La Crescenta homeowners defy evacuation order, band together to fight flames

[t0dd]

Source: LA Times

About a dozen residents of Maurice Street on the north end of an island of La Crescenta homes known as Briggs Terrace found themselves Saturday afternoon in the middle of the road, taking stock of their ominous situation.

They were surrounded by fire on three sides, and there were no firefighters or law enforcement in sight. One asked a question that was on everyone’s minds: Is anybody leaving? All of them shook their heads no.

The evacuation order had come down after nightfall for the Briggs Terrace area, a century-old collection of homes in the Craftsman and cabin style, along with newer stucco custom models.

“We started thinking smart and came up with a plan,” said Greg Lievense, 54, an engineer at nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The group broke up into teams of three with an agreement that no one would be alone for the duration of the emergency. One neighbor began stockpiling ladders and flashlights.

"We broke up into ‘ember shifts,' " Lievense said.

“We developed an emergency signal — three long car honks — which would mean that a home is on fire and we need help or we all have to leave,” he said.

Their mission in turn would be to peer into the eaves and backyards of neighbors' homes with flashlights in search of glowing embers or flames and respond if possible.

Charlie Seo, 30, a local high school teacher, said, “One of us has a high pressure fire hose. Each of us took turns practicing with it so that we could become familiar with its recoil and aim the jet.”

Greg and his 20-year-old son got the midnight-to-3-a.m. shift. Within a few hours, however, the neighbors realized that this particular fire was not behaving in the manner that had become almost routine in Southern California.

“There was no wind,” Lievense said. “So we realized it wasn’t going to charge us like a freight train. Instead, this fire was advancing in isolated bursts, and its embers were floating straight up.”

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/la-crescenta-homeowners-defy-evacuation-order-band-together-to-fight-flames.html

---

I really admire their bravery. They're about 20 miles north of me. I just moved here, so I'm new to dealing with wildfires, but I know I'd defy evacuation orders too, no matter how illogical, if my home were in jeopardy.

[jaysunb]

1. I'm in Pasadena

less than 3 miles from the fire & if the authorities tell me to evacuate I'll be out of here in a flash. I can get another house.

:hi: and welcome to SoCal....

[t0dd]

9. Thanks

:) :hi: Hope everything is okay in your area

[Journeyman]

2. There are plenty of stories of those who stayed and fought who saved their homes. . .

and many as well of those who stayed yet lost their homes. . . and more. Each person has to make the decision best for them. Can't fault anyone either choice. Faced with a similar situation I'd choose to stay and fight. Hell, I have stayed and fought -- for other peoples' homes. So it's all in how you feel about the moment. I wish them all the best.

What's fearsome in all this so far is that the Santanas have not yet begun to blow . . .

[tabatha]

3. Santa Anas

[Journeyman]

5. When you search the etymology of the word . . .

you'll find my version predates yours by at least a century.

[tabatha]

18. That may be true (it is actually not clear), but what is currently used is most meaningful.

According to the Los Angeles Almanac: "The original spelling of the name of the winds is unclear, not to mention the origin. The name "Santa Ana Winds" is said to be traced to Spanish California, when the winds were called devil winds due to their heat. Santa Ana winds may get their name from the Santa Ana Mountains in Orange County, the Santa Ana River or Santa Ana Canyon, along which the winds are particularly strong. The original form may have been Satanás winds, from the Spanish vientos de Satán ("winds of Satan"). Sanatanas is a rarer form of Satanás and is a translation of a native name in an unspecified language.

Dr. George Fischbeck was a widely viewed newscaster in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s who incorrectly called the winds the "Santana winds", noting that they were not confined to Orange County (where Santa Ana is located), but occurred throughout Southern California. He delighted in the symbolism of the devil's breath playing havoc with Southern California.

A recent popular guide book Los Angeles A to Z (by Leonard & Dale Pitt), credits the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County as the origin of the name Santa Ana Winds. This might be supported by early accounts which attributed the Santa Ana River bed running through the canyon as the source of the winds. However, since the phenomenon occurs throughout Southern California and not just Orange County, this explanation is likely only a recent one.

One account places the origin of the term Santa Ana winds with an Associated Press correspondent stationed in Santa Ana who mistakenly began using Santa Ana winds instead of Santana winds in a 1901 dispatch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana_winds

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. Yep, no Santa Anas yet

[Mrs. Overall]

6. Can someone help me who knows the La Crescenta area? I've been phoning a friend who lives alone

on Honolulu Ave. in La Crescenta and I can't reach her, even on her cell phone.

Is her area of La Crescenta near the fire? I don't know the area very well, but her backyard is up against a hillside of trees and brush.

[Wilms]

10. Part of La Crescenta is part the fire.

But on Honolulu, your friend will be fine.

The trouble is about 2-3 miles above it.

[Mrs. Overall]

11. Many thanks!

Still haven't been able to reach her, but thanks so much for the info!

I'm less nervous now!

[Patchuli]

12. Yes, I was going to also say

your friend should be fine on Honolulu. I grew up about a mile from the fire area. We used to have to go home and water our roof frequently!

[thereismore]

7. This proves we don't need no stinking government firefighters.

:sarcasm:

[t0dd]

8. Yeah, some people here are suggesting they just take the day off and we let nature take her course.

:eyes:

[JDPriestly]

13. Note: a Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee saved the day.

A scientist. Let's see, in case of a major forest fire, who do you want to call? your preacher or your local scientist? That's an easy one for me.

By the way, from our neighborhood on a hill in Los Angeles, we had quite a view of the fires. People were taking pictures and one man was even painting the fires. The fires were terrible, but the force of them is fascinating.

We are relieved to know that our good friends in La Canada are safe, but very sorry to hear that the fire has destroyed so much and moved on to threaten new areas.

[newfie11]

14. maybe this is different than being in forest fires

The only fire I have ever been involved with was a forest fire. We evacuated as no home is worth our lives. We have insurance. This meant moving 14 head of horses including a stallion and two mares with foals. It burned 87000 acres, fire was jumping two miles at a time.
Our neighbor down the road who moved to SD from California decided to stay and fight the fire. Of course this being rural the first thing the fire did is take out the electric lines. No electricity, no pump, no water. Then the fire crews had to risk their lives to save him.

Like I say it must be different in the city but I would still leave. No property is worth my life.

[tabatha]

19. Yep, they are chaparral fires, mostly.

[kimmylavin]

15. I don't admire their "bravery" at all.

If things go bad, the first thing they'll have to do is call the fire department.
Then, since getting people out is the priority, the firefighters will have to head over and rescue these people - taking them away from whatever other duty they had been performing.

They are just houses.
It is just stuff.
And I say this as someone who escaped from a house fire that took off the top half of my parents' house with nothing but a nightshirt and a blanket - we were displaced for over a year.

ITS NOT WORTH IT.

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. Absolutely correct

Every time we have fires, there are stories about the idiots who stayed behind who then had to be saved by people
whose time was better spent somewhere else.

When you're told to go, and you know you're surrounded on three sides, you GET OUT. The alternative is to put the lives of others at risk as they try to save yours.

[t0dd]

17. Some people chose not to walk away

And in this community, there are century old homes. I don't think a home should be classified as a simple material possession. Sure, you can get a new home, but you lose all those memories and risk extended displacement. If the small community there wants to band together and fight off the fires, they have every right to do so even if it defies common logic. In addition, firefighters are already in the vicinity battling the fire.

Anyway, I'm not saying your way of reacting isn't the more reasonable one, but I don't think these people deserve scorn for their determination to save their homes.

[kimmylavin]

20. I have to disagree.

And scorn is what I'm giving.

What if there is a new evacuation perimeter set up?
Fire fighters and rescue personnel are on hand to assist those leaving their homes when told to do so.

And then the call comes in.
They've got to go back to an area that was already supposed to be clear, to rescue people that were already told to leave.
They've got to go back to a situation that has now become more dangerous.

All for material possessions.

I'm not saying its not terrible to lose all your possessions in a fire.
But, memories gone? You make new ones.
Displacement? Did it. You wait, rebuild and go back.
As someone who's already had that happen once, its not the end of the world.

The end of the world would have been my mother or father DYING trying to save some plywood and drywall.
(Or knowing that their stubbornness led to the deaths of others...)
And by the way, their house was centuries old - looks fantastic after the preservation/rebuild.