Well shit, there is another fire in the Hollywood area.
There’s a new one in the Hollywood hills. Sunset Fire. Heading towards Hollywood proper.
I grew up in West LA. I know a lot of evacuees and one friend likely lost her place in Topanga.
A lot of refugees here in Santa Barbara and we are taking them in
Sunset Fire, centered just east of Nichols Canyon Road, near Runyon Canyon Park. I’m honestly surprised it has taken this long. That area is dry as a bone, kind of overgrown, and right in the wind pattern coming out of the San Fernando Valley.
Stranger
That’s only a mile or so from the Hollywood Bowl.
My 80 year old sister lives in Thousand Oaks. As near as I can tell from the maps, her home is in a narrow strip between two high risk zones and power has been cut in the area as a precaution. I can’t get hold of her. I called my nephew who lives 30 miles away. He’s confident she’s safe but he hasn’t talked to her either. He said he’d get in touch with her and tell her I was worried, but that was six hours ago. I can’t tell if she’s hunkered down in her house without electricity, or if she evacuated, maybe further west into Ventura County.
I have a sister inn TO too. They may not have power until Friday.
Oh crap. Just tuned into CNN after being off TV for hours and now the chyron is saying there are “at least” six wildfires.
As of 8:20pm Pacific, CalFire is reporting six active fires in Los Angeles county, with another in neighboring Ventura county.
One faint bit of decent news: the one in Ventura county and one of the LA county fires are both reported fully contained.
I’m in Sherman Oaks now. Home in Valley Village (2 mi). No evac for us yet. We’re kind of centered in all these fires. If I have to evac, where??? Nevada might be the best or Beach, but that 21 mi trip would take 4 hours.
I mentioned that my cousin who is in Sherman Oaks seemed safe earlier today. I got a message earlier she has moved her car out of her condo building’s garage in case they lose power. The last text from her about 10 minutes ago was that she is starting to load her car. She is not the sort to easily panic but she must feel things are getting pretty bad.
Correct. SoCal usually gets rain in october which ends fire season. This year, like a 1/10th of an inch so far down here, while NorCal is getting lots of snow and rain.
Right.
They have abated.
But difficult.
One Fire captain told me- if we can get to the fire we can put it out. Mind you with gale force winds that was not always possible.
CA just passed a huge Proposition on this, Prop 4 passed 59%.
and this-
From Dunsmuir to Arcata, almost all the measures meant to bolster fire protection and law enforcement were accepted by voters.
In Shasta County, voters have so far approved a special tax for the Burney Fire Protection District, although more than half of the county’s ballots have yet to be counted. Almost 70% of ballots cast as of Friday afternoon are in favor of the tax.
“Thank you for supporting the Burney Fire Protection District by voting in favor of Measure F!” the district wrote on its Facebook page.
A similar tax was approved, with about 71% of voters in favor, in the Tulelake Fire Protection District. It’s estimated to raise about $85,000 annually.
And in Arcata, about 72% of voters approved an increase in the Arcata Fire Protection District’s appropriations limits.
Sherman Oaks, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Camarillo are not currently under immediate threat but they are hugged up against the Santa Monica Mountains and a lot of other brushy foothills. It is smart to be prepared to evacuare, although as @Locrian notes, the question is to where; the Santa Susana range to the north was on fire just last year (and back in 2018 with the Woolsey Fire), Ojai is perennially at risk, and as much as as @hajario and Santa Barbara might welcome refugees it’s a real drive along the PCH and only so much capacity. Hopefully the 101 corridor doesn’t get lit up because that is a real nightmare scenario.
Stranger
I’m in Studio City. The news showed a house on fire a few blocks away, but I believe that fire started inside.
It seems I am not alone thinking this:
Moderating:
Let’s try to leave the politics and schadenfreude out of this thread. Thanks.
It sounds like a bunch of celebrities have lost houses - This AP article mentions Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes.
Looking at the CalFire map of the Eaton fire in Altadena, there’s many typical suburban lots that have burned. Tiny lots with more house than vegetation. It’s only favorable weather that prevents the disaster spreading farther.
If only the fire had been preceded by a popping sound…
Two of my sister’s good friends live on that very block pictured. Their home was leveled.
Three coworkers of my spouse lost houses nearby.
It’s simply terrifying to Angelenos that neighborhoods like this can be destroyed. No one is surprised when houses up in the hills burn; they’re in the scrub and difficult for for firefighters to access. But when you’re on a fully developed rectangular block with no unmanaged vegetation and fire hydrants in every direction–this just doesn’t happen.