The fires

[pecunium]

The fires are bad. I'm sure you've read/heard that.

Me, I'm in Pasadena, which is an odd oasis of calm. The shape of the ridges are such that the Santa Ana's usually miss us. We get breezes, but not the roaring winds (having lived in the desert and the valleys; including a stint at the mouth of a canyon, I've been in them. I understand why, le mistral can be a mitigating factor in some sorts of crime. I've been told Marion Zimmer Bradley used the Santa Ana as the model for the magical winds in Darkover).

I was looking at the Modis pictures last night and the San Gabriel Valley was an arc of no smoke.

If you go there today that's gone. I know this because the light outside is a beautiful soft glow. It's like the "magic hour" of early morning/evening twilight, with the brilliance of mid-day.

From space, Santa Catalina is gone, lost in a dull, beige, smear. We still have clear skies to the north, but it won't last. I don't think we are close enough to get ashfall (which has always been bizzare, the smoke can be smelled, and is so close when it happens that one feels as if the sky is pressing down, and then a flaky snow starts to drift across the breeze), but we might start to get whiffs of it.

I hope the hills above us don't burn.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I was in Pasadena when the San Gabriel range caught fire. The observatory wasn't threatened, but you could see the fires at night from the 210. It was pretty, but scary. Also, breathing outdoors was not recommended.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I've been here for more than 30 years. In/around, the mountains for more than 20. I recall the Porter Ranch fire, when the ash was falling like really dry powder snow; just drifting on a light breeze.

I recall the San Dimas Fire in 2001, when the hills behind the Fairgrounds were limned in red, and the smoke was pluming like thunderheads, and C-130s were mere specks in it.

The air to the north is now getting dim, ad the sky to the south has gotten more golden brown. We have no more shadows.

TK

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

I was stationed in San Diego and actually in port when the 2003 fires were going on. My cats ended up spending 4 hours on the ship with me the night they got closest to my apartment.

I remember the weird orangey-grey sky and the ashfall, like snow, only it was so still and so hot, and everything smelled like smoke no matter where you went. The ship's air filters were the only thing that killed it.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the NASA picture. That big. That big. I knew it was big, but that big.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

I hope the hills above us don't burn.
I hope so too - for all the hills -

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's the Old Story -- for thousands of years the organic debris has been burning every now and then. The worst disruption comes when this doesn't happen frequently enough -- when too much fuel accumulates, the fire gets hot enough to kill the crowns of perennial plants, and seeds in the soil, so regeneration takes much longer than just a year or two. Meanwhile, erosion helps the Hills attain their goal of becoming flatlands a little faster. It does inconvenience people, of course -- especially the wealthy ones who tend to build ostentatious houses in such areas. Fortunately for them, it looks as though The Government will be coming through with help, perhaps more quickly than it did in New Orleans. Or at least they're giving the PR people better stuff to work with.

[tenderberry.livejournal.com]

oh I don't feel particularly sorry for those humans who choose to live in places prone to nature's periodic cycles dangerous to them - I mourn the wildlife and the domesticated animals brought to live with those idiots - and loathe the human causes of fires - whether it's downed power lines, car fires, or arsonists -
the humans always say i's worth the risk to live in such beauty - well shit - visit then don't live there -

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I just wish we'd do controlled burns in Feb./Mar. Then we'd have less scrub, and more open woodland. The fire risk would be reduced two different ways.

TK

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

My friend ravengirl grew up in that area and her family is still there. She thinks her sister may have lost her house. I hate this kind of thing.

When I was in Sun Valley, there were fires all around and the week after I left they got even closer to where I had been staying. Too close for comfort.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's funny how close the "wilds" are to much of L.A..

I've lived in Sun Valley. When the Altadena fire happened in '93, the house I'd been living in (I was in Monterey, at DLI), three months before, was a 1/4 mile from the limit of the burn.

Right now, it would take a serious conflagration to get that close, but within three miles isn't out of reasonable expectation.

TK

[annathepiper]

Thank you for keeping us posted. I've been following the news stories all day--difficult to not do, when you work for a newspaper--and have just been floored by the updates. I hope you and all your loved ones stay safe!