So there's this pretty gnarly fire burning all across the San Gabiel Mountains and the Angeles Crest

...and it's at 5% containment the last I heard. It's been going for about three days now, and there's a very serious risk that it's going to hit the towns in the foothills and spread from there. It's pretty crazy, looks about halfway between a mushroom cloud and a volcanic eruption. Given the terrain its on there's not much that the Fire Departments seem to be able to do about it. Here's to hoping they get it before anyone dies.

I'll post some pictures up if I can get some.

 

I once started a fire in a fire pit. It totally compares.

 

My area here in the San Fernando Valley (Reseda & Porter Ranch-where I work) has smelled of fire for most of the day. When I left work a little after 4pm, towards the San Gabriel Mountains, there was a HUGE plume of smoke that wasn't there when I got to work in the morning.

 

It's been building pretty quickly. It started on Thursday while some friends and I were playing a game of soccer in a field in La Canada close to the bass of the mountain the fire was on the other side. By the time we were done playing it was starting to come over and they started evacuation notices. That night you could see the orange glow from the fire from Huntington drive in San Marino The next day you could see it from my workplace in Pasadena. Today it seems to have spread wide enough that you can see it from Melrose as well as San Gabriel. It's pretty crazy.

 

I've an unverified claim that a friend could see the smoke from Arizona.


Apparently the north side of the fire is coming in at Acton and Santa Clarita now, while the south side is coming close to the houses. I was up in the area helping a friend move, and over the day it was really coming down the hills fast.

 

I'd believe it, the plume was pretty high today. About an hour ago some friends and I went around trying to get a better vantage point on the fire and it's moving pretty quickly down the slopes toward Altadena. The local cops and the Sheriffs department have the area up around JPL completely cordoned off, so we got as far north as we could and drove east parallel to the mountains. It's pretty breathtaking, like a ribbon of fire creeping along the mountain face.

At this point I think there probably just waiting it to get close enough to the ground for them to be able to fight it effectively, because there's no way there getting men up there where the fire is now. Hopefully they stop it before it cause too much damage. I've already heard about some houses that have gone up, and heard from some more people who've been evacuated.

 

Man, it's completely sad that when I heard about the fires, the first thing on my mind was "whew, it's not us at least."

Though we haven't even hit fire season, and we've had a year off...

 

The smoke hit my work place, Creech AFB Nevada last night. It was really eery coming in to work at midnight, the moon was DARK red and that hazy smoke everywhere.

 

It's really strange, because I didn't even know about any of these fires until yesterday. I'm in Orange County and I could slightly see one of the smoke clouds... but honestly, the sky is really clear down here. Which is weird. The only thing I've noticed is the crazy heat that these fires are probably stoking in the area.

Having had my school community devastated by that Santa Barbara fire in November, I feel really apprehensive for people who are in an affected area. Hell, my graduation stuff had to be moved off-campus again in May because of evacuations. I am so sick of fires.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

So I'm in North Carolina for a week, and when I get back I'm greeted by a fire. Whoopie.

One of my best friends is in the Glendale area. I hope he's okay.

 

I hear ya, Rach. I got evacuated for the SD fires in 07. Not fun.


And my car was covered in ash this morning. There's no fires down here, so it's gotta be coming from your guyses fire.

 

I noticed traces of ash in the garden department at my Wally World, and the huge clouds of smoke are still clearly visible in the sky, though the smell of the fire was non-existent in my areas of the Valley today.

 

Well, I got back from a cast party awhile ago, and when I was getting into my friend's car to head home, we noticed the fire in the mountains. It was the first time I'd seen it.

 

Welcome to California friend!