California fires
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What we have. What we’re getting. Two approaches to the presidency.
Reader view works.
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I talked to my brother in Santa Clarita yesterday. The fire was 10 miles south of him (not very far when the wind is hitting 80 MPH) when the wind shifted and spared his development.
So far.
I remember the Freeway Complex fire that swept through my neighborhood maybe 10 years ago. I’ll never forget what it looked like - smelled like - felt like. It was then I realized how little can be done when there is so much wind, whether to fight a fire or prevent one from claiming your house.
This guy manages to capture what I felt. WaPo gift link:
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@wtg said in California fires:
Have either of you been in touch recently with your friends in SoCal?
yes, it’s pretty bad in the Pasadena area. The town I used to live in,La Cañada Flintridge, is completely evacuated. My best friend in Pasadena had to evacuate yesterday also. Old town Altadena is apparently pretty much wiped out. The hospital I was born in in Altadena, which has since been converted to a senior care center, burned down.
So yeah, This all feels pretty close to home.
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We worked on a lot of buildings in old downtown Altadena. I wonder how many are still standing.
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My cousin in Pasadena is on voluntary evacuation, may get changed to mandatory. Her son at Pepperdine sheltered in place in the library a couple weeks ago when fire went through campus. Kids went home early, finals canceled. He’s at home under that voluntary evacuation order right now. Was supposed to return to school next week.
My uncle (her dad) in South Pasadena doesn’t have an evacuation order, but the power keeps going in and out.
I saw that the Episcopal church in Altadena burned.
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Link to video
Wow.
I survived the first Lahaina fire. I would have died in the second one.
I'll bet that when the dust settles they'll find there was no water in some places where it should have been accessable and multiple similar man made failures both in the fire starting and spreading and in the response to it unfortunately.
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@wtg said in California fires:
I knew that it was bad but didn’t realize how bad until I saw the national news this morning. Talk about apocalypse.
CNN talked with actor James Woods, whose home is gone. Here’s a bit of the interview.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/us/video/la-wildfire-james-woods-close-call-digvid
James Woods has become a sensation on social media after being filmed freaking out about his house because he's a committed Zionist who is on record saying every Palestinian man, woman, and child should be killed let alone displaced.
Cry me a river.
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Link to video
Victor David Hanson, California's Catastrophe
He explains the man made factors I suspected existed. This is worth all eight minutes, imho.
Living through the first Lahaina fire is something I won't forget. The house was filled with thick smoke. You could see it as it blew back and forth and through the rooms. Lahaina Town was blocked off from the outside world by the federal and state governments. There came a time when there was no escape.
This happened during the second Lahaina fire as well. In fact, during the second one, the police turned many vehicles around who could have escaped. Some of these vehicles included entire families. People eventually had to escape into the ocean. I assume some of these people lived and some died.
The most horrific aspect of it to me was listening to the sounds of explosions. Every one of these sounds was a gasoline powered vehicle exploding filled with people trying to escape.
The causes of and responses to both Lahaina fires proved much too complex to write off either one as "a natural disaster."
There was no water to fight the fires because it had corruptly been diverted to the resorts. The utility company didn't maintain the electric polls the way they were supposed to and they came crashing down in the wind onto grounds that hadn't been maintained.
The macabre fact of the authorities preventing people from escaping is something I will never understand.
I lived through one major earthquake in the eighteen years I lived in Hawaii. The first Lahaina fire was worse. The second one was an apocalypse beyond imagination.
I'm sure my limited personal experience pales in comparison to what is happening in real time in Los Angeles. I wish there was something I could say or do to make the nightmare end.
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VDH is an idiot.
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The Palisades Fire has turned toward Brentwood and Encino. If the wind kicks up again, and that’s the forecast, a whole lot more very expensive real estate is about to disappear. The best anyone can hope for is that they can get the people and the animals out. They’ve been doing an excellent job of this so far - the death toll has been remarkably low for an event of this magnitude.
Pique wrote an excellent article outlining this fact. I remember reading it on the old Piano Board. No matter what anyone does, one small fire when winds are hitting 80-100 MPH is going to spread too quickly for much of anything to be done about it. The fires will slow down when the wind stops, and not go out completely until it rains.
Good people of Brentwood and Encino, pack up now. Get your animals out; get out of your houses now so you don’t clog up the roads.
There will be time enough to cast blame later.
And so scary, it's just getting worse.