Southern CA Ladies, are you ok?

[Fredwina]

I'm ok , but no riding had to dust ash off my car this am

[ribbit_zap]

Hanging in there. I am in Huntington Beach, but there is still plenty of smoke and ash. On Sunday, there was a big mushroom cloud of smoke...it looked like something had exploded. Very scary for those in the fire areas.

[Ninabike]

Trek, Thanks for asking. Everything is so smokey now, you can't see anything. I took this picture from my Glendale office window with my cell phone right after the fire started last Wednesday. This is nothing compared to what it later became. The plume of smoke over the weekend was just like those pictures you see of pyroclastic clouds from a volcano. I think they called it a "pyrocumulos" (sp?) cloud. Actually, it was scary and facinating at the same time. Very sad about the 2 firefighters who died. The wife of one of them is expecting their first child later this month.

[Trek420]

You're welcome. I know you gals (and guys?) would have the same concern for us if something was going on here. I was listening to NPR on the way to work about the evacuation of an animal sanctuary. I think they are putting them up at the zoo?

[Ninabike]

Yes, the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Tugunga was evacuated to the L.A. Zoo. A lot of people in the fire-affected areas have horses which have had to be evacuated also. I have lived here all my life and this fire was very unusual in that, rather than being blown by Santa Ana winds in a specific direction, with a specific "fire line', this fire burned from a central point out in all directions - Mt. Wilson on the East to Acton (near Palmdale) in the Northwest. They say it is the largest fire in L.A. County in 100 years - over 140,000 acres. The schools in Glendale are still closed, although some evacuees in the local area are being allowed back in. No report yet on how the fire started.

[Trek420]

News says human causes

[channlluv]

San Diego hasn't been affected at all by this particular fire, except that our sunsets have been particularly colorful the last few evenings. I keep looking out for an air quality warning, but nothing for here so far.

LA people, give us a reference. LA county is huge, and this fire is up in the northeast, yes? I know where Santa Monica is, and Irvine, and I took the train up to Santa Barbara once, and we've been to Anaheim twice to go to Disneyland. That's about it. The rest of LA is one big metro mass, so I have no reference points for Glendale or any of the places being directly affected by the fire.

Roxy