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SoCal Wildfires
jgeis
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So the wildfire situation here in SoCal is getting pretty out of hand and I know there are a fair number of forumers in the greater SoCal region that it warrants a thread. Dry conditions and strong Santa Ana winds have made the region into a powder keg and it's going off. All fires are largely moving west-southwest with the strong prevailing winds. Areas affected by the fires are also seeing gusts between 40-60mph, exacerbating the issue. These conditions are predicted to last through Thursday at least.
Currently there are three notable wildfires burning in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The most severe is the Thomas Fire burning in Ventura. It's 45k acres in size and growing with no containment, has burned 150+ structures, and has made it to downtown Ventura. Ventura is currently under a state of emergency. More than 7000 homes are under mandatory evacuation orders and more could quickly be added. Santa Paula and Ojai are also under threat from this fire.
The next most serious fire is the Creek Fire burning near Sylmar and Lake View Terrace on the north end of the San Fernando valley. It has burned 4000 acres so far and is at 0% containment. 2500+ homes have been evacuated and the 210 Freeway in the area is closed in both directions. An unconfirmed number of structures have been burned.
The third fire sprung up just hours ago in Santa Clarita. The Rye Fire is up to 500+ acres with no containment. It has prompted the closure of Interstate 5 in both directions around Newhall Ranch Road/Six Flags Magic Mountain. Evacuations have been issued (exact number of homes affected unknown right now) and power outages are affecting the area. The 911 system in the area is also experiencing issues due to the volume of calls about the outage.
If you're near any of these fires please stay alert and listen to local news and emergency outlets for information on possible evacuations or other dangers.
I'm down in LA but the horizon to the north is clearly shrouded in smoke.
Currently there are three notable wildfires burning in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The most severe is the Thomas Fire burning in Ventura. It's 45k acres in size and growing with no containment, has burned 150+ structures, and has made it to downtown Ventura. Ventura is currently under a state of emergency. More than 7000 homes are under mandatory evacuation orders and more could quickly be added. Santa Paula and Ojai are also under threat from this fire.
The next most serious fire is the Creek Fire burning near Sylmar and Lake View Terrace on the north end of the San Fernando valley. It has burned 4000 acres so far and is at 0% containment. 2500+ homes have been evacuated and the 210 Freeway in the area is closed in both directions. An unconfirmed number of structures have been burned.
The third fire sprung up just hours ago in Santa Clarita. The Rye Fire is up to 500+ acres with no containment. It has prompted the closure of Interstate 5 in both directions around Newhall Ranch Road/Six Flags Magic Mountain. Evacuations have been issued (exact number of homes affected unknown right now) and power outages are affecting the area. The 911 system in the area is also experiencing issues due to the volume of calls about the outage.
If you're near any of these fires please stay alert and listen to local news and emergency outlets for information on possible evacuations or other dangers.
I'm down in LA but the horizon to the north is clearly shrouded in smoke.
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damn
Stay safe out there, my friends.
Oh yeah, this is a fun day for me.
Here's a good map of where the Thomas Fire was this morning:
Are controlled burns just not a thing there? I know we have enough problems with them here when the government tries to set some fires to burn off built-up undergrowth. There's always a few hundred assholes complaining about smoke. I'd rather the sky be a bit smoky for one or two days out of the year than my whole town get burned to the ground, but these idiots are too fucking stupid to grok how this thing works.
Not heard anything new about the Sylmar one.
Ventura is still raging in those winds.
They are but there's not enough of them done. Part of the problem is that they feel there's only a few weeks of the year where they can safely burn because otherwise they worry it'll get out of control. Then there's allocation of resources, and plenty of people that complain about smoke.
I worry that with conditions not improving until at least Thursday that more fires are going to start before these ones can get put under control.
http://calfire.ca.gov/fire_prevention/fire_prevention
Sounds like the state government needs to invest more money and resources towards controlled burns! We manage them here (when we're not being shouted down by NIMBYs) and there's plenty of wind around.
The drought definitely plays into this though, it's very dry and there's tons of dead grass and brush ready to ignite.
The wind is the compounding factor here, with the strength and direction of the Santa Ana winds.
I hope your parents and aunt stay safe!
This year really has been terrible for fires and I feel for anyone caught up in them.
Resources are already being spread thin with three fires, San Bernardino has come aflame and is growing for a fourth, more possible.
Edit: Thomas Fire over 50k acres now. These fires are moving fast.
Creek Fire currently 11,000 acres, Rye Fire now 4,000 acres, Thomas Fire at 46K acres.
Zero containment on any of them.
they've gotten better about it in the last decade or so but yeah, they still don't do enough controlled burns
for a long time they didn't do them at all because people complained about their property values
their whole policy was centered on preventing ignition completely (which is impossible)
The Rye Fire is at 5000 acres as of 3:15PST (about 15 minutes ago), 5% contained, Interstate 5 has reopened for now.
The San Bernardino fire has quadrupled in size to 100 acres, still 0% contained.
but also I heard last winter was actually pretty wet, so stuff got to grow a bunch before everything got dry again
does you country have a massive drought exacerbated by poorly planned manipulation of the water table?
ahahahahahahahahahahahaha
i mean
yeah, mostly.
I thought about it as I was posting it and realized....
the big difference is that the forest areas are much more concentrated than the minimal coastal forests in australia
https://www.theonion.com/i-will-drink-every-last-drop-of-water-on-earth-1819584998
I don't think that's at all true, we have millions upon millions of square miles of dense forest. I've spent a fair bit of time in exactly the regions of california currently suffering from bushfires and no, I don't think it's more concentrated than our forests, which are not remotely as minimal as people seem to think.
But I do think that CA has seen some unique forms of human intrusion which have probably made fire spreading a lot worse and harder to control. For one thing, the history of land management in SoCal is definitely very different than most non-urban AU regions. For another, interestingly, you guys imported eucalyptus from Australia, which have a different relationship to natural fires than native American flora and I honestly don't know what impact that has had (if any).
Shit, we wrote the fucking book on it.
I dunno, it was pretty ridiculously hot and dry down there right through November.
edit: but if there hasn't been a storm it's usually human-caused anyway
give it a few centuries