Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Fires in Southern California!
#1
Legio IX Hispana in So Cal... Safe, all safe.... about a dozen and a half fires from north of LA down to the San Diego/Mexico border!

250,000 evacuated in S Diego County!

Smoke and ashfall.. nearly everywhere. Wind driven fires 30-40 mph.. gusts higher... and with the number of coastal canyons and valleys oriented approximatley east/west the westerly winds get funneled and pick up speed...

An inversion layer keeping the smoke low, the fire being driven westward under the smoke, making it nearly impossible for the large airplane water bombers to work! C-130's, a couple of 727's and numbers of smaller craft and helicopters.. grounded by wind and visibility problems!
Lots of ground work, firetruck, hoses and crews... 1000+ fire trucks in action iin San Diego County. Essential military personal have been ordered to report. One dead in S Diego, and 13 at UCSD Burn Center Hoispital including 4 fire fighters

But a quarter million folk being evacuated!

Jeff and Gwen of Historic Enterprises (some here have purchased kit from them) have evacuated from Ramona, outside of S Diego. Horses, pets, computers.. to a nearby rodeo grounds.

Many thousands of horses evacuated from the back country to Del Mar Racetrack and the Polo Grounds

The football stadium in S Diego as an evac center! .. huge parking lot. Red Cross gearing up and ready.

A hospital evacuated.

Fire near our manufacturing shop in Tecate!

Yikes!

More later!
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
Reply
#2
Be safe! (but this goes to OT)
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
Reply
#3
I have a friend in LA but she is ok!
Say's she met some Roman at a fair not long ago!! :lol:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#4
New evac orders could affect 500,00 people!!
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
Reply
#5
Keeping tabs on it here in Arizona...winds here got nasty on Saturday and haven't let up. Seeing lots of California license plates as many are seeming to head out here. We're hoping that everyone is alright. I did hear from a friend who is dating a firefighter that an "ALL-CALL" went out Sunday afternoon calling all the state's firefighters to report for duty. IIRC they haven't needed to do that in several years. Stay safe out there!
[size=134:1hf2k67y]Caius Marius[/size]
[size=100:1hf2k67y]known as Chris Petersen in the"mundane" world.[/size] :wink: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" />:wink:
Reply
#6
Over the weekend, Legio VI VPF set up camp at an event Corona, CA. The first day went splendidly. Sunday morning, the Santa Ana winds gusting up to 60 mph swept in. We had to strike camp and pack up in a gale -- quite a harrowing (though bonding!) experience. When I got home to the Santa Clarita Valley, the whole area was under a dense pall of brown smoke. The sun was blood red.

I live in Valencia, which is right in the middle of three converging blazes. At the moment, the lead fire line is about a mile from my house. Water tankers and helos are roaring over a treetop level. About 25 homes destroyed so far. About an hour ago, an entirely new fire flared up in Stephenson Ranch, a housing development about three miles on the other side of us. Fire is now bearing down on my daughter's high school, West Ranch. Many friends have had to leave their homes in great haste. My neighborhood is in pre-evacuation mode. Car's in the driveway, packed and ready to go.

Chris Troike, one of our legionaries (and my daughter Alex's boyfriend) lives in Castaic, about six miles up the road, in the path of yet a third fire. He and his family evacuated about two hours ago. Not sure of there whereabouts just yet.

Lots of smoke, ash and falling embers.

One of our members, Laura Martos, has a nephew out manning the fire lines. Crews and assets are being rushed from fire to fire with each new outbreak. For some reason I'm reminded of Caesar at Alesia...

People who ought to know are saying this is the worst spate of wildfires over a short span of time they've ever seen.

I'll keep everyone updated as long as I can.

Pray for us.
T. Flavius Crispus / David S. Michaels
Centurio Pilus Prior,
Legio VI VPF
CA, USA

"Oderint dum probent."
Tiberius
Reply
#7
This is getting downright bizarre.

The evacuation order never came. By sundown, our friends in Tesoro were being allowed to go back to their homes. It was starting to look like the crisis had past. I just took a long walk with the dog around our neighborhood to reconnoiter. Not a breath of wind. Dead quiet, like the eye of a hurricane.

To the north-east of us, the Buckweed fire looks quiescent. I could see the dull orange glow just along the top of the foothills behind us, but it doesn't look all that threatening. Either the firefighters did a terrific job shielding Tesoro and the other neighborhoods in its path, or the die-down in the wind brought it to a dead stop, or it temporarily ran out of fuel. Probably all three.

West of us, the Castaic and Stephenson Ranch fires are blazing away full force. The look like miles-long, bright orange snakes lying along the mountains just above Magic Mountain and developments where thousands of homes are crammed together. In a couple of places, the black hills stand out starkly against the Pumpkin orange glow. Looks like Halloween came early.

There's a weird serenity to the scene. It looks to me like the fires are burning slowly UP the mountainsides, and thus away from the housing and commercial stuff. There's no evidence of the frenzy that was going on earlier today.

I got back to the house thinking we were pretty much out of the woods. Then I flip on the TV and see yet another fire has erupted at the junction of Sand Canyon and Boquet Canyon, about seven miles away. It's now churning through a mobile home park, with trailers going up in flames right and left. The whole commercial district (Cocos restaurant, In-And-Out Burger where I often eat) looks ready to be engulfed as well. Everyone's in a panic. Reporters are describing GALE FORCE WINDS driving the flames.

I stepped back outside. Not a whisper of wind. Clear sky, three-quarter moon. All is calm, all is bright.

This is just too spooky for words.
T. Flavius Crispus / David S. Michaels
Centurio Pilus Prior,
Legio VI VPF
CA, USA

"Oderint dum probent."
Tiberius
Reply
#8
^Most definetly. Best of luck and wishes to y'all in SouCal. I pray none of you lose your homes and property, or anything else to the fires.
---AH Mervla, aka Joel Boynton
Legio XIIII, Gemina Martia Victrix
Reply
#9
Hope you guys make it through ok Dave, I was watching the news here(although in best BBC/ITV style, the only focus on the houses of the movie stars that are threatened.... :roll: ),and the winds were pretty strong! Scary indeed!
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#10
I stepped outside an couple of hours ago... Dave and I live about 150 odd miles apart, yet here too the sky was crystal clear... dead calm... Mars brightly overhead in the predawn sky... the harsh acrid smell of smoke was greatly diminished... the freeway, about 1/2 mile away was silent.. no birds either.. eerie indeed.. then I turned on local news....

Mt Palomar of the famous Observatory has its own fire now...

Folk living along the coast in two areas can see the approaching flames

Satelite Image of the smoke.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsro ... g_id=17808

Dave is slightly above and inland from where the map reads: Los Angeles

I'm between the two huge smoke plumes down San Diego way

And this was yesterday. The bigger of the two smoke plumes in the San Diego area has burned about 150,00 acres.. so far.

BTW, Don't bother clicking on "larger image"... Its the entire state of California.

RED CROSS and SALVATION ARMY are calling for donations. Businesses such as Home Depot, Lowes, Ikea, Walmart, CocaCola, Smart and Final as well as many mid and small sized businesses have come through with water, food, bedding, shade popups... scouts, church groups, student groups and community service orgs such as Masons, Eagles etc have organized volunteers to assist at shelters and evac centers such as Qualcomm Stadium.

Military families living off base are asked to report to a nearby base as an evac location. Military personal are asked to report in by phone and many have been recalled from leave.

US Navy and Marines are at it! ... .cots, tents, food services, water med services

Finding places for the 100o's of evac'd horses has becoeme a problem. The Fiesta Island areas of Mission Bay Park in S Diego has been set aside ffor horses

Marine Corps Airstation Miramar has relocated all but some essential aircraft to other bases in SoCal and AZ.

Hospitals have cancelled all elective and nonemergency medical proceedures.

Throughout the San Diego County all schools and universites have been closed. Businesses have been asked to close in order to keep Freeways clear of non-essential traffic and to make it easier for folk to evac when ordered to do so. We've been asked to stay home if at all possible. Some people have had to evacuate twice.

The fires in San Diego County are affecting 3 million people... 250,000 evac'd so far with close to half a million under either evac orders (mandatory or voluntary) or evac alert!

Our vehicles have full tanks. We've prepped for a move. Water, food, bedding, documents, valuables (real and personal), pets, tools, asst lighting, food prep gear etc etc ready to load up.
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
Reply
#11
When I left Burbank this morning at 5am the winds were calm, sky clear with the air cool and no hint of smoke.

Hit work in Anaheim at 6am and it felt like 80+ already with strong steady winds and the heavy smell of smoke in the air. (Anaheim is where Disneyland is, though I do not work for the Mouse.)

Unless Griffith Park or the Verdugo Hills catch fire (which they have before) we are safe in Burbank.

Forecast calls for hot and windy today with cooler temps later in the week. With any luck they may gain the upper hand by this weekend -- but that's a long time from now and anything can happen.

Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
Reply
#12
When I got up this morning, the wind had kicked up a bit, but less so than yesterday afternoon. The sky was blue overhead. No sign of the smoke plume that had shrouded our community for the last two days. I was frankly puzzled where it had gone, since I didn't think the Buckweed fire would have burned itself out overnight. When I set off for work (figuring it was safe to do so), I spotted the smoke plume, still pretty dense, being blown directly west, toward Interstate 5 but away from most housing developments, including mine.

Our backyard looks like a scene from the early stages of Pompeii (there, brought it on topic!) — lots of black soot and larger flakes of gray ash everywhere. The swimming pool's practically crusted over with this gunk.

Checking the news, it seems the wind has shifted direction and most of the major blazes were now heading away from civilization in the Santa Clarita area, at least. Still big problems in Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino county and San Diego area, where Hib and most of Legio IX are. San Diego has taken the brunt of it. 500,000 + evacuated is Hurricane Katrina level! Our thoughts and prayers are with our Fratres to the south, for sure.

Yesterday, Governor Arnold was all over the place, promising aid, boosting morale, playing the Man of Action role he did so well in the movies. I'm not his biggest fan (too liberal for me!), but I gotta say he seemed in his element and my kids actually got calmer after listening to him. Someone asked him what the state most needed to beat the fires.

"Ve need for the vinds to DIE DOWN," he said in his best Terminator voice.

Sure enough, today, they seemed to have done just that, about a day ahead of schedule according to the meteorologists.

Guess God's an Arnold fan.
T. Flavius Crispus / David S. Michaels
Centurio Pilus Prior,
Legio VI VPF
CA, USA

"Oderint dum probent."
Tiberius
Reply
#13
Imagine that.. 500,000 evacuated.. that's official.. news conference from S. Diego County Office of Emerg Svcs .. not all at once, but close..

UPDATE.. when I wrote 500,000 that was about 15 minutes ago. As the news conference ended they raised it to 513,000

Some neighborhods were just opened up for re-occupation... some folk can return.. some.

A total of 324,000 residences (homes and apartments) have been put under one form of Evacuation or another. That's a third of all residences in S Diego County. County is only 4500 sq miles.. about 75x60 miles...

The Leg IX folks across LA, Orange, San Bernardina and Riverside counties (north of San Diego) are troopers! Offers of assitance, crash space etc. My phone's (both of them) have been ringing off the hook. LEG IX HQ in San Diego is AOK, no threat but we've our essentials at hand.

Folks from our extended SCA Household are pulling together.. about 8 have had to evacuate.. most going to one lady's house.. party party party!

The fire in south S Diego County is just a few miles east from Scithius's villa but the wind is about 7MPH instead of 37MPH and that is good!. Cristobal watched the fire at Mt San Miguel south from her house. Same for Arachnia, who lives much much closer, who's second floor was aglow with firelight all night long. She didn't get any sleep. Haven't heard from G Marius Trajanus today. He lives in an evac area of Poway.

Newer and new fires in north S Diego County ...
-Palomar Mtn fire is 3000acres+, That's where the famous observatory is located and they just issued evac orders for the whole mountain... scattered homes, and a few tiny communities

- 2 small fires on Camp Pendleton US Marine Base, a growing fire in east county mountains.. Cuyamaca/Descanso area.. winds in the mountains reaching 40+ MPH. Much lower wind speeds along the coasts and in coastal canyons, but they'll pick up mid afternoon. Fire fighters have abandoned a canyon area in Fallbrook (north San Diego County).. winds are too high... the fire is laying across the ground as the fire is driven onward! They expect that fire to connect up with one burning near Escondido the Witch Creek Fire. A wing of that same fire's burning west towards LaCosta, Fairbanks Ranch and the Pacific Ocean.

Just heard that Ramona lost its main power source that drives its water pumps.. that means NO municipal water.. two 40' truck mounted generators are on their way to Ramona. But it'll take about 12 hours for them to set up and get the pumps back on line.... and the winds in Ramona are picking up!!

The Harris/Potrero Fire, the one Scithius is near is also spreading south towards the Mexico border, out east in the mountains near its source at Potrero... i'ts spreading east and north.. slowly but spreading .

The Gov is here, FEMA chief, Homeland Security Secy, the Prez arrives tomorrow.

1000+ homes across the County gone... and that's just the official guess

We're being asked not water lawns, wash vehicles..ie: restrict water use. Too much water use reduces water presure.... some fire trucks as pumpers hook up to a fire hydrant and suck water out of the piping. If the pressure is low they sometimes suck air. Lots of trucks sucking water... Already reports of trucks losing water pressure and volume partly because well intentioned folk left hoses on, on their roof tops etc. When they do that they leave an open line to air when pumpers start drawing water from the hydrant system. A problem in older neighborhoods.

More later!
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
Reply
#14
Quote:Yesterday, Governor Arnold was all over the place, promising aid, boosting morale, playing the Man of Action role he did so well in the movies. I'm not his biggest fan (too liberal for me!), but I gotta say he seemed in his element and my kids actually got calmer after listening to him. Someone asked him what the state most needed to beat the fires.

"Ve need for the vinds to DIE DOWN," he said in his best Terminator voice.

Sure enough, today, they seemed to have done just that, about a day ahead of schedule according to the meteorologists.

Guess God's an Arnold fan.

:lol: I saw that on the news today....
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#15
Not Over Yet!

More evacuations from San Diego County, late yesterday, and today.. plus some folks going back home... many businesses closed, asked to stay off freeways, asked to stay home...

The total # of evacuees has reached 500,000 in San Diego COUNTY.. though many thousands have been alowed to return home.. some have had to leave again!

Fires are still burning homes.. spreading into the foothills and mountains... winds in some mountain valleys and canyons are still high... high winds and deep smoke layers make aerial water bombing impossible....

Interstate 5 and Intersate 15, the two main Freeways that go north out of San Diego, have been closed.. as of this writing I-15 is closed off an on and I-5 is just opened both directions! Yay!

Power: San Onofre Nuke plant (in the NW corner of the County) has had to shut down transmission lines due to proximity of fire. Some lines are back online.. We only have one major transmission line coming into the County that's fully operational. Others are down or shut down. Electric generation plants within the County are operating at near peak capacity. At one point last night all external transmission lines were shut down. AH! Just got word that a power line out fo Mexico has been turned on. Yay!

We just received an electricity conservation order.. turn off and don't use non-essential equipment. Expect rolling blackouts and brownouts... ( I better type faster!!!)

Tid-bit of info: there are over 250,000 horse in S Diego County and many many thousands of them have been relocated

25,000 avocado trees are lost! There go guacamole prices!

City of S Diego estimating $1,000,000,000 USD in loss so far. That's just the City!!

1500+ homes so far, and that's ONLY an estimate

Human toll: only two dead as a direct result of the fires...one of burns , one from a fall off of his roof while watering it; some elderly being evac'd from hospitals and elder care facilities havedied; about 14 firefighters with injuries, some burns, two in very very serious condition; about 60 injuries total..... that number is varied and fluctuates.. reporting is difficult..

Since the winds are lessening the fires can spread somewhat evenly in all directions! Yikes! .. and are! Some winds are blowing easterly and that's driving some edges of the fires into areas that were unburned yesterday.

The bigger fires are expected to burn for another week.

Air temps remain generally high

Air quality is extremely dangerous

LEG IX folk.... all throughout Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside Counties, remain safe as far as we know.

Our commercial shop in Tecate Mex is safe though the border crossing at Tecate California remains closed

The San Diego LEG IX HQ workshop is closed. Workshops in Orange County and Riverside County are open!

Still haven't heard from G Marius Traianus ... he was in an evac area in Poway. Two others from S Diego have yet to report in.

We remain hopeful
Hibernicus

LEGIO IX HISPANA, USA

You cannot dig ditches in a toga!

[url:194jujcw]http://www.legio-ix-hispana.org[/url]
A nationwide club with chapters across N America
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Fires in Australia Gaius Decius Aquilius 9 1,857 02-16-2009, 09:45 AM
Last Post: Tiberius Clodius Corvinus
  October California fires M. Demetrius 5 1,365 10-22-2007, 06:26 PM
Last Post: Narukami
  Southern California Burns Hibernicus 10 1,878 10-31-2006, 10:48 PM
Last Post: Poftim

Forum Jump: