I was watching a bit of the news last night (Thursday) and saw a fire report of what I believe they said was in the Escondido area. They showed some footage of a burned house that appeared to have a 914 in the garage

Hoping it's not one of us 'Worlders'

No Worries mate-just a barbi flair up.

They were showing pics of a huge firestorm induced smoke vortex. Serious stuff.

I saw the same report, but missed it on DVR and couldn't back up. It did look like a yellow 914.
At one point we had 9 active fires.
It sounds like the police nabbed 2 people last night for arson on 2 more small fires.

California seems to be on fire a lot. Always confused me folks would live somewhere it's almost certain they will be hit by major wildfires, lose their house, then rebuild in the same spot. I know we're having drought and wildfire problems here, but it's not like the same exact ares burn every year.

In any case, I hope all our favorite 914 shops, vendors, and owners out on the left coast aren't being affected by this. I heard Pendleton was on fire too, but then again we burned a huge chunk of it back in 2005 thanks to tracers, grenades, smoke grenades, and some random mortar rounds.

I checked with Ethan aka '73-914kid yesterday and they are in the clear. And Camp Penny is always getting lit up.

I was waiting for some suspension parts from Pelican and FedEx said there may be delays because of the fire. Might ruin my long weekend plans

Well, I guess most will take this over 95-100% humidity in many parts of Texas.
I have a friend that bought a home in western Texas. For summers, he returns to Cali...he gave me an example. Take a shower, dry off with towel and that towel will take a few months to dry in Texas

You mean Houston. Nobody likes Houston. You walk outside in the summer and immediately die of heat exhaustion. And where the hell in West Texas is all this humidity? Abilene and everywhere out there are drying up, drought is hitting really hard. A number of my relatives are having to get out of various livestock because there's just no water to support them.

I will say Cali is way too top-heavy regarding 914 and Porsche shops in general. Here in Central Tx we're pretty screwed unless you head to Dallas maybe. The only 914 heavy shop I know of is in Irving (Dallas) and run by an SCCA competitior who runs 914's. Sadly that's like 3 hours away at least, little far just to stop in and get a valve adjustment. Some of you guys need to spread the love and move out here. We have COTA now, surely someone can set up a proper 914 shop in Austin?

"Always confused me folks would live somewhere it's almost certain they will be hit by major wildfires". You mean like Texas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, or Florida? CA isn't the Lone Ranger here. Of course, we have a LOT more folks per square mile, and many of them have chosen to live in places no sane person would even think about, but that's 'cause they're living in a state of denial, which isn't geographically fixed.

The Cap'n

I'm in the middle of it all with work being in Carlsbad and living in Oceanside which is just south of the camp Pendleton fire. I grew up in this area so I am used to them I guess. People don't realize how many canyons and hills we have that you can not build on do to the shape an grade. So they have brush and are hard to access once they are on fire, and the canyons channel wind to the fire which make it much much worse. This the same reason we are so reliant on our cars, something can be 2 miles away as the crow flies, but driving there it can be 5 or 6 miles away by the time you drive up and down all the canyons and hills.

Have my 914 parked at my buddy's house in Escondido where he was working on it. I'm sure it's covered in what we call California snow (ash). People forget the climate classification for Southern California is a desert. Usually at this time of year we have rain and overcast condsions for the ocean warming up which usually makes what we call May Grey and June Gloom but this yea there has been record drought, heat and wind conditions for this time of year.

When we had these fires about 6 or 7 years ago we lost almost 200 home, this year it's in the teens, and a majority of those home did not have their surrounding area up to code with what we call defensible area which is 20 to 30 feet of ice plant or scubas (sp?) vegetation. Also they were not up to building code with fire resistant materials. I know a couple of the houses that burned were due to people leaving windows open when they evacuated and ambers getting in to the house.

This really has been a better case scenario this time around with preventative efforts and the state being much better organized in its fire service. There is no way that these all were happen stance, pretty much everyone thinks it was arson that started a majority of them, I would have to agree with them.

Posted via iPad and it's awesome auto correct.

I live in So Cal, and I think the same way about flood plains, and tornado areas. There are natural disasters everywhere. Pick your poison.

True on flood plains, ie. New Orleans. I definitely would not in my right mind live below sea level or near it with the reputation they have for flood control there.

From what I understand though regarding Tornados is that it's rare to get hit by one more than once, and by hit I mean actually have your house levelled or roof battered all to hell. Is there a risk here in Tx? Hell yes, but not as predictable as living in a known forest or wildfire zone. I mean I've not laid eyes on one personally, my wife was in one in Indiana years back, and one went through downtown Fort Worth when I was in high school (early 2000's). It's not a yearly thing that specific areas get hit, more of a broad chance that somewhere in the state, your ticket might get pulled.

On a serious note, were I a cool dude on the left coast and had room to spare I'd offer a haven for any 'teeners needing to get out of the fire zone. Best wishes for anyone being affected by this, support network standing by!

Fires don't start naturally unless by lightning. There is always some idiot(s) either throwing a cigarette my mistake or on purpose.

The problem is the media announcing to everyone that it's Fire Season and Red Flag days....

F'n arsonists. It's like telling Elmer Fudd it's Rabbit Season.

Like I said about Pendleton, it's an active Marine base with numerous Infantry, Aviation, and other combat arms units all training across the base on live-fire ranges. All it takes is using tracers or even what you'd consider an innoculous smoke grenade to get a big fire going. During the early summer of '05 we were constantly having ranges shut down because a tracer would land off in a field and start a major brushfire. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that a road went behind the barracks, a grass fire would have taken out the School of Infantry barracks due to a fire that started all the way up at the grenade range.

But outside military bases, when it gets super dry even the smallest things can get one going. Most smart folks can tell when things are just too dry to do any fire or even camp stove cooking. Unfortunately, not everyone is that smart.

Wildfires/mudslides on the west coast - hurricanes/snow on the east coast - tornados/snow in between ---- it's always something.

Remember, California is a horrible place! Stop by, visit, leave your money, and then get out while you can!!!

(Hopefully my commute will get easier. Or at least not worse! )

--DD

You guys hang tight down there...May grey on its way.

Wayne (Type47?) lives in Carlsbad. Anyone heard from him?

My sister lives in Carlsbad close to Rancho Santafe she posted pictures of the fire out her bedroom window that didn't look to far away hope she makes out ok.

From Dave Darling,
Remember, California is a horrible place! Stop by, visit, leave your money, and then get out while you can!!!

A good reason to not go there in the first place!
Been there, will never go back! I know I won't be missed, don't care about that either!
Tom

Oh..you are correct. We should have signs like they do when driving into Oregon. .visit , spend your $ . Now go home.

Present and accounted for . . . .

Hi Mike! You might remember this perspective. You parked your car in front of that yellow diamond sign during your visit, more than a few years ago.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of what seems to be in store for all of the areas affected by the drought conditions in the West.

This picture, from my front yard, is looking East at the Poinsettia Fire plume about an hour after it started. It appears to be much closer than it actually was: about 4 miles. The prevailing winds were blowing the smoke high over the landscape and directly out to sea.

Click to view attachment

The screen shot from my phone shows the temperature at Palomar Airport in Carlsbad about 2 pm on Wildfire Wednesday. The Poinsettia fire originated about a mile south of the airport, East of El Camino Real. The winds pushed the fire West, about 3 miles, through the brushy canyons and ravines.

Click to view attachment

The firefighters did an amazing job of preventing the fires from reaching homes and businesses in the primarily rural areas of the 8 cities affected by the 9 separate fires that day. We are all extremely grateful for their jobs well done!

Good to hear from you, Wayne. A friend posted a pic of the DC10 dropping agent in your area and since all the houses look the same to me, it made me shudder to think I hope you all stay safe.

Temperatures today are back down to the 70's. at one point we had 11 fires.
The first two arrests for arson have been made.

Too much fun...not.

We live at the north end of Camp Pendleton, and the DC-10 pilot was putting on quite a show of crazy flying! The water dropping helicopter was making trips out to the ocean, back and forth right over our house.

.......The last breaking news, I heard....it was under control! (that's the problem
arsonist?)I'll just stay on the island.......God bless everyone!!!!!