I’m not sure who all will be affected by these fires, but please stay safe; keep bags packed and ready in case you need to evacuate.
14 Likes
I happen to live about a mile from the ocean in San Pedro, California.
But for the last 32 years, I’ve driven out to Harbor Freeway towards downtown Los Angeles, where my work site is located.
So when I make it to work, I’m about 21 miles from home but only about 2 miles from at least one of the fires.
I’m pretty sure the air quality can get worse. But last night… Since I work second shift that goes from day to night, It was hard to imagine that the air quality could get much worse?
Out of the five primary fires, they are talking about in the area, The two largest fires they estimate to have caused approximately $60 billion so far and both of those larger fires are listed as 0% contained. And now they just said a Santa Ana generated wind will be moving in this afternoon at approximately 75 miles an hour. That’s just about the worst thing that could happen. The only thing worse being if the wind gets even higher.
Just a few minutes ago, the news reported that one of the fires is racing through the hills and getting close to the Mount Wilson, observatory and all the communication equipment that runs along the top ridges of the hills in the area.
Last night right about the same time, the news was reporting that just about every possible firefighter was working on the lines of one of the fires, another fire broke out in the laurel Canyon area up wind from universal Studios. And at the moment that fire broke out, the fire department had absolutely nobody to respond to that outbreak without pulling some of the people from the other fires, which is basically a logistical nightmare.
They told us yesterday around 5 PM that the entire LA unified school District would be shutting down for today. Normally, I would be at work from 1:30 PM till 10. So I’ll be getting ready for work right now to leave around a quarter to one. So here I am a mile from the beach and the air quality is so bad that the air purifiers I have in the house normally running at approximately 97 to 100%, are now registering 67 to 70% with the doors and windows of the house closed. I’ve never seen that before and I’ve worked with air purifiers for quite a long time. I have indoor cats and unfortunately, I just happen to be allergic to cats. So I have over the years, refined my knowledge and utilization of air quality management to what I would call an upper level of understanding. That being said, I’m having trouble understanding this. So it’s not the filters that are clogged with pet dander it’s the sensors in the air purifiers that are identifying the quality of the air more than the actual particulate level of the air. What I mean by that is simply that even if I didn’t have a single cat in the house and nobody was jumping around, stirring up any dust or anything the sensors still identify the contamination of the smoke laden air is being very unhealthy.
The sky is actually giving off a sort of a yellow haze. It doesn’t look apocalyptic because over the decades. I’ve certainly seen some pretty bad air just from local fires for example and they make a mess. But these fires, the closest one is over 20 miles away from me And it almost seems like if I didn’t know any better it would be a mile away.
Very few things in life faze me. My understanding has always been that getting excited does not improve the situation.
A certain mentally dense part of the population considers that the world revolves around them. When in reality, we basically all revolve around each other. There is an old saying that no man is a mountain. So on the one hand, I’m very happy, currently to at least be safe enough to talk about it.
But on the other hand, knowing and seeing that whole neighborhoods have been reduced to ashes, and some people have died in many people have lost everything but their lives.
The news people will say so many houses were lost, etc. but what a lot of people have trouble wrapping your heads around is not just the houses that are lost. It’s all their furniture and their images and their appliances and their toys and electronic devices and the list goes on of all the things That may have taken them years to accumulate In whatever they couldn’t grab when they got their evacuation notices was gone with a quickness.
When I was a kid and I was a big fire of some kind, which is harder to relate to when you’re a kid and maybe the fires 30 miles away or something like that. I remember that my mom used to say she felt sorry for all the animals and creatures in the wooded areas That get caught up in the flames or just fatal smoke inhalation. So the news in the insurance companies can calculate how many houses how many cars how many random structures how many whatever that partially or totally destroyed in a fire. But they can only vaguely guess at how many creatures get destroyed. I mean basically part of the ecosystem is being directly compromised by these fires and just sweep over everything.
Something many people don’t understand not that they have to because up to the point I’m telling you this they didn’t need to so to speak. But when there’s a fire sweeping over an area, it’s not just a fire that Willer can kill you. Fires literally suck the oxygen Out of an area as the progress in whatever direction, the wind blows. More people in animals die from either smoking, inhalation or lack of oxygen than actually being burned directly by flames.
and here I am, as I’m giving an unsolicited lecture on how fires work, a few people in other parts of the country are freezing your rear ends off. I have no doubt that getting frozen Has a very low score on a popularity scale.
Regardless, thanks Evan for posting up your concern about the situation. We’re dealing with over here. We will no doubt get over it like all the other nightmares we’ve had in California over the decades.
But that being said, even when this latest nightmare comes to an end. It won’t be over. Because considering the zero containment of the two biggest fires, There is no way to actually calculate how much more damage will be done?
Compounding the problem it seems that there’s a couple arsonists That have been playing with matches and the only thing worse than a major disaster like significant fires, Are the looters they are starting to catch, That are attempting to take advantage Of the situation
In several posts over the years, I have mentioned to you guys that the word hate should not be used to describe a good number of things because there are so many other words that can be used in its place. Like, I dislike something intensely… And other descriptive methods other than using the word hate. Hate is a word that should be reserved for things That are extremely lame.
I hate looters. I hate arsonists.
So even though I don’t like the word, I will make exceptions that I feel are justified.
Here are a few images from yesterday>
The first one is my view of Downtown Los Angeles on my way to work>
Next is the creepy yellow haze halo of the sky>
20 miles away, a mile from the beach, with the normal onshore breeze, the air quality ‘should’ be better, you would logically think. Sadly incirrect.
I have three indoor air purifiers. The sensors identify air purity from a chemistry point of view, and also identify the concentration of particulates within the air, regardless of whether they’re dangerous or not if they’re particulates, the device will indicate a lower percentage of efficiency.
Normally, I keep the efficiency at 95+. When it comes to Indoor air quality, I will pay whatever the maintenance fees are to keep these suckers that high efficiency.
So… In the house with all the doors and windows closed, except for a few louver windows in the kitchen to keep the compression down, the efficiency rating is at least 95 and identified with a blue ring. Yellow is medium efficiency red is do some quick. Clown, before you die!
So the first image, you can clearly see the blue ring and the hyper percentage of efficiency at that moment.
I decided to do a random efficiency test by changing only one factor and that factor alone
I open the front door halfway, but left the metal security door in place. It has a metal mesh with pin holes about An 8th inch in diameter. When I did this test, there wasn’t much air blowing outside in any direction. I waited 15 minutes. You’ll see in the second image with nothing else, but opening the door for 15 minutes the sensor identified the air that did come into the house so chemically contaminated that the ring dropped to red zone And the efficiency percentage dropped around 69 or 70 .
I’ve lived at this particular address since 1989. I only started using the air cleaners in the last 10 or 15 years thereabouts. I have never seen such a dramatic drop in purifier efficiency as the one I did yesterday.
I can’t even imagine how the people are breathing without oxygen tanks less than 25 miles away from my house?
It’s pretty obvious that in only 15 minutes with no sensation of air coming into the house enough came in about 30 feet back to the China hutch where the air purifier is in the living room and drop the value of the air quality by approximately 25%.
So basically yesterday when I was in downtown LA, I was essentially a human air purifier and I’m sure if I had a color ring on my forehead. It probably would’ve been dark red and my ears probably would’ve been flashing.
So the district sent me an email and told me that the entire school district will be closed tomorrow too.
Personally, I’m extremely lucky and fortunate to live so far away from Ground Zero. But that’s a little consolation considering 90% of the people I know are much closer or immersed right in the mess that’s going on right now.
What a mess….
11 Likes
Thanks for writing this up, Doc.
I used to live in California, for about 10 years. I was born in Sylmar, and moved to Santa Clarita when I was 6. so naturally, I heard about a fire or two.
we were fortunate enough never to be harmed by these fires, I remember a time as a kid packing my Backpack with my things in case we needed to evacuate, but that’s all I remember, I was very young during this time.
I was going to tell more about this time, but I realized there were too many inconsistencies in my memory to be reliable.
if it means anything to anyone, I will be praying.
4 Likes
So far (FINGERS CROSSED 
) the fire isn’t too close to my house, I am glad to see these Santa Anna winds die down so that air support can help us out. Im safe and evacuated in Pasadena thankfully!
6 Likes
Fortunately for me these fires are not near me but as someone who lives in Northern California this is the case all too often. It’s truly hard to grasp the gravity of a wildfire until you have experienced it firsthand. I have been lucky enough not to have lost a home but I’ve had countless close friends that have, I’ve also had a couple I’ve very close calls with family cabins and my grandparents house. It seems like every year there is one major fire in my area if not more and unfortunately many of them set records for largest and most deadly in state or even nation history. The camp fire, Dixie fire and most recently the park fire and just a few examples. I will never forget the morning of November 8th 2018 when a black cloud rose out of the foothills just some 20 miles outside the town where I live, we wouldn’t see the sun for another week. The entire sky was blackish orange and we needed light indoors at all times. Many of my friends lost homes in that fire and those of us who didn’t served in evacuation shelters at local churches and gyms.
A few months ago the park fire started less than 10 miles from my house but with Gods provision the wind was blowing the other way.
My thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted right now either directly or indirectly.
Hang in there and God bless.
P.S. here is a picture of the smoke plume from the park fire this past July. This of from my work much further south after it had exploded up into the foothills. The photo doesn’t do justice but it provides a bit of the picture
This first picture was at 8:46 am and the second was at 12:09 pm. Just show how fast they can explode.
@JosiahR
Where exactly in California is this picture at?
From outside a small farm town call Richvale just south of Chico.
Here is roughly where is is in the map
1 Like
Is your yoyo collection insured or self-insured?
Have you ever digitally documented the collection for an insurance claim purpose?
Be Well~
2 Likes
An Old Friend in California Lost Their House and Belongings in The Fire Yesterday.
“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
4 Likes
Have been hearing and seeing some really awful stuff in the news, I know it doesn’t help a whole lot, but I am keeping my thoughts and heart on everyone out there affected…
2 Likes
This is coming from someone volunteering at multiple altadena/pasadena relief centers, but if anyone is financially able it really goes a long way to donate anything you can.
3 Likes
3 Likes