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Yesterday and the day before it was the area southeast and adjacent to Santa Barbara that was on fire. Today it’s the San Fernando Valley and its bedroom communities north of Los Angeles.Dubbed the Tea fire in Santa Barbara, more than a 100 homes, some valued at $2 million dollar plus, and hundreds of acres burned before firefighters got a handle on it.
Damn good thing, too, that they got it contained, because now we need all their resources.
While the winds died down in the Santa Barbara area, allowing for containment, they did not die down in the San Fernando Valley, and today is the fourth straight day of ceaseless Santa Ana winds.
Dubbed the Sylmar fire, it’s moving in the customary westerly direction, breaking out of Sylmar and is now burning in the Granada Hills area.
The smoke is visible to the north and east of my house, and when I brought in the paper a few minutes ago there was definitely the pungent smell of smoke in the air.
During these national news making conditions, of unseasonably high temperatures, single- to low double-digit humidity and hurricane force winds of 50- to 76-miles per hour, there was news about an hour ago that a power sub-station caught fire and blew up, taking electricity from a large area, so I’d better type fast before we’re next.
Good thing I’ve got a battery powered television.
Am I worried. Not particularly; more like wary.
Because it’s gotten so built up in my hilly area in the West San Fernando Valley, it’s been years since a fire has come worrisomely-close. But, ya never know.
I’ve seen a lot of fires burn in the years I’ve lived here, but as the news people are commenting and I saw for myself, no one has seen fires burn like the Tea and Sylmar fires.
From the aerial views from the news choppers, the burning brush looks like boiling, flowing lava.
If any of you recall a couple of weeks ago, the Sesnon fire threatened the 600 homes in the Oakridge Mobil Home Park in the north Valley. It was spared then, but what the Sesnon fire didn’t do, the Sylmar fire is accomplishing.
The evacuated mobile home park is now on fire and as I type and watch television, I can see several mobile homes burning. The equestrian park that is adjacent to Oakridge is a normal place to shelter horses in the event of fire, and it, too, has been scorched.
The stats on this swiftly moving fire at 7:15 a.m. PST is at least 10 structures and more than 2,600 acres have burned, and one civilian has been severely injured.
Any minute now I expect to hear Aaarnold declaring a state-of-emergency here, just as he did yesterday for the Tea fire.
On Thursday, California had its largest statewide earthquake drill. Maybe it should have been a fire drill, because once again our firefighters are being put to the ultimate test.
