California Fires: Everyone ok?

[tvguy]

As in people not getting enough information or warnings?

In any emergency, a review of communications is in order afterwards. I became aware of the potential for major problems a week ago when people I know who work in emergency services were dispatched to Southern California to standby if they were needed. So as an armchair observer, it would seem that "Government" took action and took it early. Was it enough? I don't know. And did that information get to people? I don't know. It would seem so, but nobody expected something this big. As I typed this my son just let us know they are under an evacuation alert, via text, so warning information is getting out. However, one of the lessons of the wildfire near Santa Rosa a few years ago was that cell phone technology was not reliable as cell towers burned down. The two communications systems that were more reliable for getting information out, AM Radio, and landlines which were underground in many areas and not impacted.

EDIT: Text my son got about evacuations was sent in error. So communications have not been perfect.

 

[Judique]

I can see the fires from my home. Air quality in my area is unhealthy, but I am safe.

It is difficult to open a thread asking if everyone is okay and scroll through five pages of people discussing/debating what type of coverage it warrants or pointing fingers at the cause. Can someone either change the title or move this thread back on topic?

@badtink2.0, I know you are overseas. If you are able to download the app, Watch Duty, it has accurate fire information.

@Lumpy1106 Goats have been used throughout LA County and up and down the state for many, many years.

@sasywtch Mutual aid is common during disasters. Southern California sent manpower and equipment to help both Sacramento and Canada during their fires.

Regarding the Sunset Fire, evacuations are being lifted as I type.

This was a huge windstorm. We haven't had winds like this in a decade. The wind prevented an arial attack on Tuesday. Once the 60-100 mph winds died down, and helicopters could fly, they were able to drop thousands of gallons of water every minute or two in rapid succession. The copters greatly helped the ground crews.

We are expecting strong Santa Ana winds tomorrow and next week, especially in Orange County and Inland Empire. They won't be as strong as Tuesday, but they will be strong enough to cause additional problems in LA and fuel new fires south of LA.

It is a new day. Hug your loved ones. Take a moment to appreciate what you have and that you are able to spend your free time on a website about the Happiest Place on Earth.


View attachment 927743

Well said!

Here is hoping that all who are affected or who have family and friends affected come through this safely at the very least with their lives and loved ones.

East coaster here. We've had a storm but to stay safe most of us just had to stay off the roads. I'd much rather deal with this white stuff in an area that is pretty well prepared for white stuff than be running from wildfires.

@tvguy sorry your state is going through this and hopefully all your loved ones stay safe!
It's tough to be under stress when you can do little about it. Take care of yourself and your wife.

 

[DCLMP]

In any emergency, a review of communications is in order afterwards. I became aware of the potential for major problems a week ago when people I know who work in emergency services were dispatched to Southern California to standby if they were needed. So as an armchair observer, it would seem that "Government" took action and took it early. Was it enough? I don't know. And did that information get to people? I don't know. It would seem so, but nobody expected something this big. As I typed this my son just let us know they are under an evacuation alert, via text, so warning information is getting out. However, one of the lessons of the wildfire near Santa Rosa a few years ago was that cell phone technology was not reliable as cell towers burned down. The two communications systems that were more reliable for getting information out, AM Radio, and landlines which were underground in many areas and not impacted.

EDIT: Text my son got about evacuations was sent in error. So communications have not been perfect.

I spent the first 30 years of my life in southern California. Of course we didn't have cell phones. When the Santa Ana winds blew you just watched the news all day and stay prepared. I would hope people still stay vigilant and not depend on cell phone alerts to tell them when to evacuate. You should know when to evacuate by the smoke and the direction of the wind.

 

[Genie+]

https://apnews.com/article/southern-california-wildfires-la-6d3c56318841ecbb97f9514f65fbf89b

New LA-area fire prompts more evacuations as officials say thousands of homes, buildings have burned​

The Kenneth Fire started in the late afternoon in the San Fernando Valley near the West Hills neighborhood and close to Ventura County. The evacuation order covered parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

 

[TinkAgainU]

I noticed some people basically saying, the homeowners brought this on themselves. Most, and certainly not all, homeowners in California who can reasonably clear around their homes do so now - although sometimes at the fire department or insurance companies' insistence. If you have a tree within branch distance of a power line for example, they can, and absolutely will, come and hack back your tree. Most areas of California are pretty proactive about fire risk.

But when you have high density housing (by California standards) built on hills to fit more homes in, adjacent to wildlands which are nearly impossible to keep clear of greenery without risking mudslides - there is additional risk. Asking people not to live there is Exactly like asking Floridians to move out of hurricane areas (all of Florida in a worst-case scenario?). There simply is no way to entirely mitigate what Mother Nature can do. We can make efforts, but blaming homeowners (or politicians for that matter) for not attending to every single possibility is unrealistic.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I noticed some people basically saying, the homeowners brought this on themselves. Most, and certainly not all, homeowners in California who can reasonably clear around their homes do so now - although sometimes at the fire department or insurance companies' insistence. If you have a tree within branch distance of a power line for example, they can, and absolutely will, come and hack back your tree. Most areas of California are pretty proactive about fire risk.

But when you have high density housing (by California standards) built on hills to fit more homes in, adjacent to wildlands which are nearly impossible to keep clear of greenery without risking mudslides - there is additional risk. Asking people not to live there is Exactly like asking Floridians to move out of hurricane areas (all of Florida in a worst-case scenario?). There simply is no way to entirely mitigate what Mother Nature can do. We can make efforts, but blaming homeowners (or politicians for that matter) for not attending to every single possibility is unrealistic.

It's much deeper than that. It's not even blame to homeowners, it's developers for one, who have in many jurisdictions in CA the ultimate say (and they aren't going to turn down profit), the cities who allow that, it's not utilizing the nature to build in natural fire walls, it's NIMBY has pushed more development into the higher risk fire areas (some being the highest). Some of the cities themselves have admitted they knew there was an increased risk and yet they allowed developers to build there. Some admitted they didn't arm the public with the best of knowledge either even though it was a large warning given out over the decades (especially as development grew over the years). On the politicians because we're on the normal board you can't delve into that but sometimes they are majorly involved.

It's not even removing greenery, you build a home there and using its slope a fire gets started at one home which burns down, that fuels the fire which moves downward and ignites another home which fuels the fire more which ignites a home located further down. You could have no vegetation around and it will still present a significant fire risk. Add to that lack of water sources. When I was at the insurance company not having a fire hydrant within 1,000 feet for example was an automatic decline, not being seen by the public road may or may not (this allows dangers to be seen by others which can aid in getting help and help faster), if you had a body of water say a large pond but no fire hydrant it was required to pump a certain amount of water per minute out so if a fire truck made it it had a water source.

It's what your fire departments are like, as in volunteer, subscription based, are they using up to date tech. In some places in CA due to budget cuts they've lost staff on fire departments or didn't build a fire station near a new development.

As far as mother nature? One of the articles I looked up probably summed that part up by saying "We’re seeing wildfires that have always been a part of the landscape that are now interacting more and more with us - not just because they are getting larger, but because we’re building in wildfire prone regions" (a researcher and geographer). It's like the people in my area sounding the alarms about coyotes but neglecting to admit their home and many of the homes around here have pushed their populations further into the heart of the city, one reason we see them more often than before in the day time. As trees are torn down and development moved southwardly and westwardly (the only way it can in my city), their natural habitat shrinks. It's the opposite in CA that you've got these places that are high risk and you're building in them.

Just for those looking for more information you might consider looking up your own home's ISO (International Organization for Standardization) also called your PPC (Public Protection Classification) which runs on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the best 10 being the worst. It helps insurers determine your risk.

The reason you want people to talk about all of these factors and all the ones that haven't been touched here is because it's not going to get better without true action, we all are impacted by that not just because of human and pet and wildlife suffering but also because of the drains to the monies cost and the insurance industry as a whole. You probably don't want to use FL as your example because you can see what the effects of increased natural disasters are having for them.

 

[VandVsmama]

I know somebody who has plans to travel to the LA area this weekend to visit a friend. Kind of hope they cancel those plans, since there's more fires popping up now in other places in addition to Pacific Palisades.

 

[LKing]

I know somebody who has plans to travel to the LA area this weekend to visit a friend. Kind of hope they cancel those plans, since there's more fires popping up now in other places in addition to Pacific Palisades.

Remember, Los Angeles has a population of 9.6 million and the vast majority of people are safe. If their friends live in an area that is safe and feel that it is safe to have friends visit, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[VandVsmama]

Remember, Los Angeles has a population of 9.6 million and the vast majority of people are safe. If their friends live in an area that is safe and feel that it is safe to have friends visit, I wouldn't worry about it.

True. Except in this case, the individual who this person is going to visit is now located near one of the fires. I'm purposely being vague.

 

[Minnie1222]

the individual who this person is going to visit is now located near one of the fires.

Now is not the time to visit unless they go just to help their friend with a possible evacuation. Air quality is poor right now. My relatives, whose houses are currently not in the danger zone, have already left the area.

 

[luvthatduke]

Might be the top story today, might not be tomorrow. The top story changes frequently.

It's the times we live in. The news cycles are getting shorter & shorter.

... we now have so many tools available to us that allow us to choose what news we consume and how we consume it. Gone are the days when we have to wait until 6pm for the national broadcasters on tv to tell us what they want us to know.

This is why I prefer to browse the web vs. browsing the limited channels on TV.
I'm not spoon-fed from either "side" and I can read international news which is generally
much more informative than US news.
I'm not saying there's no bias worldwide, but I can compare one outlet w/another and
read between the lines.

 

[TinkAgainU]

...

Just for those looking for more information you might consider looking up your own home's ISO (International Organization for Standardization) also called your PPC (Public Protection Classification) which runs on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the best 10 being the worst. It helps insurers determine your risk.

...

I'm not familiar with the ISO or PPC Classification. In California, every (or nearly every) home sale includes the buyer receiving an NHD - Natural Hazards Disclosure, prepared by a third party company. They run around $100 and are often 50-100 pages with a lot of local info for someone thinking of moving into a neighborhood. I did not see anything about ISO or PPC mentioned in a recent NHD report.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm not familiar with the ISO or PPC Classification. In California, every (or nearly every) home sale includes the buyer receiving an NHD - Natural Hazards Disclosure, prepared by a third party company. They run around $100 and are often 50-100 pages with a lot of local info for someone thinking of moving into a neighborhood. I did not see anything about ISO or PPC mentioned in a recent NHD report.

Most people aren't aware because it's more nitty gritty stuff. It wouldn't be in the report you're talking about. Primarily it's used by insurance companies to determine your risk level but the rating/score can be very important for your community as a whole. You can ask your insurance company what your rating is. The reason why people may want to know is because it affects both your eligibility for insurance as well as it's part of your insurance premium but it's also good for you to know things about your own area including how your fire department is. The weight of the rating given to both premiums and acceptability vary by insurance company and product.

You can enquire about it from your fire department. There's also this from the ISO's website

Customized reports​

For information about your own community’s public fire protection, a customized Public Protection Classification (PPC®) report is available by mail. The report includes a list of the needed fire flows for all the commercial occupancies we have on file for your community, as well as details of the latest review of your community’s fire protection services (your PPC grading). The report is available, free of charge, to your community’s fire chief or chief administrative official.

Please mail your request on fire department letterhead or your chief administrative official’s letterhead to your National Processing Center.
For more information on any topic related to the Public Protection Classification (PPC®) program or the Fire Suppression Rating Schedule, Contact us, or call our mitigation specialists at 1-800-444-4554.

And to add a bit more the rating/score isn't set in stone, the rating can go up and down depending on how your community is. For example from 2002 to early 2016 my city's fire department was an ISO rating of 3, in early 2016 they were awarded an ISO rating of 1 (which is the best) and it was in part due to things they did at the fire department level including investments as well as agreements with county services and multiple other things like better training for fire fighters, usages of technology, etc.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

There are a variety places you can donate but this morning did some looking into some places I could and I donated a little bit to each of these animal places:

https://spcala.com/programs-services/dart/?bbFormId=178a1dfb-5482-4675-ba9e-4b315097f86f

https://give.pasadenahumane.org/give/654134/#!/donation/checkout

https://lacountyanimals.org/

​

 

[Imzadi]

Disney CEO Bob Iger also took to Instagram to document the wildfire devastation while driving through the Pacific Palisades.

Will this be considered incentive. Seems to me to be.

OOPS meant insensitive.

Turns out it might have been an incentive to donate after all. Disney is donating $15 million for the wildfire relief.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/disney-donates-la-wildfire-relief-efforts-1236270874/

 

[DCLMP]

I'm glad to see the attention to this disaster and all the donations. It's unfortunate Maui and North Carolina didn't get the same attention. There are no movie stars in Appalachia.....but there are still people living in tents in the cold.

 

[hardcorestitch]

I'm glad to see the attention to this disaster and all the donations. It's unfortunate Maui and North Carolina didn't get the same attention. There are no movie stars in Appalachia.....but there are still people living in tents in the cold.

Unfortunately they treat media markets outside of NYC and LA as small markets.

 

[Minnie1222]

Disney is based in California so it is natural for them to help their communities.

 

[kymom99]

I'm glad to see the attention to this disaster and all the donations. It's unfortunate Maui and North Carolina didn't get the same attention. There are no movie stars in Appalachia.....but there are still people living in tents in the cold.

Dolly Parton donated $1million. I’d say Disney donating this large amount to their community is perfectly understandable.

 

[LKing]

Sharing for those that don't know where the studios are relative to the fires.