The National Guard have descended upon Southern California to help put out over a dozen wildfires burning uncontrollably for the third straight day. The air quality around here is nasty-- I'm having trouble breathing and my eyes are burning. But thank heavens I'm not in San Diego County or Big Bear where those poor people have it much worse.
Quote:
California's Wind-Driven Wildfires Char 356,000 Acres
By Peter J. Brennan
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sought help from other states as wind-fueled fires burned 356,000 acres (142,400 hectares) across Southern California, consuming hundreds of houses, killing two people and uprooting more than a quarter- million more.
About 68,500 homes and 2,200 businesses are threatened by fires, and 321,000 residents have fled, Rochelle Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the state's emergency response team, said in an interview today.
"I'm heartbroken to see those things," Schwarzenegger said in a news conference after touring burned houses in San Diego. "These are people that have saved all their lives to pay for those homes. We have to do everything we can to help these people."
More than 6,000 firefighters backed by helicopters, bulldozers and water-laden aircraft are battling 15 wildfires in seven counties, from San Diego north to Malibu, outside Los Angeles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in California, vowed to travel to the area Oct. 25 and sent Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator David Paulison to San Diego today.
And now the fires seem to be heading for Mexico:
Quote:
Mexican border on alert as U.S. wildfires rage
Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:37pm EDT
By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Southern California's raging wildfires threatened to spread across the frontier with Mexico on Tuesday and small blazes broke out on parched Mexican ranches and along the border.
Firefighters in the border city of Tecate tried to control fires fanned by hot, dry Santa Ana winds that sent up black smoke and covered houses and cars with gray ash.
Several fires also burned on the outskirts of the Mexican city of Tijuana, just 20 miles (32 km) from San Diego.
Wildfires across Southern California burned for a third day, with 300,000 people in San Diego evacuated as flames destroyed 1,000 houses in San Diego County.
Tijuana remained virtually closed for a second day as ash from the California fires cloaked streets and residents walked around with paper masks over their mouths.
"We'll be in contact with our U.S. counterparts to deal with this, but for the time being we don't see the fires coming into Mexico," said Jose Luis Rosas of Mexico's Baja California state rescue agency.
Dozens of families were evacuated from their homes in Tecate and the winds knocked over power lines in poor neighborhoods of Tijuana, leaving thousands without electricity.
The world's busiest land border crossing between Tijuana and San Diego remained open.
Southern California is in the midst of its driest year on record after rainfall just a fifth of average levels, while rain has been equally scarce in northwestern Mexico.
Deborah
Poor SoCal! (And now Mexico.) We in the SF Bay Area have our fingers crossed that the fire season will go easy on us this year. Fortunately, we had a couple of days of rain last week, which should help a bit.
Elaine
Good news-- the fierce Santa Ana winds have died down and several fires (Santa Barbara, Santa Rosa, Big Bear, Ontario, etc.) have been contained. It's an unseasonably hot and very very dry 95 degrees right now, but it's supposed to cool down within the next couple of days and the humidy's supposed to rise, which will help the firefighters greatly.
Uriel
You should see the BBC's coverage of those fires -- you'd think they never saw a wildfire before! (Well, seriously, maybe they haven't -- it's a pretty damp country.) I remember every year came with a fire season when I lived in Northern California -- you would pass scorched areas on the road, and see the helicopters flying low to refill their water buckets out of the creeks. Every summer, when the grass was bone-dry and the lightning storms started up.
Last year, I think it was, when California was burning, there were a few days even here in NM where the skies became hazy and the sun turned red and the sunsets were even more spectacular -- smoke from two states away, high up in the atmosphere. Now, though, you can see the smoke plumes from the weather satellites blowing away across the Pacific.
greg in noord-frankrijk
Elaine wrote:
It's an unseasonably hot and very very dry 95 degrees right now, but it's supposed to cool down within the next couple of days and the humidy's supposed to rise, which will help the firefighters greatly.
Fortunately ! Do you know if those fires were caused by arsonists or is it just bad luck ?
Uriel
Usually they are completely natural -- caused by lightning striking dry chaparral (grassland). Most of California's ecology is fire-adapted -- fire is part of the natural cycle there.
Despite the apparent devastation after a wildland fire, fire is essential to the health of most ecosystems in California for several reasons. First, in chaparral and closed-cone conifer communities, the seeds need fire to germinate. Second, fires clear the forest of underbrush, leaving ash and opening the forest floor up to sunlight. The resulting grasses, herbs, and regenerated shrubs provide food for many wildlife species. Third, where the ground has a deep accumulation of fallen branches and dry litter, fires reduce this debris and supply nutrients to the soil. Periodic bums in an area help use up the fuel, which means that successive fire is less intense and less destructive than when fires are suppressed and plant debris accumulates. Last, but not of least importance, when fire removes a thick stand of shrubs, the water supply is increased. With fewer plants absorbing water, streams are fuller, benefitting other types of plants and animals.
Elaine
greg in noord-frankrijk wrote:
Do you know if those fires were caused by arsonists or is it just bad luck ?
The Orange County Fire is believed to have been caused by (an) arsonist(s). The Santa Clarita-Agua Dulce fire was started by a boy playing with matches.
Quote:
Boy started blaze, L.A. County says
By Andrew Blankstein and Jean-Paul Renaud
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 31, 2007
A fire that charred more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County last week was sparked by a boy playing with matches, sheriff's officials said Tuesday.
The disclosure about the Buckweed fire, initially blamed on downed power lines, came as firefighters continued to push forward in containing the region's blazes and as health officials announced that strenuous outdoor exercise was no longer hazardous in most of Southern California. Authorities in all seven counties struck by the fires said air quality had improved significantly.
L.A. County Sheriff's Department arson investigators did not name the boy believed responsible for the Buckweed fire. Nor did they give his age or the community where he and his family live.
"We have identified a juvenile boy as the person who started the fire," said Steve Whitmore, a department spokesman. "Arson investigators interviewed the young man, and he acknowledged he had been playing with matches and accidentally started a fire."
The boy was released to the custody of his parents. The case has been turned over to the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. The only other information Whitmore provided was that investigators concluded the fire was sparked by an individual the day after it began but that it took more time to link the blaze to the boy.
The fire broke out the afternoon of Oct. 21 in the 11700 block of West Mint Canyon Road in Agua Dulce, an unincorporated area northeast of Santa Clarita in northern Los Angeles County. Fanned by powerful Santa Ana winds, the fire roared south, eventually threatening homes in numerous subdivisions in the Santa Clarita area.
At its height, the blaze forced more than 15,000 people from their homes and was battled by 1,200 firefighters. It was contained Oct. 24.
Deborah
I just heard from an old friend of mine, with whom I'd gotten out of touch the last few years. I sent an email to her last known address to see how she was after I learned that the Witch fire near San Diego was near her town, and that all the residents had been evacuated. In 2003, just after she and her husband and kids moved there, there was a wild fire that stopped right at her fence.
Today I got an answer from her. She's fine, and the house is also OK, though the fire came pretty close. She said that because of the last wildfire, there wasn't much underbrush left to fuel this year's fire, so the flames didn't get up to 40 feet high, like they did before. But lots of homes were burned on another side of the town, since it had lots of underbrush that wasn't burned in the previous fire.
The only problem they had was not having water for several days when they got back to their house.
I thought the San Francisco Bay Aread was out of danger of fire for the year. But this weekend, the weather turned very warm again and is supposed to stay that way for the rest of the week, so we're not out of the woods yet.
The Santa Clarita-Agua Dulce fire was started by a boy playing with matches.
