fatdad wrote:Everyone's been saying that the fire is fueled by brush that hasn't burned in 40 yrs. That's a long time for fuel to accumulate.

I'm not an expert on this but why haven't they done controlled burns over the past years? Too difficult?

Having the Waterman area burn to the ground would indeed be a big loss. It's a beautiful area. Not to mention, if it rains next winter, I can see ACH being washed away once again.

Wow. Smoke is pushing eastward. I can make out Mt Lukens again. Between here and there is still a large plume of smoke, as well as many small ones. I don't think any houses burned in that area but it looks like it came right down to tha last fire road. Will be a sight to see when this is all over. I think most of Lukens burned.

I am so glad I moved.

Well, I just looked at the latimes' map and if they are correct, the fire is very close to Mt Waterman, meaning it is indeed possible Newcombs is gone

Also: ""The Mount Wilson webserver has gone down, most likely due to a backfire infiltration of a pull box containing telephone lines that bring us our T1 internet service. The will be no more updates from the Towercam, the last one being upoaded at 13:49:06""

Looks like we might lose the observatory as well

Luciano136 wrote: Not to mention, if it rains next winter, I can see ACH being washed away once again.

Not to mention that when the Santa Anas do blow, unless it has rained first and caused massive mudslides, all that ash is going to get blown away and dumped on everything from there to Catalina...

And here's a link to the outline of the fire from the LA Times' website:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... .htmlstory

Obviously not an exact depiction of what's burned, but it gives you a general idea...doesn't look pretty...

I just read that the last person being evacuated from Newcomb's Ranch indeed confirmed it burned to the ground. Apparently it caught fire late last night and this morning the last person was evacuated when flames overtook the building. That really sucks! It won't be long now before Waterman ski area is gone as well...

The LA Times has just provided a more detailed outline of the perimeter of the burn area of the Station Fire:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... urce=embed

fatdad wrote:Everyone's been saying that the fire is fueled by brush that hasn't burned in 40 yrs. That's a long time for fuel to accumulate.

When is the last time you've been up the Big T?

I was riding through there twice a week five years ago and couldn't believe the amount of heavy brush that had grown over a 30 year period since the last big fire in the area.

I am amazed at the none proactive controlled burns that never happened over the years.

Too late now...

Reporters claimed they saw ash in Vegas, but the skies seemed fairly clear to me.

I have mixed feelings about all this stuff. For years I lived on the edge of the Adirondacks, where fire suppression had been the rule for 90 years. As a result, we had an extremely flammable understory, making us ripe for a devastating fire.

Near Las Vegas, we had a series of devastating fires in the SW Spring Mts, in 2000-2003. Non-native cheat grass has grown amid the desert plants, which were by evolution separate, so lightning strikes were now the start of unnatural sustained fires. I recall reading that one of the fires in Lovell Canyon was so damaging, there would be no recovery in centuries.

Yet when I went to the fire-damaged areas in 2004, I found great beauty in all the plants that had grown up amid the blackened hulks of pinyons and junipers. The flowers were exquisite; verbena, many varieties of penstemon, 4-o'clocks, gilia, columbines, etc. I later read an article that rangers were shocked by the recovery.

Three cheers for nature; it is hardier than humans imagine.

MoapaPk wrote:Three cheers for nature; it is hardier than humans imagine.

Here here... Concur 100%!


And this cycle will continue long after we are all gone!

The Chief wrote:

fatdad wrote:Everyone's been saying that the fire is fueled by brush that hasn't burned in 40 yrs. That's a long time for fuel to accumulate.

I am amazed at the non proactive controlled burns that never happened over the years.

Too late now...

The answer most likely will be found here:

http://www.aqmd.gov/hb/attachments/2001/01112ca.doc

If my memory serves me correctly La Canada performed a limited controlled burn a few years ago and caught hell for it.

The Chief wrote:
I am amazed at the none proactive controlled burns that never happened over the years.

Too late now...

That's exactly what I was thinking...

MoapaPk wrote:I have mixed feelings about all this stuff. For years I lived on the edge of the Adirondacks, where fire suppression had been the rule for 90 years. As a result, we had an extremely flammable understory, making us ripe for a devastating fire.

It's men trying to intervene with nature. Ideally, none of these areas should be populated, so they can burn freely. Like you said, preventing fires for years causes less burns but when it does, it's a devastating inferno...

goldenhopper wrote:

Luciano136 wrote:I just read that the last person being evacuated from Newcomb's Ranch indeed confirmed it burned to the ground. Apparently it caught fire late last night and this morning the last person was evacuated when flames overtook the building. That really sucks! It won't be long now before Waterman ski area is gone as well...

The owners are nice people and the place was looking great after all the remodeling they did. I hope they can rebuild.

Looking at the latest map, I believe Newcomb's is just outside that boundary by about a mile orso, so who knows, maybe there's some hope it's not completely destroyed. Definitely a lot more humid tonight.

My boss just gave a slide show of his last 4 days. He's just about at the edge of the forest, South of Mt Lukens summit. The freakiest shots are of the "controled burn." He has some good shots of the helicoters coming and going from Deukmejian Park. His mood today? Glad to get away from the constant THWOP! THWOP! THWOP! of the Sky Cranes.

Heard Tujunga is still under manatory evacuation.

Heard they brought in the Boeing 747 to help save the Mt Wilson Observatory. I would love to see video of that. I think I saw it climbing out this moring. I was far from the fire over in N.ridge. I could see a large jet not in any normal traffic pattern.

The Chief wrote:

fatdad wrote:Everyone's been saying that the fire is fueled by brush that hasn't burned in 40 yrs. That's a long time for fuel to accumulate.

When is the last time you've been up the Big T?

I was riding through there twice a week five years ago and couldn't believe the amount of heavy brush that had grown over a 30 year period since the last big fire in the area.

I am amazed at the none proactive controlled burns that never happened over the years.

Too late now...

It'll probably seem obvious when you answer this, but what's the Big T?