Fire!

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

[Flatpoint High]

The Academy steps up: https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-os ... 4bc8721cc5

Yeah, this is tragic, but we are all coming together. Even driving home the other night, motorists were being very considerate of each other, which is unusual for Los Angeles.”

Wow. Can LA teach that skill set to Floridians? Please?

Need a book of matches?

FL is beyond help.

[RTH10260]

‘Running to danger and saving lives’: 1,100 incarcerated firefighters are on the LA frontlines
The jobs are highly coveted, offering training and reduced sentences, but face criticism over low wages

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Wed 15 Jan 2025 16.00 CET

As firefighters are battling multiple huge blazes tearing through Los Angeles, California’s prisons have deployed more than 1,000 incarcerated people to battle on the frontlines.

The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said that, as of Wednesday morning, 1,116 incarcerated people were embedded with the state’s other firefighters to help slow the spread of the infernos that have killed at least 25 people and devastated neighborhoods across LA county.

More than 20 incarcerated crews have been deployed over the last week, dressed in orange uniforms and working in perilous conditions. They primarily use hand tools to cut fire lines and remove fuel by structures.

Some on the frontlines are incarcerated youth aged 18 to 25. A CDCR spokesperson said 55 youth participants had been deployed to LA as of Monday, but the numbers have fluctuated daily. The Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a non-profit that supports participants with re-entry, has been fundraising for 30 imprisoned youth on the frontlines.

California is one of at least 14 states with incarcerated firefighter programs, according to the ACLU. Participants in California are serving state prison sentences and housed at minimum-security facilities called fire camps, where they train as first responders and provide services during fire emergencies and other natural disasters.

The jobs are voluntary and highly coveted, as participants get to leave the traditional prison environment, get meaningful training and get their sentences shortened in exchange for service.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... rs-prisons

[Maybenaut]

Back in the 1980s my husband and I were in a restaurant in California and a busload of incarcerated firefighters showed up. You would’ve thought it was just a large group of firefighters if it weren’t for the four guys with shotguns.

[Flatpoint High]

https://globalnews.ca/news/10958463/los ... arsonists/

[Volkonski]

[Volkonski]

From "Two Years Before the Mast". The events in TYBM happened in 1834-1836.

Describing Santa Barbara CA-

The town is certainly finely situated, with a bay in front, and an amphitheatre of hills behind. The only thing which diminishes its beauty is, that the hills have no large trees upon them, they having been all burnt by a great fire which swept them off about a dozen years before, and they had not yet grown up again. The fire was described to me by an inhabitant, as having been a very terrible and magnificent sight. The air of the whole valley was so heated that the people were obliged to leave the town and take up their quarters for several days upon the beach.

[poplove]

[Estiveo]

Just over the hill from me. A Tesla operation. Second time it's caught fire in the last couple of years.

If you ever find yourself in Moss Landing and feeling hungry, right across Hwy 1 from the power plant, at the entrance to the harbor, is the Whole Enchilada; fresh seafood, great Mexican food, excellent margaritas.

[Estiveo]

Estiveo_20250116_210241.jpg

[sterngard friegen]

Hello everyone. I am safe. Thank you for your concerns. My house in the Santa Monica Mountains near Monte Nido is safe. One door down from me there is still a roadblock, manned by the CHP, and if I were two doors away I still wouldn't be able to get back into my house.

Every day I bring fast food breakfast sandwiches and orange juice to the first responders down the street and in my neighborhood. They already have lots of hot coffee. It has been bone chilling cold here (for Southern California). At my house yesterday it was 35 degrees F; at the park where I walk it was 29! The winds were terrible and very dry, but they usually blew the fire away from me. Sometimes they swirled, but my house was about 1.5 miles from danger and never really threatened. I was at my close friends' horse ranch in north west Malibu (scene of the Woolsey Fire in 2018) and was safe. We jury-rigged a generator and had electricity. I cooked steaks on their propane-fueled barbecue. We watched television in horror as all the neighborhoods we knew so well had mostly totallydestroyed homes and the businesses had become ashes.

I grew up in Pacific Palisadses. My parents' house, in the Riviera section is, I believe, still standing. The house I owned on Via de la Paz, one block north of Sunset, is gone. I sold it in 1988 to move to Hidden Hills. My rental houses, on Haverford near the High School, and Sabbiadoro Way in the Castelmarre section of the Palisades are gone.

The High School is badly damaged. I was in the first Summer graduating class (1963).

I am still practicing law (one day I'll get it right and I won't have to practice any more), specializing in real estate and, of all things, wildfire litigation. There is no deep pocket defendant in the Palisades Fire, but Edison is responsible for at least two other devastating fires in Los Angeles, so I will be busy for at least another 4 years, probably longer.

I will visit back here in a few days, so ask questions if you have them.

[bill_g]

:like:

[June bug]

❤️ I’m so glad you’re ok, Stern, and that your home is too. ❤️

:bighug: Take care and please do keep us up to date. :bighug:

[Maybenaut]

So glad you’re safe! As to the rest of it, well, there are no words.

[johnpcapitalist]

Hello everyone. I am safe. Thank you for your concerns. My house in the Santa Monica Mountains near Monte Nido is safe. One door down from me there is still a roadblock, manned by the CHP, and if I were two doors away I still wouldn't be able to get back into my house.

Great to hear back from you. Glad you're OK.

I grew up in LA and know firsthand how scary the fires can be. We lived in the hills, one street down from the top of a small canyon. Every couple of years, fires would come over the ridge and start burning down towards us. Fortunately, the local fire department was always able to contain them. Every few years, when miles of the front range in the Angeles National Forest would catch on fire, we could see the wall of flames from the front yard and choke on the smog from the burning vegetation.

One time, about ten years after I moved out, the fire burned down to the back fence of the houses right above ours. The FD said that if the fire jumped the fences and took those houses, they'd have to fall back to the main feeder road, about a half mile below, and they gave the evacuation order. The parental units grabbed the important stuff they could, threw it in the minivan and headed out. They were allowed back later that night, but my mom had had enough. They listed the house for sale the next week and moved to an area in the Pacific Northwest with minimal fire danger.

When I was starting my career in Northern California, I had a number of colleagues whose houses were lost in the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, which took about 3,300 houses (with the flames turbocharged by exploding eucalyptus trees, like in LA). That was devastating enough, but still only a fraction of the destruction in LA.

The point of the above is that I empathize completely from the perspective of someone who's been there. Hang tough!

[neonzx]

https://fireaidla.org/

https://fireaidla.org/wp-content/upload ... 24x576.jpg

[Volkonski]

❤️ I’m so glad you’re ok, Stern, and that your home is too. ❤️

:bighug: Take care and please do keep us up to date. :bighug:

:yeahthat: :thumbsup:

[Volkonski]

Residents ordered to evacuate after fire breaks out at a power plant in Central California

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/17/us/evacu ... index.html

Fire crews were battling the blaze at the Moss Landing Power Plant, which serves as a battery storage site, a spokesperson for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office told CNN.

The incident is not connected to the wildfires in the Los Angeles area, and efforts to contain the blaze are ongoing, Sheriff’s Commander Andres Rosas confirmed.

The fire erupted at the facility around 3 p.m., and evacuation orders were issued around 6:30 p.m. due to concerns over hazardous materials and potential chemical releases, Rosas said without detailing which materials were causing concern. More than 2,000 people were told to evacuate.

CNN reached out to the North County Fire Protection District of Monterey for details.

Santa Cruz County Public Health officials on Friday said they were continuing to monitor the Moss Landing fire and local air quality. “At this time, no imminent significant threat exists and people may resume normal activities,” they said on X. Santa Cruz is north of Monterey.

Vistra Energy, which owns the plant, branded the facility as the “largest of its kind in the world,” boasting a capacity of 750 megawatts and 3,000 megawatt-hours following its 2023 expansion. It plays a critical role in stabilizing California’s energy grid, the company said.

The sheriff’s office deployed drones to assess the severity of the situation and monitor air quality, Monterey County spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli told CNN. Emergency services, including sheriff’s deputies and medical teams, were fully mobilized, Pasculli added.

The fire is active with no suppression efforts underway, and firefighters believe the best course of action is to allow it to burn, said Rosas with the sheriff’s office. Drone footage revealed approximately 40% of the building housing lithium-ion batteries on the property has been consumed by flames, the spokesperson said.

[neonzx]

L.A.’s Comeback Delayed by Toxic Fumes From Burning Teslas

https://www.thedailybeast.com/toxic-fum ... wildfires/


https://www.thedailybeast.com/resizer/v ... height=450

Mike Blake/Mike Blake/REUTERS
Toxic fumes released by Tesla vehicles and other electric cars which have burned in the devastating Los Angeles wildfires are hindering cleanup efforts in the area. Jacqui Irwin, a state assembly member representing the Pacific Palisades, told Bloomberg that many of the cars in the evacuation zone have lithium batteries which require special removal. When burned, they release harmful gases and toxic chemicals which can cause severe health issues such as lung and eye damage and skin burns. “We’ve heard from firefighters that those lithium batteries burned fires near homes—like those with power walls—for much longer.” Fire victims will have to wait longer to return to their properties, the publication reported. Lithium battery fires can take up to 40 times longer to extinguish than standard car fires, The Conversation reported. The ferocious wind-fueled wildfires which erupted in Los Angeles have claimed the lives of at least 27 people, forced thousands of resident to flee, and have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage so far. The cause of the fires remain unknown.

[poplove]

This is a long post from Hidden Los Angeles on facebook but worth sharing. I follow them because I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, along with a few other Fogbowers.

► Show Spoiler

Michael Colleary
January 11

Dear FB Friends - I have received many messages and emails particularly from friends and family on the East Coast, asking after our safety. A million thanks for your care and concern.

At the moment we are fine, although our neighborhood is now within sight of the Palisades fire which overnight spread to Brentwood. Shan is packing her clothes. I have to go inside and get my 94-year old mother - already evacuated once with just the clothes on her back - up and ready to go should we be ordered to leave.

In this lull I'd like to address a few questions I have been asked repeatedly, particularly about fire hydrants and firefighting crews and LA's overall response to the fires.

As shocking and overwhelming and devastating as this has been for so many thousands and thousands of people - my sister and brother-in-law lost their home; his niece and nephew both lost homes in separate fire areas - it is excruciating to hear the imbecilic lies and blaming and appalling gibberish about how DEI and budget cuts somehow caused or contributed to this absolutely apocalyptic disaster.

Because what has happened here is much closer to a volcanic eruption than a runaway brush fire.

Let me try to provide a little perspective for those who don't live in LA.
The Palisades fire began as a wilderness brush fire at 10:30AM on January 7th.
Brush fires are common here. They are part of our ecosystem, in fact. We have a fire season. But this time, the fire started when LA was being hit by Santa Ana Winds that blow in from the Mojave Desert far to the east.

These are harsh, dry winds that suck all the moisture out of the atmosphere. (Not that there was much moisture, as we have been in a prolonged drought.)
These winds were particularly strong. Hurricane-force, in fact. Blowing 80-100mph through those canyons.

And when those oxygen-rich winds hit burning scrub and chaparral - dense, desiccated, and filled with oily tree sap - it doesn’t just spread flames. It explodes.

What results is a hurricane that, instead of rain, is composed of fire. Sheets of flames, 20-30 feet tall, hurling plumes of embers in funnels 50-60 feet high - launching them for miles ahead of the flames themselves.

Any one of these embers - as small as a toenail - can start a blaze that will consume a house, a neighborhood, a town. And this fire was shedding billions and billions of them.

This time - unlike so many past fires - they didn't just consume the rolling scrublands that surround LA.

This time, the winds - as fast as a race car - pushed that firestorm down out of the hills, into Pacific Palisades.

Meantime, an entirely different fire erupted on the east side of LA, likely caused when the high-winds knocked down power-lines. This fire - the Eaton fire - soon spread into the residential town of Altadena, in the foothills above Pasadena.

By 10:30AM on January 8th - 24 hours after it started - the Palisades fire had burned 12,000 acres and hundreds of structures.

Even the superhuman efforts of LA fire crews - the best-trained and most experienced in the world - to contain it, let alone extinguish it, are no match for that scale of inferno. And they were facing down TWO massive fire events.

The only chance to even slow down these fires was thwarted -because air tankers and water-hauling helicopters can’t fly in 80-100 mph winds.

So, to recap: 24 hours, 12,000 acres burned.

For my New York friends: Central Park is 850 acres. So, imagine a firestorm that incinerates 14 Central Parks in 24 hours. Or more to the point perhaps, imagine a firestorm that blows through Central Park, incinerating every blade of grass FOURTEEN TIMES in 24 hours.

For my NJ friends: our hometown of Montclair gets off a little easier. At 4000 acres, it would have been reduced to ash only THREE times in 24 hours.
Imagine every building in Montclair being incinerated in one night. Imagine every single resident of Montclair becoming homeless in one night. Imagine the violent energy required for that to happen. Because it did, here, in the Palisades, 3 times over.

And remember - the Palisades firestorm is only one of the massive fires burning here. The Eaton fire has burned 14,000 acres on the eastern edge of LA, destroying Altadena and leaving more thousands homeless. Itself, a staggering disaster.

It's almost a week now, and the fires are still burning. As of this minute, the destruction is reported to be 40,000 acres. If true, that's bigger than San Francisco (thankfully most of it is - for the moment - in remote canyons teeming with scrub foliage; yes, LA is that huge).

So, I hope you see the scale of this a little more clearly. It is as close to a war zone as I ever hope to see in the USA.

I hope you understand that no city, no county, no state, no country on the planet would or could be prepared and equipped to confront what's happened here.
Blaming the mayor and the governor for this is like blaming Rudy Giuliani for 9/11. The on-going lies are absurd, shameful, and an inexcusable distraction from the tragedy all around us.

Example: among the first to distort the reality of this catastrophe was a billionaire who accused city leaders of incompetence because city fire hydrants were inadequate to fight a firestorm, "forcing" him to hire a private fire-fighting team.
So what did this hero save first? Homes? Palisades High School? Corpus Christi Catholic Church? The library?

No. He let all that burn down to save the generic, medical-bungalow-quality strip mall that he had stuck into the middle of Palisades Village a couple of years ago.
Sure, all the supermarkets are gone, but at least the 10 people whose homes weren't destroyed can take comfort knowing the Yves St. Laurent store will be ready and waiting for them.

Instead, we should be lauding a real hero - whoever made the always-unpopular decision to evacuate from a potential fire zone. Because whoever made that call likely saved the lives of 100s if not 1000s of Palisades residents had they been at home to "wait and see" through that first terrible night.

Friends, I know there's not much you can do from far away - aside from donate to the Red Cross, etc.

But I humbly ask that - if you hear someone spreading the all-too prevalent lies being spewed for political score-settling - tell that person - from me - to STFU.
Tell them that they are as despicable as looters and gougers, exploiting agony and catastrophe for their own chickenshit profit. And they are not experts in anything other than embarrassing themselves.

And if you happen to see Megyn Kelly, ask her - should her house be on fire - would she refuse help from an "obese lesbian" firefighter?

I think we all know the answer.

Apologies for the long post.

Thanks for listening.

[Whatever4]

How can anything made of wood survive this?

[Maybenaut]

It can’t. The only reason we didn’t lose our home and cabin this spring is because the winds had died down considerably by the time the fire got here. So the fire was mainly restricted to ground cover, which was cleared from around everything but the barn and septic system, both of which were lost. Lesson learned. We’re expanding and hardening the perimeters around everything.

[Maybenaut]

Also, just learned that a cousin and his gf lost their home in the Palisades fire.

[John Thomas8]