Los Angeles Times: Catastrophic fires blaze a path of destruction through Southland

[marmar]

Catastrophic fires blaze a path of destruction through Southland



By Louis Sahagun, Mike Anton and Mitchell Landsberg
November 16, 2008


In a swiftly moving catastrophe that seemed as familiar as it was shocking, Southern California once again was besieged by flame Saturday, from Orange County to Santa Barbara, with hundreds of homes consumed by three major wind-driven fires, including one of the most devastating blazes ever to strike the city of Los Angeles.

At least 30,000 people were ordered to evacuate their homes amid smoke that blew like stinging fog through wind-ravaged canyons. Major freeways, including Interstate 5 and the 91 and 71 freeways, were closed, making escape tricky for some. More than 500 mobile homes were destroyed at a community in Sylmar; and about 100 houses and apartments were damaged or destroyed in Riverside and Orange counties. The numbers were expected to grow.

Authorities focused overnight on flames rapidly pushing northwest through Chino Hills State Park, where they posed a threat to neighborhoods in Carbon Canyon and Chino Hills. Officials ordered evacuations in the area.

Remarkably, there was no new loss of life reported. On Friday, a 98-year-old man died while being evacuated in Santa Barbara, where fire destroyed multimillion-dollar homes. There were at least 11 injuries reported Saturday, including four firefighters in Riverside County who were briefly overtaken by flames, and five firefighters were injured in Sylmar.

It was a day of record heat and low humidity throughout the region, with a high of 93 in downtown Los Angeles. A wind advisory remained in effect for portions of the region through this morning. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-firemain16-2008nov16,0,6439780.story

[opihimoimoi]

1. 93 and low humid ....not enough FF's.....low water supply....HOLY SHIT here come da winds

As a Ret'd FF....I fucking hate them fires....

[Hepburn]

2. I live in South Bay, SoCal....

...for those of you who are not familiar with CA, the closest major city to me is Long Beach which is south of LA.

Yesterday, my guy pal and I had to run a necessary legal errand and go from South Bay to Riverside ~~ the latter being inland from me, about 60 miles ~~ and to the east. Between me and Riverside were major fires.

We tried every route possible for about 2 hours and we could not get to Riverside. The major freeways and state highways were closed or blocked because of the fires. We stopped in the Yorba Linda area on Imperial Hwy...and I have NEVER before seen anything like what I saw yesterday: Fire coming over the hills that acted like it was literally molten lava...it was just oozing and rolling. And it just ate anything in its way. The sky was sooooooo black that cars had headlights on and the sun was glowing through the black sky like an electric orange pumpkin. This was about 3:00 PM.

It was unreal and we decided to turn back and go home.

The traffic was major league congested and all of the freeways going North ~~ as we passed by on the 91 going back to pick up the 110 to South Bay ~~ they looked like parking lots. Apparently since the 91 was closed, everyone was trying to go North to get to the 10 or the 60 Freeways.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Oh my goodness!

Sounds like a scene from "The Inferno"! I'm glad you and your pal got home safely. Hope you were able to resolve the legal errand another way.