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 The Setup
Those of us who live in Southern California
experience a weather event called "Santa
Ana Winds".
It's particularly stronger for those who live in or near
the mountains or foothills as I do. It's a wind condition
that becomes amplified through the mountains and canyons
creating winds upwards of 60 to 70 mph. It's more of a
seasonal event, but they do occur when the conditions
are right. They typically last a few days with constant
aggressive winds that can make a sane man go mad.
This time, both ground
conditions and upper level winds created a unique event
out here where winds in some areas were driving up to
90 mph and greater. A local area was clocked with a
wind gust of 108 mph. The "Santa Ana's" developed
so strongly, that most of southern California was effected.
Add into the mix that
we've had record low levels of
rain, dryer than normal conditions, and record high winds,
it was the perfect storm.
The Burn
It
started early Sunday morning (October 21) in Malibu. I
was awoken with a phone call and turned on the television.
Our local station was running pretty good coverage. "Wow,
pretty bad," I thought. Little did I know it
was the beginning of something almost biblical. By
mid-day, the Malibu fire was joined with other fires
throughout Southern California. It started with one
here, one there, two more over there, and three more
over here. That sick pattern repeated itself well
into Monday. By now, all local radio and television
stations were running non-stop coverage. Have you
ever experienced that? A time in your life where every
channel is covering one event? It's deeply disturbing.
I'm not sure why we feel that way.
It became even more surreal as I was listening to my
local news radio at work on Monday as they ran full coverage
all day. At one point in the afternoon, I heard a news
reporter doing a live report from Santiago Canyon. He
began his report with an interview with someone I actually
know! I couldn't believe my ears! I'm listening to my
friend report on the situation, about to lose his home!
This just added another weird layer to the chaos and confusion.
I later learned that his house was spared in the nick
of time, but at the moment, it was remarkable.
If you lived here, you would swear
it was at worst Armageddon. At best, it was a nuclear
winter. No one could escape the smoke and ash. I woke
up for two days with a layer of ash on my vehicle. Everything
was coated in a fine powder. At times, it was peaceful
like a snowfall, but other times,
the Santa Ana winds kicked up and if you weren't wearing
glasses or goggles, you literally couldn't walk through
the blowing sand, ash, and debris. Since wind conditions
are effected by the local terrain, some areas were more
affected by others. I work 20 miles from home, so at my
office, it wasn't so bad at all. But back at home, my
whole apartment building was shaking due to the high winds.
On several occasions, my ears would pop due to the sudden
air compression on the building. At home, you were breathing
smoke. The air was so thick, it felt like you were breathing
a camp fire.
Over the next 24 hours, a total of 18 fires raged throughout
southern California. You cannot imagine the context of
this surreal environment. Any news source you turned to
was televising live footage of the fires. You couldn't
escape the coverage. For once, I was grateful for this
intense and thorough media coverage. Everyone out here
was captivated, mesmerized, and terrified. If you weren't
in danger, you knew people who were. No one soul was unaffected.
No one. If you lived here, you couldn't possibly think
about anything else. You simply couldn't absorb enough
information fast enough.
The mountains out your window are burning, mushroom clouds
of ash attempt to rise high, but are smashed with lateral
winds blowing smoke across the terrain, making it difficult
to actually see spot fires, preventing fire fighters from
finding and attacking a blaze. In these high winds, helicopters
and fixed-wing aircraft couldn't even attempt to assist.
It all boiled down to a ground attack in the first 24
hours. By day two, the promise of subsiding winds and
cooler temperatures began to help firefighters get a foothold
on the beast.
As the week progressed, containment was
progressing. At the time of this article being released,
they're still gihting the fires...
As of this posting, the running stats are:
• 2013 homes lost
• 516,000 acres burned (800 square miles - see maps!)
• 25,153 structures threatened
• Over 320,000 people evacuated (varying estimates)
• 51 shelters open with a population of over 25,000
• Aircraft and personnel assist: Nevada, Arizona, Oregon,
Colorado, Washington, North Carolina, and New Mexico
These stats are NOT final as of this posting since the
fires are still burning.
I've attached three maps above to give
you a sense of the mass and intensity of the blaze. Each
red square is 100 square miles and is a very accurate
representation of the combined areas burned. It's roughly
800 square miles. It's important to note that one could
perceive ALL of Southern California is on fire, but you
must put it in perspective. Southern California is made
up of a lot of foothills and mountains, so a lot the acreage
burned is vertical, not just horizontally. Take a piece
of paper and crumple it up. On your desk, it looks smaller
crumpled, but larger when flattened out. Consider those
wrinkles and crumples as mountains and foothills out here.
It's a good analogy.
With that in mind, please feel free
to watch the crude video and photos above and
download the wallpaper images below! Get a taste of
what's burning. I couldn't help shooting my load, I
mean, shooting the firemen...
Download Free Wallpaper:
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