Fire On the Mountain - With Update 8 am 10/14

Updates below. It's going to be a loverly fire season in LA LA land. After fighting insomnia for a few hours, I turned on the news which is hard thing to find on our local stations on a Sunday. I was surprised to learn of a local fire. I decided to get up and take a peek at our mountains but went to grab the camera first. I could see this blaze - just one ridge line from my creek - from my office window. These were taken from the back porch. They are a bit blurry...It is pitch black at five a.m.






Gee, our impending wind storm has really shown up for the party yet! We're expecting those later in the day. It will be a tension filled Sunday in the neighborhood.


7 p.m. Life goes on in our canyon. Mabel and I even got a mid-day hike in as the winds were blowing SW toward Burbank. It wasn't even smoky where we are. The fire is about 5 miles away and the fire department has a web site they update if anyone is interested. This fire is named the Marek Wildland Fire.

This morning, the BFF and I were headed out to run a few errands for my upcoming show and we spotted seven fire trucks on the freeway headed toward the fire. It's nice to know the calvary is on the way. Still, our wind storm is predicted to last for two days with sustained winds in the 20-40 mph range and gusts of 60 mph. That will make fighting this fire very difficult!

10/13 - 10 am The fire is actually about two miles further up the canyon than I originally thought but with all the smoke and 65 mph winds... Everyone in this valley is on edge. The freeways are all closed and traffic along our one road is moving slow.

When I went to bed last night, I could no longer see fire on the mountain. But after the winds kicked up, I kept hearing sirens and by 4 a.m. the orange glow was back. Sleep was intermittent...kept having to get up and secure stuff blowing around the yard and banging on the walls. When I woke, I DIDN'T hear the sound of choppers...NOT reassuring when fire is nearby. It's was too windy. Now they are flying but not as much as yesterday. And the fixed wing tankers are a no-go in this wind. We're all on standby in case the winds change...

10/13 - 6 pm I'm sorry about the fire link. Yesterday, they updated about every 1/2 hour - hour... today: Nothing! And once the Sesnon fire broke out at Porter Ranch with all those Chi Chi Poo Poo homes, the local news, which had been covering Marek all morning, moved there. What's a few trailers burning when million dollar homes may go up in flames?

Hiking buddy and I went up Alpine tonight to see if we could spot anything other than smoke. We were pleased to see white smoke over Marek but the Sesnon fire (17 miles from here) looked HUGE! I did find an update on the news just now (on the crawler tag) that Marek is back down to only 5% contained and over 3200 acres. And with the winds expected to gust 65 mph until around noon tomorrow, it's going to be another tension filled night.

Tuesday 10/14 - 8 am - Last night, actual flames (instead of the ominous orange glow) were visible on the mountain. But the winds were not horrendous and the smoke plume seems thinner today. The Inciweb site says the fire is 70% contained. Last night they posted to say only 5% - so that's a great improvement overnight. So things seem to be getting better.

I'll be happy if the winds die down as predicted this afternoon. Knowing how far burning embers can travel scares the hell out of me. Last night, watching the all important Sesnon fire (praying for news on Marek), a house caught on fire a couple of miles from the closest fireline. And the stupid news anchors were all "How did this happen. This is very suspicious." Do your research a-hole! Did you learn anything at all in the Griffith fire last year???

During that fire, the battalion chiefs all thought they had either multiple arsonists or one very quick one. The fires were breaking out miles apart. When they finally realized the park was locked down, then they knew the arsonist was the wind (after the initial blaze).

Don't even get me started on these stupid news people. I love the little girls with their goggles, respirators, fire jackets and manicures. But the dumbest of them all has to be KTLA's Eric Spillman. Dude, if I wanted to "listen to the wind," all I have to do is open a window. Tell me some real news!