sell lottery tickets to keep the work crews to a manageable level! Long Live Whiting!

 

Thanks Gene....

Hard to look at and hard to put in words when you look at pictures of this type of destruction... but at least we know that Mother Nature will heal herself with a little help from Man. We've lost the beauty of two parks now, Santiago Oaks and Whiting ... the goods news is that both will return.

You sure appreciate something a lot more when you lose it...

 

This was the view from Lake MV where we live Tuesday night... not my picture, mine were not as good or close!

 

A View From O'Neill

I noticed alot of new smoke from the fire this evening that appears to be coming from O'Neill (which concerned me) so I donned my mask and goggles and head up into O'Neill.



The good news is O'Neill is still unburned and appears safe unless Santa Anas kick up again, which is unlikely.

I sat up at Vista Point in O''Neill and watched three choppers working in unison to knock back flames in upper Hickey Canyon. The area they were working on was at the beginning of the rock garden on the Santiago Truck Trail. Everything (or almost) west of there is burned.









One after another they dropped with almost perfect precision and then returned to Oso Resovoir or the park in Portola Hills to re-fill from a hydrant. Working this way one helo hit the fire about every 1-2 minutes. After about a half hour they appeared to stop the flames that were on the RSM side of the STT from heading further east toward Rose Canyon.

They then turned their attention to upper Santiago Canyon which is just over the other side of STT from Hickey Canyon. There was alot of smoke coming up from that canyon and beyond, farther up toward the peaks and probably into Bear Trap Canyon.

I couldn't see the peaks (due to smoke) to see exactly how far the fire had progressed.




This overlay shows the area in red that has burned. click on picture to enlarge it.

Here's the status I could tell:

Luge - burned
Old Camp - Not burned
Harding TT - burned at least 2/3 up then couldn't see any more.
O'Neill - Not burned
Holy Jim - not burned

From my point I couldn't see how far north around the mountain toward Silverado Canyon it is burning. But, my fear is that it is aready at 4-corners and burning across the main divide.

It will really be a tragedy if Silverado Canyon burns with so many homes in there.

KeepsWhatHappens

 

Thanks so much for all the information. I have been checking the news trying to figure out what the damage is, but it's not exactly like the headline is "The Luge is toast" When I first heard Whiting was on fire, my first thought thought was that if it jumps the road, it could get really, really bad. Hopefully it won't continue much longer, this sucks.

 

Was driving around the burn areas today. Modjeska grade and Modjeska canyon heading towards Maple Springs suffered the worst damage. Absolutely torched with over a dozen homes lost. Bottom of Harding is burned. The fire was moving up and was mostly likely going to reach Four corners. From the Maple Springs parking lot flames could be seen starting to come down come down towards Silverado canyon. Lots of fire support back there so hopefully it will be spared. Blackstar/motorway as of right now is safe.

 

This is truly sickening.

It's not bad enough that some sicko(s) started this fire but then the bureauocrats f-ed it up even further by not providing the aircraft we need. The gov's BS answer about the unsafe winds is BS. There was time when it was calm around here and no air support.

Check out this news story for more info.

Complain to your congressman/senators and demands change answers and change for the future. We obviously need a better fire fighting system.

I've always had a sick thought that what if terrorists decided to light all our US National Parks/Forests on fire at once. We'd be helpless to stop it. These Socal fires just go to show we can't even handle a regional firestorm.

BTW, I mean absolutely no disrespect to the hard-working firefighters in the field...they kick a$$!! It's the system and the higher-ups in charge that have made the mistakes by not being prepared for this type of disaster.

KeepsWhatHappens

 

No magic answer

This is the worst fire disaster in our states history. The fact that the fires are scattered all over makes it tough and a logistic nightmare for the firefighters. I wouldn’t start pointing fingers yet.

Watching the news makes me sick………. everyone trying to cover their a$$es