AP News cottons onto the local website/bulletin board news sources and interviews Joe Urbz, Scott Straley of RimoftheWorld.net and Ranger Al of fireupdate.com. (AP photographer catches Joe Urbz in action)
AP News cottons onto the local website/bulletin board news sources and interviews Joe Urbz, Scott Straley of RimoftheWorld.net and Ranger Al of fireupdate.com. (AP photographer catches Joe Urbz in action)
Dave at Ztuff asks, and then posts when John Krist at the Ventura County Star answers.
In some coastal counties of Central and Southern California, the change has been particularly dramatic. In Ventura County, for example, what the researchers refer to as the "fire rotation interval" -- the time it takes wildfires to burn acreage equivalent to the entire brush-covered area of the county -- dropped from 121 years before 1950 to just 34 after. In Riverside County, the interval fell from 225 years to 38.When fires occur more frequently than before, several things happen, Davis said. In some cases, fire may sweep through an area so soon after the previous blaze that the most recent crop of chaparral plants has not yet matured enough to produce seeds, preventing regeneration.
AP: Wildfires near containment
All fires were expected to be surrounded by Tuesday, if not as early as Monday evening, Tuttle said.Efforts were rapidly turning to preventing mudslides and flooding. [ It's gonna be one of *those* winters.]
The 91,000-acre Old Fire, the last of the blazes to threaten communities, was 83 percent contained as it smoldered in forest atop the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles.
Elsewhere, San Diego County's 280,000-plus-acre Cedar Fire was at 99 percent containment, while the 56,700-acre Paradise Fire was at 75 percent; San Bernardino County's Grand Prix Fire was at 97 percent after burning more than 59,000 acres; and the 64,000-acre Piru Fire in Ventura County was 85 percent surrounded.
San Bernardino Sun: Wildfire-ravaged hillsides could spawn mudslides; Evacuees return to find heart-wrenching scenes
pe.com (reg required) Bush visit won't include Inland (he had just been inland for a visit before the fires)
93 pictures of Cedar Glen Area after fire. (Source of pictures Yahoo.com, ABC news, CBS, AP etc.)
Also, from Bruce Holms in San Bernardino county, a site filled with photos of the fire.
What with some active fire still happening in Crab Flats (the Old Fire info site reports active fire in Crab Flats last night), it's not totally over. (Crab flats is not far from Green Valley Lake where our family cabin is) Doing a quick skim of the message boards. Discussion of helper volunteers to turn off the water at various places. Glad our family began instituting it as a custom even in summertime.
I was able to get into Green Valley Lake with my brother who is a fireman. This allowed us to get in long enough to drain the pipes and the water heater in our very old cabin. There is no power to the entire community. (Which most of you already know.) It is pretty much a ghost town, except for the firemen that we saw. Observed the helicoptors "sucking" water from Green Valley Lake, but then clowd cover came in and they stopped. As far as we could see, the fire has not reached Green Valley Lake. A very special thanks to my new hero, Rick Mull. Thanks for turning off our water before we got there. Thanks for all of the fire fighters who stood by in the cold to defend our community. And thanks to my little bro, who, after fighting the fires down in San Diego (with a few close calls) managed to get us into GVL so we could winterize, on his much needed day off.
Message from the Depot (storekeeper in Running Springs)
When I came up 18 today there was again major activity as SCE was working diligently to get electricity back. Coming down 330 there must have been 30 SCE trucks as well as several cranes endeavoring to get us back up. Also, my assistant manager in Crestline reported that she has seen several residents of Crestline return to the mountain with an orange 4 hour pass via 138. I had her check with the Sheriff and she was told tentatively that the plan was to open some of the mountain to residents at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. I am attempting to verify.
And from the GVL Fire Department:
From: Green Valley Lake Fire Department
Sent: Sunday, November 2, 2003 09:06 AM
We have driven around a good portion of the community this morning all appears safe and sound at this time, no water leaks that we can tell at this time and no foot prints in the snow :-). Hope you all are very well. See you soon.~All of us at GVL FD
From: Green Valley Lake Fire Department
Sent: Saturday, November 1, 2003 05:44 PM
Hello all
I hope this note finds you all well, as I sit here enjoying one of the very few hot meals we have had in the past week. As to some of the fire issues, no structures have been lost in the GVL coverage area. The rumor about Camp Cedar Crest buring down is also, just a rumor not true. Today actions included strike teams of type 3 engines, cutting hand lines and dozer lines between Green Valley Lake, Trails End, and other areas from the smoldering fire front. Todays weather has aided in the effort and the crew have taken advantage of the weather to get well established lines around the fire.The fire is still moving slowly East, but is only buring the lightest ground fuels. All the containment lines are more than holding the fire from progressing any closer to GVL or Trails End.
As to all the water shut off requests, I have put a call into Rick M. to see how he wants to handle the masses of requests and we will assist as we can with shutting water off as Rick needs us to. Today has been the first full day of rest for the GVL fire crew since the old fire started. And everyone is getting rest, several have gone down the hill to spend the evening with their wives.
We have not recieved any concrete word as to when you can all return home. We have heard everything from 1 to 3-weeks and I cannot comment on that because no date has been set yet.
As far as power being restored, once again we have heard 1 week to 3 weeks. There is no concrete decisions to our knowledge in these two areas.
We hope you will all be able to come home soon, however, I know that the danger must be "completely" gone before you all will be allowed to return.
God bless you all, thank you for all your thoughts and prayers.
~Your Firefighters at Station 129
I'd search for more highlights, but I gotta go help someone get ready for an early am meeting deadline.
Joe Urbaszewski (aka Joe Urbz), whose blog has been an unceasing source of quality local information about the fires in the San Bernardino mountains, is temporarily homeless (his house didn't burn down, but it'll be a while before he can get back to it).
In the meantime, he's moving to a place that requires an extra $150 to set up DSL. What with additional expenses of being temporarily displaced and loss of one income (he works at Rim of the World High School), his budget can't stretch to cover the DSL bill.
But heck. This is the blogosphere. He's been contributing greatly to it, and I think we oughtta give back.
I looked into how PayPal works (you can pay anyone who has an email address).
So, if you've got a paypal account, send a contribution to him at this email address:
joseph [dot] urbaszewski [at] verizon [dot] net
(reconstruct the address taking out spaces and putting . and @ where they need to be. I wanna send him funds, not spam!)
I wrote Joe and asked if this would be okay with him. Here's his reply (date: 10/31).
Wow, thank you for your thoughts of generosity.I did not lose my home just yet. It is sitting in Twin Peaks, but by the time we get back to it (to live in it), it will be a while. In the mean time, I have to get my family back on track via insurance (housing and pet housing) and no income from me (My wife's income is half of what we budget). That is the hard part; we lose my income, being I work at the high school.
I am looking into other alternatives to find a high speed line; however, I do have my two kids to look after (with not being in school for at least two weeks).
I am very moved that you would offer something like this. I do want to
continue working on the site. I think there will be MORE news for residents (bad, good, and procedural) to look up on the web during the clean up. Today, it is hitting me hard... I feel it inside.
I was never looking for money; but I know I should continue the blog. I will accept your wonderful offer. Thank you so much and I will do the bloggers proud. :-) If the fund goes over any needs for DSL, I will donate it to those I know in need, if that is ok.
Yes, he's done the bloggers proud already. :-) And as far as I'm concerned, I'd be thrilled if the blogosphere helped out with *more* than just his DSL expenses!
"Who would think you'd have to fight fire in 40-degree temperatures and fog?" Fremont Battalion Chief Mark Neveau asked. "You get lulled into a false sense of security." His strike team of five Bay Area fire engine crews barely beat back an attack early Friday...."This is still a dangerous period because we don't want to fall into a false, relaxed mode," U. S. Forest Service Public Information Officer Ron DeHart said from the Southern Operations headquarters in Riverside. "There's a lot of fire still out there. We don't want people to get the impression that simply because we've had some rain that this is behind us." ... Firefighters [in Running Springs, who couldn't see squat on Thursday night] said they knew the fire was lurking -- but they didn't always know just where.
"It's between Running Springs and Arrowbear, somewhere on the hillside," said Arrowbear Lake Fire Department Chief Seth Burt. "And with this weather, it's hard to tell exactly where it is."
His best guess, he said, is that the flames are a half-mile to a mile away from the 900-home community of Arrowbear Lake.
He expects the fire to take at least two days to reach town. But if the wind kicks up, it could reach town in as little as 30 to 60 minutes, he cautioned. "Don't let the snow fool you," he warned. [emphasis mine]
Santa Ana winds are predicted for monday and tuesday. yikes.
Hesitation is a fatal mistake. Stories of those who managed to escape the San Diego fire... and those who didn't.
He won perilous fight to save family home. The story of John Lucas, former hotshot firefighter for forest service, who planned for fire, and stayed and fought it. He saved most of the buildings of his home in Cedar Glen (surrounding ones- gone). [via Daniel Weintraub's California Insider who's touching on the Sacramento/political aspects of the fire.]
Old Fire info New fire map as of 10/31. Weather report there states that santa ana winds are expected to return.
At the moment, RimoftheWorld.net is experiencing some bulletin board snafus (those dratted php parse errors gotta be chased down), prolly will be a bit before it's up again. In the meantime, for those in nearby un-burnt areas, the Wildlife Migration snippet is worth looking at for the way that fire affects "evacuating" lions, tigers, and bears, oh my.
Wildfires reduce the food sources available to wild animals. These animals are likely to migrate to unburned areas or areas with food supplies. After the Williams Fire in 2002, Mt. Baldy residents experienced a significant increase in their local Coyote, Bear, and Big Horn Sheep population.Okay, make that Coyote, Bighorn and Bears, oh my.
A snippet from Joe Urbz's blog worth quoting
We just got back from the evacuation center at SB airport. A firefighter told us that One night this past week (I think he said Wed.) there were sixty fire trucks with seven firefighters on each truck that stood down the fire at Yosemite and park. We can’t find park on our map (does any one know where that is?) Any way, the story was amazing, this is the stuff legends are made of. He said you could walk down Yosemite on the tops of fire trucks. The way he described the commitment and determination of those firefighters gave me chills up my spine and brought tears to my eyes. It’s the same feeling as when I watch an extraordinarily courageous and selfless act of courage in a war movie. I don’t think any of us can ever appreciate these firefighters as much as they deserve. So, the big news is that they stopped the fire from crossing Yosemite. Any one in that area (like us, we live on Sequoia right at Yosemite) can rest easy tonight knowing that these firefighters saved our homes, at least for now. I thought you would like to know. [Ken & Heather
(I'll have more on Joe Urbz in a separate post - he's moving this weekend and his net connection needs will be changing.)
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