CA Fires

[Brian F.]

Hope all Los Angeles and CA ORCA members, family and friends are staying safe!

[Tom R]

Sending prayers to all firefighters, first responders and those affected by this tragedy.

[kyreels]

My son Zack who lives in West Hollywood just called me from the car as they were evacuated out of LA. The fire is coming up Runyon Canyon and the across the Valley. This is really unprecedented, from the Palisades, to Santa Monica, Malibu, Eaton, and now into Sunset, West Hollywood and the Hollywood Hills area. Winds are driving embers, and what you might think was safe due to little vegetation is now burning buildings. Not sure where a couple million people are supposed to go.

Zack is driving to friends in the Orange County suburbs as they flee the smoke and mayhem. They need rain to mitigate this. None in sight for now.

[Bill Muth]

Our thoughts are with everyone impacted by this tragedy. It really is unprecedented and hard to imagine what recovery will look like.

[john elder]

It is all so tragic! Can imagine this being worse than an earthquake. I’m just really hoping that San Diego doesn’t experience the same thing. You’re certainly fuel to make that happen and if it does, it could be really ugly for us as well.

[kyreels]

Looks like they lifted the evacuation order for the Sunset fire area. Appears to be under control for the moment.

[Ray Hencken]

God be with all of those affected by the fires. God be with the firefighters and first responders and keep them safe.

[Richard Lodge]

It's an incredible disaster and so devastating for thousands of residents. Seeing the photos taken from above I'm stunned at the utter destruction. I do hope the winds die down and the firefighters can finally stop these fires. I heard on one broadcast that the LA area hadn't had any rainfall for months, something like .16 inches since May. The area was a tinderbox and the high winds made the perfectly horrible storm. So very sad for everyone out there.

[bassmagnum]

I grew up in Malibu, have been through many fires and mudslides and was burned out and lost everything in '82. We had less than 2 minutes to evacuate. Just enough to time to make it to the beach.They have learned nothing and mismanagement by the CA government played a major role in this. They think bringing water into the desert changes it from being a desert. They build billion trains to nowhere instead of building reservoirs. It doesn't help having the natural creek channels that would allow rainwater to return to the aquafers cemented over in the name of flood control. Like a desert has enough flooding to merit that. They cut budgets for essential services in order to service feel good services for votes. They don't clear out the old growth like the Chumash did because according to EPA it harms the environment. They don't do controlled burns because the smoke hurts the environment and for the same reason they no longer use saltwater for fighting the fires. I remember seeing the super scoopers pulling water from the ocean. That also eliminated the use of fire boats that are capable of shooting a stream of water 400' at 38,000 gallons per minute that would have had an endless supply of water. I know, a friend of mine was Captain of one. How many times did you hear the term "Fire Corridor"? They always act like it's something new but fires have burned through those areas forever. It's a known fire corridor yet they let homes get built in them in the name of tax dollars. All that was accomplished was more tax dollars and more fuel for the fires. They allowed building of neighborhoods that didn't have the infrastructure to support it. They have a prime opportunity to upgrade the infrastructure but they won't. They'll come up with some excuse but the truth of the matter is they don't want to spend the money. And I know for a fact they operate on bogus science bought and paid for as once again their science says a fish species is depleted and needs to have closures put in place because the fish aren't showing up in the daily DFG logs. The fact that those fish have not been fished for because the boats have been concentrating on the tuna can't be the reason that the fish aren't being reported in the logs. The scientists will tell you that that can't be the reason the same way they did for the rockfish closures.