CA SHTF: Orange County Fire

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Black Majik

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I just wanted to make this post to see how the people in OC, CA are holding up with the fire spreading across Corona into Anaheim Hills, and it looks to be spreading even more.

I woke up this morning to a real heavy yellow tint thru my window, and to my surprise it looked like a volcano was about to errupt. Ash all over our cars, heavy smell of smoke, and the air was quite dirty and smokey.

I'm located in Villa Park, which is right next to Anaheim Hills, and the winds and fire is supposedly heading my direction. So far, no evacuations yet, but my baby sister just got evacuated from her school. From what I hear people are being evacuated to Villa Park High School and Canyon High. Anaheim Hills Elementary school was also evacuated this morning.

Even from Lake Forest (about 30 miles away) I could see the smoke billowing from the hills. I can look out the window of my office and see the dense smoke.

T520060206133156195.jpg


This was shot in Santa Ana!! Miles away from Anaheim Hills!
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Buena Park
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241 Toll Road, this is what I'd see on my way to work
6wildfire_large.JPG



What steps should I prepare for if I was to be evacuated? What steps are people near the fire in Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills taking right now as precautionary measures?

I wish I could take pictures of how insane it looked from my house. I'm only a few miles from the fire, near Imperial Hwy & Taft. It was real bad. I'm hoping to leave early to tend to my family.

I hope everyone's ok!

Mods: I hope this is alright since theres a lot of members here in Orange County and I wanted to make sure the members here are alright. Thanks.
 
Also hoping you guys South of me are doing okay. This freakin' weather is terrible right now. Fire season was supposed to be well over with, but my neck of the woods had a -37 degree dewpoint early this morning with an 80 degree day! Dry as a popcorn fart, as my dad is fond of saying.
 
Wow, first I've heard of this!
I've got some friends in the Costa Mesa area.
Here's hoping ya'll get through this unscathed!
 
Get all of your most valuable stuff - documents, photographs, firearms, whatever - gathered up and ready to load in your car or truck. Or better yet, pre-loaded or else moved to a "safe" location.

If you have an RV of some sort, you can load up a little bit of everything (clothes etc) to sustain you during an evacuation, and to start a new life if you did lose your house. Be ready to go when/if the evac order comes, ahead of all the folks that will wait till then to even start packing.

My advice comes from living the past 3 years in a Ponderosa Pine forest.

Needless to say, your family members and pets are first on the list ahead of "stuff"
 
i had a meeting today in riverside, had no idea of the fire going on until i was on the 91 fwy. as you might imagine, it gave off a most unpleasant smell and made it look like 8am in the morning was closer to 5 in the afternoon.

as of around 1pm this afternoon it looked like it was still contained to the anaheim hills area, with the 241 fwy closed down. hope everybody does ok.
 
UPDATE

Well, after work I could smell the fire from my office approx 30 miles away. The thick smoke has mellowed abit, but it has spread across Orange County. The drive home was a mess. The 241 tollroad (there the firefighters are currently at to fight the blaze to make sure the fire doesn't jump across the freeway) was shutdown at the Santiago Cyn. Luckily that was my exit, but since all the cars had to get off at that exit it was slightly slower. Roads were blocked all over, CHP and local police were abundant. I saw people had to show ID to go up into Anaheim Hills. Villa Park HS was packed (VPHS took in all the refugees from other schools). There were cars lined up and down my main cross streets.

Right now the fires are contained to the 241. Thats where the firefighters want to contain the fire. Its said that if the fire jumps across the closest houses are only 1/2 mile away. Winds have died down, but its predicted to speed up more as the night goes on. So far 1,200 acres have been charred last I heard at around 2pm. I'm guessing more has been charred but that info hasn't been updated yet.

The smoke is so bad here that I still smell like I went to a bonfire after only walking from the garage to the back door. Its really bad, if I open the door we can smell the smoke rush into the house. Ash has pretty much covered our cars parked outside.

My dad just called not too long ago, he's stuck in Dallas, TX, so he's quite worried. I'm gonna watch the tv for more info, and listen out for a evacuation notice. My friends house was evacuated at Canyon Rim and they're only 2 minutes away by car. We've discussed plans if evacuations take place. I've already packed my firearms, guitars, and important papers.

Can't say I'm too nervous... yet. I'm gonna stay alert and continue to watch the news to see developing reports.

Tallpine, thanks for you suggestions and advice. I've definitely taken them.


Hope everyone else is safe!


ETA: I also want to thank any firefighters, without you guys we wouldn't have a home to live in. Your service is greatly appreciated! :)
 
I've been vacationing at the Disney resort, I came north into LA on some personal business and was going to head back around 8-9 PM tonight.

Would this be a bad move?
 
Warren said:
I've been vacationing at the Disney resort, I came north into LA on some personal business and was going to head back around 8-9 PM tonight.

Would this be a bad move?
Click to expand...

Warren, youll be safe in Anaheim, itll be around 30 minutes away from the fire in Anaheim Hills. So don't worry, you're in the clear.

IndianaDean,
I can't take credit for those photos, they're from the OC Register. Those are pictures from residents in Orange County.




UPDATE!

So they just announced on the news that there's a mandatory evacuation to any residents and commercial businesses EAST of Canon and Santiago.

I stated earlier that I live near Imperial Hwy, which turns into Canon. Canon is only 1/4 mile away from my residence. I'm on the WEST side of Canon, but its not too far away. Im keeping posted.

:what:
 
I saw the 241 closed SigAlert sign when I drove up to Fontana to do a loan signing tonite, and a few engines up and and back. I didn't realize how bad it was.

My heart goes out to the folks in AH or anywhere else that has to evac. I had to evac from UCI dorms in '93, and from Military Housing down here in '03. Real quick lesson in how unprepared one is to BO.

Hope it stays east of 241, good luck OC/Riverside folks.
 
Not trying to troll, but are these intense fire (That we are talking about in this thread.) the result from us killing all natural fires for the past 50 years allowing fuel buildup or a result of very dry weather, wind, and bad luck?:confused:

/Just wondering
//Stay safe.
 
Crosshair said:
...the result from us killing all natural fires for the past 50 years allowing fuel buildup or a result of very dry weather, wind, and bad luck?:confused:

/Just wondering
//Stay safe.
Click to expand...
southern California is known for being blisterry dry and this time of year the Santa Anas are blowing like crazy. we have lots of dry brush and currently have lots of wind.

We set controlled fires often during the year, have fire breaks around homes in danger areas, utilize sheep to cut down brush, and other such measures, so let's not try and put the blame on californians... it's just one of those things we contend with, like earthquakes... while most of us won't be harmed, that's little comfort for folks with burned down homes or homes under rubble from a quake...
 
Gotta admit, I was pretty sure we didn't do controlled burns in Cali.
Click to expand...
It seems to vary by area. If you drive through the Eastern Sierra around HWY395 / Mammoth, the forest service does controlled burns there all the time, as does the NPS in Yosemite. The big fires in San Diego though, were partially blamed on NOT doing controlled burns down there. The reasons varied, I believe, from environmentalism to cheapskatedness, but controlled burns seem to be regional issues.
 
Well, when you live.....

in purgatory, you have to expect a few flames..........:rolleyes: Make sure you have adequate stock of beer, hot dogs and marshmellows...........:rolleyes: .......stay safe....don't run down wind as they show folks doing in the movies:what: .......chris3
 
I'm not sure if this is quite SHTF, no civil unrest etc.
But it is definetly a local disaster.
Total fire suppression certainly contributes to these problems.

I see it's grown to 3500 acres now.

I read one report that it started in the vicinity of a 10 acre prescribed burn less than a week old, hopefully that's not how it started. Every now and then a prescribed burn goes out of control and then no new burns for quite some time, making the problem worse.

Hope everyone nearby is safe.

Links
http://www.ocfa.org/docs/sierra_fire.htm
http://inciweb.org/incident/184/
 
spaceCADETzoom said:
We set controlled fires often during the year, have fire breaks around homes in danger areas, utilize sheep to cut down brush, and other such measures, so let's not try and put the blame on californians... it's just one of those things we contend with, like earthquakes... while most of us won't be harmed, that's little comfort for folks with burned down homes or homes under rubble from a quake...
Click to expand...

And not to be insensitive, but isn't people building suburbs on hills that have had fire burnoffs of scrub for millions of years as part of the natural ecology sort of the same as building in the path of tornadoes or building on a flood plain?

If you accept that it's a greater possibility that you're going to lose all your stuff, that's okay, it just gets me when people build there, then are shown on the news whining at the government for help when it happens and the government won't give them a shiney new house. Sort of like sitting on a freeway and being surprised to be hit by a car.

I do hope all in the area stay safe, of course, especially the firefighters. That's a hell of a job, when there can be a firestorm.
 
Manedwolf said:
And not to be insensitive, but isn't people building suburbs on hills that have had fire burnoffs of scrub for millions of years as part of the natural ecology sort of the same as building in the path of tornadoes or building on a flood plain?

If you accept that it's a greater possibility that you're going to lose all your stuff, that's okay, it just gets me when people build there, then are shown on the news whining at the government for help when it happens and the government won't give them a shiney new house. Sort of like sitting on a freeway and being surprised to be hit by a car.

I do hope all in the area stay safe, of course, especially the firefighters. That's a hell of a job, when there can be a firestorm.
Click to expand...
Uhh....yeah, thanks mr. new hampshire. If you don't know anything about it, I'd say shut yer trap. I don't pretend to know how you folks in NH live, so let's not pretend you know anything about california. Point to me one californian who showed up on TV and said "bush hates black people" or are blaming someone about landslides, earthquakes, and fires. The chances of our homes going up in flames is higher than someone living in a rain forest...but i'd hardly call it a likely occurence. your tornado/flood comparsons are wrong. The fact you didn't realize it shows how you don't know the area...go ahead and pull up the numbers of homes lost to southern ca brush fire and compare them to flood and tornado destroyed homes. I'm not going to do your homework for you. Until then...
 
"Gotta admit, I was pretty sure we didn't do controlled burns in Cali. "


Actually, they just announced on KFI that this fire was started by a controlled burn that the Forest Service made over the weekend. Somebody is going to get fired for that one.

My second office is just up the 241 from the fire. There is lots of smoke, but little danger to the building given the large parking lot and the toll road. It's quite a smoke show, though.
Mauserguy
 
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