Station fire likely to hit historic Mt. Wilson observatory, fire officials say

LA Times ^ | August 30, 2009 | Joe Mozingo

[presently no screen name]

Those two brave guys were truly worth more as human beings than the entire flock of simple minded enviro-wacko

Totally agree. And it not only two lives - all the family members - even their own coworkers are affected by their needless deaths. Someone should take on those wack jobs. Maybe the fire dept union - this is because of neglect - they AREN'T taking care of the environment - they are destroying it by their neglect.

[dalereed]

” I would have had the top of that mountain denuded for at least 200 yards around that entire site in every direction, for personnel safety if for no other reason”

They can’t do it, they are on leased land from the Forest Service and have no control over the vegetation.

[presently no screen name]

Thanks for the update. The good news and the not so good five more injuries. Just damn!

[Ron C.]

Change in brightness may NOT be fire - may be a bit more smoke which reflects the light of the station.

So scratch my last. (though more smoke could mean closer approach, or just a wind change)

[varina davis]

mark

[Ron C.]

"Channel 2 has been [intermittently] running a live camera located at the transmitter building on their streaming coverage..."

At the link you gave, what do you click on to see the 'streaming coverage'... I couldn't find anything.

8^)

[dragnet2]

This is just nature doing the hard way what people could have done the easy way. People in California need to kick some enviro-wacko ass and start clearing some decent (wide) fire breaks.

When the Santana winds blow, fire breaks are basically useless, as large burning embers can fly for thousands of yards, spotting new fires far beyond the fire line.

I've seen fire blow across 10 lanes of freeway in seconds, not even slowing the fire down.

[ArmstedFragg]

Well, between the time I last looked at it and now, they entered one of their ‘no streaming’ periods. I have no idea how long it’ll last. When they’re streaming, there’s a link in that breaking news box at the top of the page. It’ll just say “Station fire live” or somesuch. Sorry for the misdirect.

[Ron C.]

"I've seen fire blow across 10 lanes of freeway in seconds..."

Ditto - on my way to work, jumped 10 lanes, and about 100 yards more, embers landed, fire ensued almost immediately as I drove by!

[presently no screen name]

I can’t find it either. How many fires are there? I see five mentioned on their site.

[ArmstedFragg]

What’s scary about this incident is that this is just the prevailing winds at work. That northern movement is mostly the normal onshore flow at work. This is an old and dry fuel, low humidity, story. To really confuse things, the humidity has been taking a drop at around 2 am for the last few nights. The big run Sunday was pre-dawn.

[Ron C.]

TX... I'll look for it from time to time...

I'm getting optimistic about Mt Wilson - maybe, just maybe... they were saying within two to four hours (at about 5PM local) - it's now some 7 hours later...

[ArmstedFragg]

Two of the five are probably Palo Verdes and Morris from two days ago. Morris is 95% contained now, PV’s out. Station, Cottonwood, and Oak Glen are the fun bunch at the moment.

[Ron C.]

There are only four now - the Palos Verdes fire is out... best way to see where these are is to go to THIS LINK - then scroll back with the mouse wheel - and see where the fires are. The biggie is well apparent at the link.

[ArmstedFragg]

Yeah, they run the helicopter on that same streaming feed, and I heard the pilot make that guess this afternoon. I thought he was hyping it. Kind of interesting, though, how you can have ten thousand homes at risk, two deaths, over a dozen injuries, large numbers of people living in shelters, and the lead line on almost all the MSM coverage is about their transmitter site, the destruction of which would have little practical effect to the public at large. It’s all about them, I guess. Navel gazers.

[The Cajun]

When the Santana winds blow, fire breaks are basically useless,..............

Thin out the ground vegetation as completely as you can (use herbicides), have very large fire breaks (1000 ft.) and have the loggers cut or top tall trees. This may not stop the fires, but will give firemen a fighting chance and possible escape routes or places to hunker down if trapped.
What I'm trying to say is that we can do more about these situations than just having firemen fight the fire at a disadvantage. Enviro-wackos be damned.

[Ron C.]

"It’s all about them..."

Yep... media ALWAYS have their head in the wrong place!

~grim grin~

[Ron C.]

and, P.S... they don’t HAVE a heart. Just socialist feelings, mostly completely misplaced.

[Ron C.]

Hear you loud and clear, Cajun...

But... we're dealing with greedy state and local government 'crats that care more about themselves - and to hell with anyone else, even their lesser gov-employees that actually have to face danger!

[Ron C.]

Seeing less smoke at the top of recent reloads... good sign!