State of Emergency Declared in Southern California!

[SIMplMn9 0]

Those of you unaware, a fire in Malibu has destroyed homes, a well known landmark, and still threatens Pepperdine University.  However, this is not the only fire.

Wildfires have sparked a state of emergency and mass evacuations in California, with Hollywood stars forced to flee their million-dollar homes with at least one person killed.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared the emergency in seven of the state's southern counties late on Sunday (local time) as firefighters battled the blazes, which started in the early morning and burned all day, fanned by strong winds.

"The governor's emergency proclamation allows the state Office of Emergency Services to deploy emergency personnel, equipment and facilities and provide local government assistance," Governor Schwarzenegger's office said in a statement.

"Throughout the region, more than 30,000 acres have already burned, and more areas are threatened. The wildfires have caused the loss of human life and serious injuries," the statement added.

One person died fighting a fire near San Diego and at least 11 were injured elsewhere, according to earlier reports. The fast-moving flames devoured tree-lined hillsides and filled the area with thick smoke.

"They have burned a number of homes, businesses and other structures. Residents have been evacuated in dangerous areas," the Governor's statement said.

Authorities ordered 25,000 residents of Ramona, 50 kilometres north-east of San Diego, to evacuate as the flames approached the town, said a spokesman for the local sheriff's office, Phillip Brust.

Strong winds fed the flames which devoured a church and numerous other buildings, forcing thousands to evacuate, including entire neighbourhoods in the exclusive seaside town of Malibu.

And yes.. the smoke and stuff is bad...

This is SIMplMn9 reporting live from my hometown of Los Angeles, California, for Simtropolis News.

[GreekMan 246]

Hey you did this before me!!!

anyway i live in SD so it's bad for us.

school got canceled and i am a happy camper!

you people should watch he news for the fire pics. It's horrible

[PDQAg 0]

I live up in North County San Diego and can see two separate fires from my place. I've watched the nearest fire starting at 2am PST in which I could see the flames going over the top of the hill above Cal State University San Marcos. I can see the smoke from the largest fire to the east, called the "Witch Fire" and that smoke has made the sky to the south pitch black. So far my place is safe and I hope it stays that way. A quarter of a million people have received an evacuation order so far, and I have seen many houses go up in flames on the news. There are no fire-planes in the air since the winds are so severe it is unsafe for them to fly.

If you want the lastest info, go to: http://www.signonsandiego.com or http://www.kusi.com/

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

hmmm....you guys....are just barely talking about this?

The first Fire....Canyon Fire/Malibu has been burning sine 5am two days ago.....

The Catsle owned by an Iranian Princess was burned down...the only Animal Hospital in Malibu burned down and two churches burned down....

The Aqua Dulca Fire has been burning for almost a day and that fire has cause the most destruction...even if it is farm houses and minor manors....its still bad....

Those were the only two fires burning last night when i went to bed at 10pm....yes I was tired...

only reason I didn't make this a topic was...due to the simple fact...last night only 4 fires were bruning....

Now almost 10 or 12 are currently ablaze...

I see one fire on the 241 Tollway...I swear the only place that ever burns is the area by the Tollway...

Ever since they built that stupid thing fires start there and HOP the damn thing...so its not even a concrete blokage...

Anyway this is bad....many many roads were closed in Orange Couty and the 91 was closed...

YES THE 91...the busiest Freeway besides the 10.....

Also Newly built homes are burning in Irvine/by the old Airforce base....

makes me think...when the Air Force was around we had less/no fire in Irvine....

We have had almost 4 fires in the last ten years since they shot that place down....

just makes me think...the more we build up,the more the fire builds....

[SIMplMn9 0]

Well, quite simply.. I started this topic because at around 10pm last night, the Govenator officially declared a State of Emergency in souther california.

That's the news.. not necessarily the fires.

[Barbarossa 51]

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  Edited September 7, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[PDQAg 0]

To say how quickly these fires have spread, I was hiking in the hills above San Marcos and Escondido in the Elfin Forrest yesterday and from the top of the hills I could see no smoke anywhere. Now that same trail has been completely burned and I might have taken the last pre-fire pictures of that area on my camera. The wind here is blowing 20+ miles per hour constantly and I can no longer see the hills to the south. One good bit of news though, the San Diego Wild Animal Park appears to have been spared. Also the news just reported that over 1000 fire engines are on their way from northern California, Nevada and Arizona and should be here by this evening. Let us all hope the winds diminish soon and the firefighters can get some control over these flames.

[SpecialEddie 3]

The fire's gotten pretty bad. There's ash everwhere here.

I'm more on the San Diego side of the fires (Orange County) so the big one is pretty close, but just a safe enough distance.

EDIT: Here are some pictures. 

The ash/dust cover (below).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Wildfires_in_Eastern_San_Diego_East_County_2007.jpg

[SIMplMn9 0]

That reminds me when I had the Topanga Fire last year.. my car still has the scorch mark when the fire moved faster than the traffic..

[coolotter88 2]

heh, good thing I don't live there...

...

...

OH MY GOD, MY COUSIN LIVES THERE!

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

Everyone knows someone who lives in CA.....

so how is ur cousin so spiecal....

my cousins live about 5 miles away from the OC fire...and as far as i can tell one of our cabins might have been burned down in Lake Arrowhead....

so don't cry....

[GreekMan 246]

it's funny because on the East Coast you have snow days and here we have fire days......

[SpecialEddie 3]

The wind just picked up, and I can't even go outside anymore without breathing in a lungful of ash. Badass.

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

LOL...not that badass... i just spent over 5 dollars on this stuff to keep my lips wet...

man this fire is costing me alot more then i thought....

[coolotter88 2]

yeah, but with snow days, we only have to worry about getting heart attacks from shoveling snow.

[topcliff 1]

The way the wind blows, there might be ash in a few days up here. Yeah, I'm NorCal too. I'm glad: we really don't get fires here in the Valley. I'm sorry about the loss of life and injured though.

[Adnoxaei 0]

I evacuated from Poway, CA to my grandmother's in Orange County (north of the Irvine fire).

The Witch creek, and Harris Fires are the main fires in San Diego, with about 30,000 acres burned between the two. The fires have entered the city limits of San Diego and the cities around San Diego. 250,000 people have been evacuated from San Diego county so far. The Witch Creek fire is 0% contained and Santa Ana wind conditions (hot, dry wind out of the west) are driving all the fires in the county.

Events will be changing quickly and I might not be able to update anything, so the following sites will have continuously updating info and some have live video feeds if look around on the sites.

www.10news.com

www.cbs8.com

www.nbcsandiego.com

www.signonsandiego.com

www.fox6.com

This message is being intertwined with State of Emergency Declared in Southern California. -- Mikeaut1

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

if its north of Irvine then your in Anahiem/Riverside County...

OC stops at Santa Ana...everyone knows that....

[Adnoxaei 0]

Originally posted by: Insane Child of Bodom if its north of Irvine then your in Anahiem/Riverside County...

OC stops at Santa Ana...everyone knows that....quote>

 

Anaheim isn't a county.

Riverside, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Imperial, Ventura, Kern, Santa Barbra, and San Bernadino are all counties in southern California, but Anaheim is a city and not a county.

I'm in Los Alamitos in North West Orange County north of Irvine.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Looks like they need to get those planes in the air even with the risk.

messy

[OffTopic 3]

The smoke is real nasty from where i live. It smells pretty bad, and the wind blows ash in your eyes. Not fun.

[Micah 16]

That picture makes it look like War of the Worlds.

So, let me get this, the fire is going towards downtown San Diego?

[SIMplMn9 0]

There are a lot of suburb places in Los Angeles and San Diego that have been lucky to not have a wildfire.. why?

Because many of these area.. as spread out as they are, are pretty densely built, and are the perfect "tinderbox" The place I live, the San Fernando Valley (or THE Valley), which is the northeastern part of Los Angeles County, is said that if a wildfire ever sucessfully made it into the Valley, we could se such a flare up that we would litterally lose the Valley in a day or so, despite the attempts of the Fire Department.

Which is why the Topanga fire last year scared firefighters s---less, because the fires were slowly creeping down the hills, and nearly made it in.

[PDQAg 0]

The smoke in San Marcos is starting to get a little better, but that is only because the wind is picking up and blowing it farther to the south-west. The fire here behind Cal State San Marcos has been 100% contained and is 50% under control. All the families evacuated from that fire here in San Marcos and San Elijo have been allowed to return to their homes, but there is still hard to breathe over near the university. My house is inbetween the Rice Fire in Fallbrook and the Witch Fire in RB, and Poway.

Micah: The fire will probably not reach downtown San Diego, but there is a chance it could go through all the way to the ocean in the city of Carlsbad. 

Update: The Witch Fire is now heading in a more southern direction towards the coast at Del Mar.  According to the news, it is less than 5 miles to the ocean currently with many houses inbetween.  Unless the wind changes soon, the fire will probably go right through the city of Del Mar.

[GreekMan 246]

The fire is not going toward Downtown. It's going East to West which means that the fire may burn all the way to the ocean! it's bad....

EDIT: LT, some Chargers, and some Padres fee San Diego. Some head north and the Chargers head to Arizona to practice. This (fires) is a serious problem!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The real tragedy in all this is that some of these fires have been suspected to be arson.  What kind of nut sets a brush fire in California?

Oh, and peripherally, is there a program in the State of California to eliminate all this brush growth or to put fire breaks in it?

[SIMplMn9 0]

All hill and mountain communities in Los Angeles county have designated time limited ditacted by the Los Angeles Fire Department when have to have all brush cut back.  And the fire department does come through places like the Angeles National forest and do a controlled burn.

Problem is, Southern California is a very dry area, and only getting dryer.  We are not a desert exactly, but this is an arid region.  PLants dry up do damn quick out here, that all they do is start fires.

Also, arson out here doesn't necessarily mean that someone came in and took a mtch to the grass, most arson cases out here are accidental arson; people who do stupid things knowing the risks.  Anything from a ciggarette, to a campfire, the backfire from a car, even teh reflection off glass could ignite stuff this dry.  Hence why I talked about tinderboxes.  I read a report somewhere about Los Angeles, the top ten fears that could lead to disaster:

1. Strong Earthquake

2. Wildfire in the valleys, entering city

3. Terrorism

4. Gang War

5. Riot

These were the five biggest threats to Los Angeles... 

EDIT: Damn.. still can't find the report...

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

I'd put Gang War and Roit above Terrorism....honestly...we have had both in the past alot more then Anything relatively Terrorist...I actaully think even roit should be second on the list...cuz has a fire ever made it to LA?

i mean it should be second...but it has never reached LA....

[SpecialEddie 3]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Oh, and peripherally, is there a program in the State of California to eliminate all this brush growth or to put fire breaks in it?quote>

 

That would pretty much destroy what little is left of the already fragile chapparal ecosystem. 

And looking out my window, I see no sky at all. Just overcast--which is the smoke, dust, and ash from the flames.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: SpecialEddie

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Oh, and peripherally, is there a program in the State of California to eliminate all this brush growth or to put fire breaks in it?quote>

 

That would pretty much destroy what little is left of the already fragile chapparal ecosystem. 

.quote>

And other than erosion prevention and stopping flash floods, what other use is there for all this brush?  What part of the ecosystem would be lost if were all sprayed with Round Up?