Fortunately, the fire didn't destroy any buildings on campus, although the church across the street didn't fare too well. Here are some pictures I got with my crappy phone camera: Fire approaching my dorm's parking lot A few shots I got driving through the canyon Some of the helicopters on a break
It's bad news... winds aren't expected to let up until Wednesday, but there's an increasing suspicion that they might last through much of the week. Not much firefighters can do except protect structures where possible and wait for the winds to die down. These winds are extremely dangerous to work in... and remember StupidM... don't put yourself in a bad position... as strange as it sounds, more people die when these winds stop suddenly... the winds blow the fire downhill, but as soon as there are no winds, the fires start screaming back uphill and catch firefighters midslope or higher... don't go driving around... just find a wal-mart parking lot and chill. As for me, we've just pushed 10 engines out the door along with a bunch of overhead personnel. Over 1500 engines have been mobilized from across the west. I'll probably make myself available tonight and start driving early tomorrow morn... most likely to the Ranch Fire. Here's a source for info: http://gacc.nifc.gov/oscc/predictive/intelligence/news_notes/index.htm
Haha, no I went back to school. Yeppers. Thanks for the well wishes/advice. If you do come out to work on it, stay safe. There has already been at least one fatality (civilian I believe) and injuries to several firefighters. I am back in my dorm now and the wildfire guys here say that the school is pretty much the safest place in the county. They store all of their equipment here and the firefighters were all bunked in the gym last night.
Did you get in a circle with other evacuees and sing Kumbaya like Macbeth during the New York blackout?
When I lived in Santa Monica, my neighbors and I used to climb up on the roof of our building and watch the Malibu fires while drinking bottles of wine.
What are you using? A razor? I had one of those phones...that and a slvr...they sucked. i have one of these, Has a 2MP camera on it, and it takes some big and clear pics... Lynard Skynard: (a little blurry cause they were all moving so much, I had been drinking since noon....) Spoiler
Sorry for the derailment. Must have been an experience being evacuated with smoke all around you. Only time I was evacuated was because we were being bombed by Saddam.
I've never fully appreciated firefighters until yesterday when they were up all night battling a fire 15 miles away from my home. Sure, I thought they were heroes, but I never had my life in their hands before. I want to thank you and your colleagues and hope they return back safely.
Grew up in Saudi Arabia. Haven't been to Kuwait in like 5 years, I was in KSA during the first Gulf War. Good luck with the fires.
Glad you are alright. These are pretty bad and there's more fires springing up all over. The ones in Santa Clarita are spreading, the one in Southern San Diego is zero percent contained. The air quality is still bad all over, and I'm sure it's probably even worse where you are. Are you going to Pepperdine? I heard the Pres. church over there was basically completely destroyed. Stay safe, and I'm sure you have a priority list of things to take, and escape route planned. Is there ash all over your place?
I'm down in la jolla -- far from any of the real action. We still get ash carried by the wind. My throat's starting to feel irritated and sore, my eyes burn a little.
It is actually pretty clear now. It was bad yesterday though. Are you going to Pepperdine? Yeah, go Waves <- is that a terrible name or what? Not much left above the foundation, just a big black pile of rubble. I;m prepared, but it looks like things are pretty much done in this area. Most of the fuel around the outside of the campus is burned to ash, while the inside is relatively unscathed, by design, or so I am told. Silver lining, no class today or tomorrow. Nah, we had all the windows and doors closed, so nothing got in, except one of my roommates wasn't home when we were told to leave and none of us thought to check his window. His stuff got a little ashy.
