So Cal wildfires...

[DSJ™]

Damm, I wish I could send you this weather were having up here Matt. It's starting to snow & were suppose to get around 15 tp 25 cm, 6 to 10 inches. The flakes are big & wet.

[JoshEEE]

Agreed. It's a shame you can have our rain from Seattle today, too.

I'm still kind of blown away that you have these fires going on a couple of miles from your house....and yet here you are, on Jedi Defender, chatting away.

I think I'd be packing up my Star Wars guys like crazy, and calling Uhaul, just in case.  

[JediMAC]

I'm still kind of blown away that you have these fires going on a couple of miles from your house....and yet here you are, on Jedi Defender, chatting away.

I think I'd be packing up my Star Wars guys like crazy, and calling Uhaul, just in case.

The U-haul is already lined up and ready to go, as are some friends and family with their vehicles.  Most of my SW stuff is still packed up anyways, since it hasn't even been unpacked yet from the move a couple months ago.  We started packing up some of the important stuff last night, so we're already semi-prepared...  The Santa Clarita area where I live was actually looking fairly safe most of the day today, until just a couple hours ago when the winds shifted again and started blowing the fire back in our direction.  They've just started to issue the first evacuations for our city (in Stevenson Ranch).

Unfortunately, my bosses are being major pricks right now and not "allowing" me to leave work to attend to matters there, since they seem to think there's much more pressing matters here at the office right now.  They just asked me if I could work some serious overtime for the next several days due to a large rush job we just got in, even though my house is in increasing danger.  That's just brilliant...  

I basically just said "screw you, I'm going home" a few minutes ago.  They're pissed.

More updates later...  

[Diddly]

If I were you, I'd just keep that SW stuff packed up for a while! No telling what type of disaster will hit California next. I'd be pretty worried if I lived out there. Most of the homes I've seen on fire on the TV look like million-dollar homes...

I'm glad to see that you're okay. Hopefully the fires will die down before they can do any damage to your home!

[Mikey D]

Best wishes to you and Patty (and any other SoCal JD members out there), Matt.  Add me to the group of people who would be willing to send some of our weather if we could, as its been raining pretty heavily the last three days here in Mass.  

My morning news today did say a little help is on the way:  replacement firefighters from Nevada, Arizona and Washington, a little rain at the end of the week and dying winds and temperatures.  Hopefully it helps.

And I hope they catch the prick that started this real quick and he gets what he deserves.

[Reconsgt]

Well Matt we wish you all the best and hope your area is spared.  I know Sue and myself are thinking about you and Patty as well as the rest of the group.

[JoshEEE]

Man...I hope he didn't have to bug out of his house yesterday.
Looking for updates soon Matt.

I hope all is well down there, and that you're just busy at work.

[Scott]

I haven't seen him around

Shoot us a line when you get a chance Matt

[JediMAC]

Still alive and kicking, and still owning a home at this point.  The fire continues to move along the hills by Stevenson Ranch (in Santa Clarita), which is still about 5 miles away from our place.  That whole mountain range is all equidistant from our house, so it's not actually advancing towards us yet, but just one burning ember flying off in our direction with all the hills and brush surrounding my house, and we'll be in big trouble real quick!  When we were looking to move, most of the houses/condos we were looking at were in Stevenson Ranch.  Lots of million dollar homes in that neighborhood too, so the firefighters are putting up one helluva defense around them.  Seems to be working so far...  Hopefully they're protecting my TRU and Wal-mart right there too!    Good chance we'll probably be losing the family's vacation cabin out in the Big Bear mountains though, in a seperate fire about an hour away from here.  That's gonna really suck if that goes...  

Finished packing up all the essentials last night.  Brought in everything off the back patio this morning, which backs right up to a hillside full of brush.  Picked up some of those breathing masks, some batteries, water, etc. from Target on my way home last night (along with some Blue Clonetrooper 3-packs  ), so we're ready to deal with whatever happens.

I don't like being nearly an hour away though, at the office here.  Tuned in to the radio to see if the fire jumps anywhere.  Our front yard and back patio looked like they had been snowed on when we went outside this morning.  We can't even see the fireline anymore, or pretty much anything for that matter, at this point.  The sky looks like it is completely gone.  Visibility is probably about 200 yards in any direction right now.  It's absolutely gross - nothing but smoke, soot, and ashes everywhere.  Sounds like a lot of the firefighting planes and choppers can't even help anymore due to the lack of visibility...  

Guess that's it for now.  I did manage to get a couple of my trading packages out to fellow JD'ers in the last couple days, so if my house burns down at least their stuff won't go with it, and I'll have a clear trading conscience!  

Back to work and the fire watch now...  I'll update if there's any new developments.  Thanks for the concern and well wishes everyone!  Patty and I really appreciate it...

[JoshEEE]

Glad to hear that your house is still hangin in there. You should capture some pictures of the atmosphere around you (that is, if you have digital capabilities) and preserve them for posterity and everyone online.

Good to hear that you're still able to hunt for (and find) your Star Wars figures even with the fires looming closer. I can just see it now:

"Hmm, the fire is 5 miles away now, and I should be packing....but I should check TRU for clone wars stuff first".

Hehe. True fan down there.



I wish you continued good luck, and still wish I could send some of our rain down there to you.  Actually, I wish that every year.

[JediMAC]

Well, right after I made that last post there, things quickly got a bit more sketchy, as the fire quickly moved another mile or two closer to us - right up to the main interstate 5 highway that I figured was our best defense.  The 5 freeway was closed down for several hours while the fire crews battled the blaze right from the highway, keeping it from hopping the highway which has been our greatest fear all along.  So despite it closing in a bit closer finally, it looks like we're still in good shape for now.

In fact, they're reporting that they're hoping that this fire will now be completely extinguished by sometime tomorrow, since they've forced it into a vacant canyon area that they've spent the last couple days bulldozing.  Hopefully that'll do the trick, 'cause this is getting exhausting dealing with all the stress and worrying...

I took off from work early today to rush home when I heard of the fire's advancement, but apparently so did everyone else in L.A.  Took me just about 3 hours to drive 19.5 miles back to my home.    Fortunately time was not of the essence as it turned out, otherwise I would've probably been SOL.

Still burning badly out of control in a couple of other areas in SoCal though.  Very sad...

[Matt]

What's the latest, Matt?

It seems like things are finally starting to get settled down out there, thankfully.

You guys have been in my thoughts since it all started. . .

[JediMAC]

Thanks Matt.  It looks like we're going to make it through OK now...  They've steered the fire into a small canyon nearby that is mostly already bulldozed, and they're hoping it'll just burn itself out in there, if it hasn't already (haven't caught the news yet this morning).

But for the most part, the smoke and air quality has gotten much better, and the rest of the weather finally started pitching in to help, by giving us our first cool day (about 65) yesterday in several weeks.  Even got some light showers here and there.  So the big Simi Valley fire seems to be in good shape now.

Still can't say the same for the San Bernardino and San Diego fires that are still raging out of control though.  I think they've got a little more containment on them, but not much.  Still a lot of wind here in the Southland.  Not sure yet how our Big Bear cabin has fared though...  

It's kind of bittersweet being excited that my home and neighborhood were saved and made it through OK, when so many people were not nearly as fortunate...  I think they're close to 3,000 structures destroyed now, and at least 20 deaths blamed on the fire, and growing...

But in my own selfish little world, my home and I look to be A-OK now!    Thanks again for the well wishes everyone...

[obi 1 L kenobi]

Matt,
Glad to see it's finally calming down in your area.  I really feel for the people in the harder hit areas, or guys like you who had days of wait and see what happens.  Fortunately we only had about 24 hours and then safety.
And now we've been getting a lot of rain in Moorpark, hopefully you've gotten some of it too. Maybe it'll help the air quality, breathing smoke for days bites, but at least I've still got my house so i don't want to complain.

[JediMAC]

And here we go again...    So Cal's got a bunch of wildfires burning out of control right now.  Not near as bad as last year's (yet), but they're moving and growing quickly.  There was a big truck fire right off the side of our local freeway this morning, right at the exact spot near our house where last year's fire was finally extinguished.  I was quite worried it was going to pick up right where it left off, since that area is nothing but brush from the edge of the freeway, right up to the back of our home not too far away, but fortunately they got it out quickly though!

But there's a bunch of other areas that have been burning out of control the last several days around here.  Of course, the 100+ degree weather isn't helping very much...