johnm wrote:Saw this on another board, the station fire, starts with the foothills above La Canada

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anosmicovni/sets/72157622043005955/show/with/3864982760/

Those pictures are amazing

I was flying back from the east coast yesterday into LAX in the afternoon and got a pretty good view. I remember looking out the window as we flew over the grand canyon and the entire area was covered in a brown smokey haze. It obviously stayed that way the rest of the flight, although Big Bear Lake seemed to have dodged most of the smoke. The mushroom cloud looking out from the plane looked as though a bomb went off in the mountains and you could see plumes of smoke from 6 or 7 different locations heading north.

There was smoke all the way out to the Owens Valley (Lone Pine) on Sat. By Sun the winds picked up and most of the haze was gone. Above 9K was clear both days. Driving back on Hwy 14 last night was surreal.

We checked out the pictures on line while in CO. Now that we're back, we have a ringside seat in our back yard, watching the Station Fire rage out of control a couple miles away. We have been very lucky with the winds.

phxphotog wrote:Interesting timelapse view of the fire.

http://www.ireport.com/blogs/ireport-blog

Here's another version of it:
http://www.brandonriza.com/Video/HTML/ZeroPercentContained.html

Independent of where we can hike while the fire's blazing, there are some beautiful areas in the Mt. Wilson, Chilao area that are getting torched. All those beautiful pines and oaks are toast. Even Newcomb's Ranch burned to the ground. It's going to be a generation at least before some of areas reforest.

Jesus F'n Christ!

I left town the day this stuff started -last Wednesday- and only smelled the fire in Pasadena. Now I hear it's moving towards the Mt. Wilson Observatory? Anyone know where I can find a list of places that are being evacuated? Trying to get information from the news while on the East Coast is next to impossible. The news seems to focus on repeating the same views of the fire over and over, while waiting for houses to catch on fire so they can film it.

???

Thanks in advance,

Gusto

Newcomb's Ranch!?!?! Damn!

fatdad wrote:Independent of where we can hike while the fire's blazing, there are some beautiful areas in the Mt. Wilson, Chilao area that are getting torched. All those beautiful pines and oaks are toast. Even Newcomb's Ranch burned to the ground. It's going to be a generation at least before some of areas reforest.

Unfortunately this is the NATURE of this area.

Sadly, the decades of suppression have created a firestorm that far too many are sadly witnessing.

Just be thankful that a Santa Ana isn't around.

MCGusto,
you can also contact your local FD. here's a link to LA county...

http://www.fire.lacounty.gov/


Had I not moved recently, I'd have been in the Tujunga evacuation.

Gary Schenk wrote:

MCGusto wrote:Jesus F'n Christ!

I left town the day this stuff started -last Wednesday- and only smelled the fire in Pasadena. Now I hear it's moving towards the Mt. Wilson Observatory? Anyone know where I can find a list of places that are being evacuated? Trying to get information from the news while on the East Coast is next to impossible. The news seems to focus on repeating the same views of the fire over and over, while waiting for houses to catch on fire so they can film it.

???

Thanks in advance,

Gusto

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

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/

Thanks for the links! I'm not being evacuated yet...

Gusto

I still remember the Big Tujunga Inferno of '72.

That was the last big one in that entire area.

Has it been confirmed that Newcomb's burned down? I see the outline of the burn area and the fire has apparently burned east of there, so I figured as much, but if true, I'm really bummed.

As Chief and others have pointed out, it's hard to get too upset about chaparral burning like it's been doing for a lot longer than we've been around, but I'm worried about the higher elevation pine forests now that the fire is moving east from the front range toward Mt. Waterman and then on to the high country. The USFS has a stated goal of keeping the fire west of Hwy 39 (Islip Saddle), but that would leave a lot of beautiful high country in ashes even if they stop it there...

Makes you wonder if the pine forests will be able to recover at all if the fire burns the canopy and really rages (as opposed to healthy, low intensity fire cleaning the detritus on the forest floor). After the Cedar Fire burned through Cuyamaco Rancho S.P. back in 2003, I remember reading a couple of years later that the fire burned so hot that none of the pine seeds that open naturally in a fire were able to survive and the area would likely revert to oak and chaparral. I sincerely hope that's not the case for the mid-elevation areas of the San G's (e.g., Chilao, Mt. Gleason, Mt. Pacifico, etc.).

The loss of local recreational opportunities is saddening, as well. I have no problem understanding fire's role in the ecosystem, but it'll be a real bummer if the campgrounds and trails that are damaged aren't opened for the better part of a decade (see, e.g., the still closed Crystal Lake area in the ANF that burned in 2002, I think). Being able to escape for a night to a pine shaded campground in less than an hour is one of the best parts of living in the LA Basin... Sadly, those days might be on hold for a long time. Oh well, I guess - that's the nature of life in the fire zone ...

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.

Steve Larson wrote:Newcomb's Ranch!?!?! Damn!

Huh, really?!? That sucks!! Newcombs is way east of Mt. Wilson though? I was under the impression the fires were west of Mt. Wilson?!