A pic of a home from the Oakridge Mobile Home Park from an old L.A. Times article........
A Google Earth image of the Oakridge MH Park......
Posted on 11/15/2008 2:27:38 AM PST by bd476
Fire Forces Evacuations, Burns Homes in Sylmar Area
Sayre Fire is near the 210 Freeway in Northern Los Angeles.
A dangerous, fast-moving brush fire in the Sylmar section of the San Fernando Valley, spread by gusting 50 mph winds has now burned at least five homes and is threatening several more, City Fire Department spokesperson Melissa Kelly said today.
So far there are no reports of injuries to residents or fire personnel, said Kelly.
The blaze ignited about 10:30 p.m. in the dry, brushy hills above 13000 W. Sayre Street near Shablow Ave, and has so far consumed more than 500 acres.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxla.com ...
A pic of a home from the Oakridge Mobile Home Park from an old L.A. Times article........
A Google Earth image of the Oakridge MH Park......
Firefighters put water on a fully engulfed home at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park near Glenoaks and Foothill boulevards in Sylmar.
Fire has jumped 57 freeway. Moving west fast.
The key is population density. Never before have so many people lived near the fire zones (or earthquake faults, for that matter). Nowadays almost every single flare-up threatens many homes.
The worst part is that none of this sprawl would be necessary if our government had bothered to enforce the immigration laws. Middle class Americans are forced into the foothills as third world trash invades the valleys.
Just heard the Yorba Linda fire started behind a landfill near the freeway (?)
“A number of homes have been lost.” Watching KCAL Channel 9 here in L.A.
“Massive wall of flames heading toward homes in the area.”
This is awful!
God bless those firefighters.
Yorba Linda Fire may jump the 91 and head south. Wow. That means this baby will be burning for days. Lots of fuel in those mountains.
Some truth there, but the fact remains, in So. Cal, the foothills are the most desirable and sought after locations, as opposed to the valleys or flat lands if you will.
Don't know about everyone else, but the devil winds seem to be subsiding somewhat.
Thousands of homes in the path of that fire right now.
fire has jumped the 91 and is now into anihiem hills
fire has jumped the highway and is now into anihiem hills
Amen.
Incident: 0361 Type: Report of Fire Location: NB SR57 JNO TONNER CANYON RD ThomasBrothers: 709 4D info as of: 11/15/2008 1:27:20 PM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
1:30PM PER WALNUT SO // FIRE ON FWY NEED FWY SHUT AT IMPERIAL // VEHS ARE STILL COMING THRU NB
1:27PM VEHS GOING W/WAY ON FWY TO EXIT NEAR LAMBERT/IMPERIAL
1:21PM 1039 LHB PD - THEY WILL SEND UNIT TO SHUT DOWN LAMB ONR TO NB 57
1:19PM PER BREA PD - NO AVAIL UNITS FOR CLOSURE
1:15PM 570E REQ PD CLOSED LAMBERT ONR TO NB 57
1:12PM PER WALNUT SO, REQ NB/SB 57 CLOSURE AT IMPERIAL DUE TO FIRE ONTO RDWAY
1:10PM 1039 ENTAC, OFCR SHERWOOD, 18370 RE CLOSURE ON 57
I set my twitter account to update my phone from you & a few other twitterers. I hate to go but have commitments this afternoon. I’ll have access to radio & will be home sometime after 6. Take care everybody.
Pray for those who lost their lives (I know of one 98 year old already) and those who lost everything. This is horrible that seems to happen pretty often. Between fires in California and those hurricanes, I think it might be time to consider not building in both these areas....just a thought that I am such will be disagreed by some.
“The rule of thumb is that a flame front can be pushed out twice as far as the fuel is high - so if you live next to 50’ trees, you’d better be thinking about 100’ cleared space around structures, minimum.”
Taking into account 60+ mph winds?
Didn’t Osama bin Laden or his murderous assistants just state recently that they were going to set the non-Muslim world, and particularly the U. S., literally on fire - and specifically indicated the possibility of arson in forests and areas throughout?
Sheesh. Don’t say that. That is the ONLY thing worthwhile in the Bush Administration that he kept us safe during this Presidency. If this was work of Osama than Bush’s Presidency was a 99 percent failure. I will admit that the Supreme Court picks were good...even if forced. Tax cuts were ok too.
I know, I’ve seen them. They’re firetraps.
This is indicative that the entire development needs to have defensible space around the outside of it. The fuel loads inside the development need to be managed - the developers put it there... they should think about the fire consequences of the landscaping they install.
California could solve many of these issues if they wanted to. They could control fuel loads with controlled burns.... but they’re too busy worshiping their precious air quality regulations. They could strip off the flammable brush and replace it with something like a crested wheat seeding, but... they’re too busy with their commitment to ‘native species.’ They could have emergency stores of water positioned throughout the area, but they’d rather have green lawns and landscaping.
The list goes on and on.
You have to understand why I’m so jaded. I read your red flag weather reports and say “less than 15% humidity? Feh. I’ve seen days down to 3% humidity in Nevada.” Most days from the second week of May until the second week of September, the humidity is less than 15%, and in summer, many days are under 10. You can hang laundry on the line and by the time you get done hanging the wet clothes, you go back to the start and pull off the dry clothes. Max time to dry a load of laundry in 5%/15MPH conditions? About seven minutes. There’s utterly no point in using a dryer; it would take longer than hanging them on the line.
Winds 5 gusting to 35? That’s EVERY day after the first week of June and until the third week of August.
While these are summer-long conditions in Nevada, they’re also conditions that predictably occur every autumn in SoCal. Yet EVERY year, they have more and more fires, with bigger and bigger involvement, because California has become an area completely devoid of simple common sense.
Dealing with these conditions isn’t difficult, or even expensive. For example, I could cut a 100’ firebreak around a 500 home development in a week. Give me another week and I’d have it all seeded to crested wheatgrass. One guy, one D6, and a range drill. It would probably take me about, oh, 1,000 gallons of diesel, perhaps less, and about 5 lbs/acre of seed. Seed cost - let’s be generous and say $2.50/lb. Diesel cost? Let’s call it $4.00/gal.
Let’s say I’m doing this around a square mile of development, ie, a block of land 1 mile square. 100’ by four miles is about 50 acres. $4,000 in fuel, 250 lbs of seed (let’s be generous - $1000+ for the seed) and we’re up to about $5000 in materials.
Let’s say I charge $35/hour for the Cat. Heck, I’ll be a rip-off artist and charge $100/hour for the Cat. Figure 50 hours for the scape-down and grading, 50 hours for seeding, total of 100 hours, at $100 bucks, that’s $10K.
For $15K in time and materials, I reckon I could significantly increase the protection of an entire development.
In the late summer, you could have someone come in with cattle and graze off the buffer area if you wanted. 50 acres of crested wheat could be grazed off by 50 head of cattle in about two weeks, tops. Charge them, oh, $5.00 per head for the two weeks. Put the grazing fees into a kitty to help offset the cost of maintaining the fire break.
Californians, however, like everything to be as complicated as possible, as they worship their interlocking set of contradictory agendas. So you get what we have here: a 100% predictable event with tragic consequences. This is about like watching someone play on the train tracks who ignores other people’s entreaties to get off the tracks. Instead, they lecture us on train schedules and horn regulations.
When said person gets turned into pulp by a freight train.... well, it is hard to work up much sympathy.
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