The fire was at the North to North Eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley (LA county). I live smack in the middle of the Valley and Vikki is North and East of the Valley.
Lanciero, the $75k dressage horse, had to be evacuated at 6am Saturday morning. Carin, the trainer, was loading horses up while the roof of the stable was on fire! There was a miniature pony at the stable and 5 firefighters put him in the back of the pickup truck. Carin is really pissed that the owner of the farm never called her to tell her to evacuate. Carin does not live on the property and went to bed before 10pm Friday night so she did not know about the fire that started at 10:30 in Sylmar. Very Scary!
It was really interesting to watch the (hours and days) of continuous news coverage of the fire. The commentary was very educational and the footage really illustrated how the fire spreads so rapidly.
The fire spreads due to the dry vegetation on the ground, however, the Santa Ana winds pick up live embers and deposit them blocks away. Those embers start a new fire and it quickly grows. The fire crews have a helicopter that uses a spotlight to show where the new fire started. Then the next "water dumping" helicopter flies to the lite spot and dumps it's load. However, the fire is so hot much of the water evaporates before it even hits the target. The live footage of these events was very illustrative!! Look at the Santa Ana winds in the picture from the BBC.
I'm learning so much in LA: how fire spreads, how to thwart the police in a car chase, .... All good things to know...?!? Why did any person every say, hummm, dry desert, fires, crazy winds, Lets Settle Here! Crazy Settlers!
No comments:
Post a Comment