Fires suck, and they suspect arson. View from my back yard @2:30pm. The fire is more than 20 miles away, and it looks like Mt St Helens here.

Howard, what part of Simi is that fire in? I heard north of Reagan library.

Im in LB and it's really smokey from the inland fires, and everything is covered in ash too. It looks like the sun is setting, but it's only 2:30 or so.

Started near Magic Mtn and came west on the 126. Last I heard is was behind Moorpark College, so very west end of Simi. Not much on news coverage, since worse fires are inland. But it is spooky.

Could be worse...this is from Kelowna, BC this summer.....

Man, I had several close relatives of mine evac'd in Kelowna. Actually, several times. It looks like an ugly experience, and I sure hope it goes better down here!

kim.

I lived in Hood River Oregon in 1980. St Helen's was a big event to a 8 year old. My father still has a jar of ash we dusted off the car.


When I was younger I worked the firelines one summer. Crazy work. I don't think people really get the impact from those fires till you meet them in person.

Too much information.

Just watched the LA news...it is almost as bad as Kelowna.

I can imagine.

Be safe people.



M

Chris Campbell.. respond to this thread and let us know how things are where you live. I know your house backs up to one of those hills.



B

I was living on the Olympic Penninsula when St.Helens blew. It rattled our windows twice. We were near a rock quarry and thought it strange that they were blasting on a Sunday! As close as we were (<100 miles) we were up wind & received no ash.
bruce

Brad,
Chris' home (and mine) are about 20 miles from the action, so lots of smoke and ash, but no fire.

I flew into LA on Saturday afternoon. As we were flying over the inland empire there was about a 6 minute stretch when we were absolutely 100% engulfed in smoke. It was an eery yellow color and even inside the plan you were almost overwhelmed by the smell of smoke.

This is the worst batch of fires that I've seen out here!
In Hollywood it was ashing yesterday and the smoke cover kept the temps down a bit.

The San Diego fires look like they are doing tons of damage to homes and whatnot.

Last I heard 13 people died! I don't remember people dying much from these kind of fires in the past, so that shows how bad they are.

I found a computer with internet usage for a while today, but its dialup! I hate dialup.!

We were up in the San Bernardino Mountains this weekend at Lake Arrowhead hanging out at my In laws vacation home on the lake. We came up Friday night, no traffic and the fires were way west of us so, we figured no problem, and we’ll have a last hurrah before I take the boat out for the season. Hwy 18 was wide open and despite all of the issues with hwy 215 being closed to the north of us, we left Orange County around 8:00PM and make it up to the lake in 75 minutes The winds were blowing from the Northwest we are east of everything so, the area was beautiful. Now, due to a four year drought and the infestation of the pine bark beetle I’d say 25% of the pine trees in the area are dead and are a huge danger to fire. We have been in the area for over 25 years and I have never seen it as bad as it is now. So, Saturday was beautiful; we stocked up on the customary food and booze steak feast and played for the day. When I took this picture we were thinking the plume of smoke behind us was from the Cucamonga fire so, no big deal we are fine, the weather is beautiful wish more friends were here. Tom and Mike in the pic are having lunch. Well, the smoke behind us was from an arson fire set in nearby Waterman Canyon. So, by 7PM Saturday night, the power’s out and we BBQue dinner by candlelight. Around 10PM I fire up a AM battery operated radio while playing cards by candle light and we find that nearby Crestline is on fire and be prepared for nearby areas to evacuate. We had to leave around midnight and crawl our way up to Big Bear and out the backside of the mountain. We could see the entire canyon with a wall of fire. Took us 4 hours to get home. The fires here in So Cal are the worst ever and let’s hope that there is an end to the destruction soon.

Really sad. Brian's parents live in newbury park, really close to Simi and Moorpark. They can't even breathe because of all the ash in the air. One of Brian's friends just evacuated his home yesterday. Houses were burning down a block away from where they were. I think we should start doing the rain dance and sacrificing virgins... Seriously, I hope this blows over soon. Be safe...

Jen