The fires in Southern California are beyond belief. I know from Queen Bruin’s profile that she is in Antelope Valley. A search on her name does not show any recent posts.
Queen Bruin if you are out there in cyberspace, please post and let us know you are okay.
Same for all of the others that hail from down that way…
Sending my best wishes to all the SoCal dopers!
I’m fine…we’re in Apple Valley, and my office is on the Victorville/Hesperia border, but the smoke from the fires in Crestline and Lake Arrowhead is a cause for concern. All schools will be shutting down tomorrow, so my business (day program for Dev. Disabled Adults) will also follow suit.
I think Antelope Valley will be experiencing the same…
We’re in Mission Viejo/Laguna Niguel area. Air quality is TERRIBLE but other than that, we are fine.
Thanks for worrying about us!
Note to Dopers in other states- sometimes it’s easy to forget what a big state CA is. A fire covering thousands of acres (or hundreds of thousands) could be burning in your county and you might not be affected. This one is “lots of devastation in very discreet areas.”
Edited to add- we are about 5 miles from the Santiago Canyon fire, about 10-15 miles from the Camp Pendleton fire, and about 50 miles from most of the San Diego fires.
Did you check this thread? I just got word from my brother who has a condo near Rancho Bernardo and another near San Marcos. Both have survived so far, but people are worried about the fires reversing direction with the wind shift. The winds are much milder which is very hopeful. I saw a friend at a bar who had to evacuate from the Piru fire. She lives in a canyon with only one road to exit. The flames came within 200 yards of my organic farmer buddy’s fields. People were pretty nervous. Two months ago we just had the second largest fire in California history – over 200,000 acres in a fire that burned over a month. These fires have already taken out over 500,000 acres or something like that.
Culver City, CA. We have fires to the north (Malibu), east (San Bernardino), and south (Irvine), but they are all at least 10 miles away. The only signs that something’s up are it’s a little warmer than normal, the sky is grayish-brown, and the sun is noticeably orange (and a cool evil red at night!). But otherwise, it’s business as usual.
Here’s a map of the fires: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21436901/
How can you see the sun at night? Must be weird optical effects due to the haze. The full moon is pretty awesome too, but the smoke is pretty nominal around here.
I know SoCal is a big area, I live in the SF Bay Area, but I heard Tuesday that a new fire (#16) had started in Antelope Valley. I know she’s in Antelope Valley, so I worry. I’m like that! Can’t help it.
We were within a quarter-mile of the Croy Fire a few years ago and were evacuated for three days, so I know how disconcerting it is.
My thoughts are with all of you.
San Gabriel Valley here; air quality is for shit, so I stay indoors or put on a face mask just to go outside for even a few seconds.
Brother’s fam in Apple Valley seems okay. Have not heard from cousins in Corona, Yorba Linda/Placentia but I don’t think those areas are burning.
Camarillo here, doing fine (thanks for asking) air quality is starting to better.
Hey, I lived on Clarington at Palms!
(And like Queen Bruin, I also used to live in the AV.)
Well, she hasn’t called me to say she’s being evacuated or anything, and I’m her mom. I do worry that she and her husband may be driving through some of it to reach school. From what I’ve been able to tell, she’s not anywhere near the fires. (I’m in Colorado) My sister has likewise not heard from her daughter, who also lives in the AV.
If I hear anything, I’ll be in to post!
I live in the San Fernando Valley, where it is a bit smoky. However at the moment I am in Toronto where the air is very clear, but cold. 
No worries about the fires getting to my house.
That’ll teach me to add stuff at the last moment. -.- I mean the moon is red.
I think I once checked out an apartment there.
I live and work on Washington, right near the 405.
I am fine - thank you for thinking of me! Generally fires don’t get down here on the valley floor where I am. We just get all the ash fallout and get to hear the air tankers leaving from the airfield.
Mostly been driving through the ash. It took fully four hours to get from home to school on Tuesday, but that was mostly due to continued issues from the 5 tunnel fire (all the trucks are routed onto the main stretch of freeway) and the Malibu fire. I missed my last class to go home early so that The Highwayman wouldn’t have to motorcycle through the yucky air. It took about three hours to arrive this morning and a half hour longer tonight to get home. It was constant smoke from below Sepulveda pass all the way back to my tumbleweed patch. The sunrise this morning was blood red.
Southeast LA County. Other than the cars being slightly dirtier than usual, you’d never know anything was going on here, other than the hazy skies.
I work in Anaheim, however, and the air quality there is foul.
Hubby’s brother is a firefighter in No. Cal. His team went down on Monday to cover the Rice fire in Fallbrook. He landed in the hospital yesterday. He’s going to be ok. He’s old (55) and isn’t used to being on the line anymore. He got dehydrated and stressed his heart. He’ll be flown home tomorrow or the next day.
He’s pretty much done with anything outside the office now.
I tried to call a friend whose office is in Encinitas, but live in the east county somewhere. I got no answer, but it may have just been after hours.
Sending good thoughts to your BiL picunurse.
My sis lives in San Pedro and she says the smoke there is bad, but the fires aren’t terribly close.
I noticed today that smoke was starting to finger its way into he Las Vegas valley due to the shift in the winds.
Yeticus, glad to hear you guys are okay. I thought about you when I read there were some fires in your area. QB and all the other SoCal Dopers are okay so far.
A guy my husband works with, his brother was evacuated from his home near San Diego/LaJolla area. I guess he is still waiting to find out if he still has a house.
Holy Christ, my grandmother lives in Culver City! I had no idea the fires were so close! I’m relieved to hear you (and she) aren’t in danger.
City of San Diego. I’m about 35 miles from both the Harris fire and the Witch Creek fire, and the other ones are even further away. As I stated over in my thread, I’m about a mile from Qualcomm Stadium, which is probably the busiest evacuation center at this point, so I think I’ll be OK. (ETA: I did pick up a couple of filter masks today and I plan on doing some volunteer work at the Q tomorrow.) The air is horrible down there, but my house is almost straight up from there (Mission Valley to Serra Mesa) and the air quality and dirtiness comes and goes. I think I can vaguely tell which way the winds are taking the nearest fires by walking into my garage and seeing if it smells like smoke. That seems to change every few hours.
Encinitas, who actually lives in Encinitas, has said she’s OK. The Witch Creek fire is just one town away (Rancho Santa Fe), though.