Half Way To Hell Here In SoCal

[steve williams]

The past month here in Southern California. has been unusually hotter than it is even usually. When Christop visited we we ai th e high 90's to 102. Since he left the temps have been as high as 114 . It was 112 yesterday and to make matters worse there was a power failure in our area shutting down me and 462 other homes. Power went pout at 0500 and didn't come back on until 1800 hours last evening.

To make matters worse we live in Coto de Caza which is a suburb of Trabuco Canyon. Yesterday at noon a wild fire broke out in the wooded art of the canyon 3-4 miles from us and as of this morning over 2000 acres have been gutted of woodland. The adjacent 3 communities closest to the fire underwent a mandatory evacuation. This morning the fire is still raging but remains away from us due too the direction of the winds. Our skies are flooded. with water dropping planes and fire retardants.

Here is what we saw yesterday from my car as we have our son's dog who was panting from the heat. WE went for a drive to a local air-conditioned area and took the photos

 

[steve williams]

this is a view this morning from our house as the sun was coming up

 

[steve williams]

Evacuation Orders Issued for the Airport Fire in Santiago Canyon
Dear Residents,


A brush fire, known as the Airport Fire, is continuing to burn in Trabuco Canyon. The fire has now spread to approximately 1,400 acres and remains 0% contained. Fire crews are actively working to control its spread, with additional air and ground resources being deployed.


Evacuation Orders (Level 3 - Go) have been issued for residents in the following areas:


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• Robinson Ranch HOA
•
• Trabuco Highlands HOA
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• Trabuco Highland Apartment Complex
•


Additionally, Evacuation Warnings (Level 2 - Set) have been issued for:


•
• Rose Canyon Road
•
• Trabuco Creek Road
•
• Trabuco Canyon Road
•
• Trabuco Oaks Drive
•
• Joplin Loop
•
• Cook's Corner
•
• Dove Canyon
•


A temporary evacuation point has been established at the Lake Forest Sports Complex, located at 28000 Vista Terrace, Lake Forest, CA 92630. Directions are available under the "Shelters" tab.

 

[steve williams]

It's going to be a nail biting day...the good news is there seems to be little or no wind to spread it further but it is raging on

 

[DonH50]

Gut-wrenching, really feel for you Steve. Brings back memories of when we evacuated from a fire near our place, it's a horrible feeling, hope they get it under control! Long days and sleepless nights waiting for "the call". And twitching every time the planes flew over or fire trucks went by.

How close is that to you, are you on pre-evac or evacuation orders? (Some places call it "evacuation warning" and "evacuation order" for pre-evac and evac respectively.) Hopefully it passes y'all by!

We have a whole-house generator but it's mainly for snowstorms; in a wildfire evacuation, gas lines are turned off, so our generator (on our natural gas line) wouldn't help.

The worst case I know happened to a friend and coworker, one of the nicest guys I know. He and his wife lost their house in a fire (at the time worst in Colorado Springs history). They had almost rebuilt and were storing household items new and old at his in-law's house on the other side of town, when that place burned in a forest fire a year later. They lost almost everything they did not lose in the first fire, plus all the stuff they had purchased to refurnish the house to move in a few weeks later.

We keep a few boxes with pictures and key papers loaded and ready to go.

 

[steve williams]

Thanks for the concern. We have only been on alert. The 3 communities closest to fire were under mandatory evacuation. Our skies are buzzing with planes and choppers and news helicopters.
The weather service has had a severe weather warning for the past week which supposedly ends tonight Its only 827 AM and weather is already 88 degrees .

Yesterday was a disaster when we had a power failure involving 462 houses in our area which took over 13 hours to restore in 112 degree weather

The area is truly a tinder box and this is the reason why almost 100% of insurance companies are no longer providing home owners insurance in the canyon because of the fire hazards. We are about 4 miles south of the wooded part of the canyon where the fire is. So far AFAIK no homes have been destroyed. All horses and livestock from the canyon have been evacuated

 

[DonH50]

Curious: You have solar panels, did they help, or not enough storage capacity to keep things going? And/or smoke blotting out too much sun?

 

[Iamrael]

Hate to see this. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (Sherman Oaks) and spent the last 10 years in San Diego before moving to the East Coast 25 years ago.
Stay safe!

 

[steve williams]

Curious: You have solar panels, did they help, or not enough storage capacity to keep things going? And/or smoke blotting out too much sun?

Sadly I still have yet to buy battery back up as this was the perfect storm to have batteries. I dont so my entire house was down as the panel box was down so no solar was sent to my house

 

[steve williams]

Hate to see this. I grew up in the San Fernando Valley (Sherman Oaks) and spent the last 10 years in San Diego before moving to the East Coast 25 years ago.
Stay safe!

My son lives in North Hollywood a few miles from Sherman Oaks

 

[DonH50]

Sadly I still have yet to buy battery back up as this was the perfect storm to have batteries. I dont so my entire house was down as the panel box was down so no solar was sent to my house

Sounds like my kind of luck (consistent, but bad). Does make me wonder if that is the reason the solar quote I got a few years ago when you helped me look into it was so much higher than yours. Backup is a necessity as we can lose power for days in a big storm.

 

[steve williams]

Sounds like my kind of luck (consistent, but bad). Does make me wonder if that is the reason the solar quote I got a few years ago when you helped me look into it was so much higher than yours. Backup is a necessity as we can lose power for days in a big storm.

Thiis was our first unplanned power outage in the 12 years we have lived in the house. Batteries are my next project having learned my lesson yesterday

 

[DonH50]

Thiis was our first unplanned power outage in the 12 years we have lived in the house. Batteries are my next project having learned my lesson yesterday

Ah, good! Our area has a history of outages so storage was a key component of any system. We usually lose power for a few minutes to a few hours several times a year, and for a day or three about every other year.

Whatever, hope you are able to stay home! I swapped our furnace filter for a max version with carbon for smoke filtering and we kept the house buttoned up when smoke filled the air. Still sucked, no way to keep it all out.

 

[Dierkx1]

views from my home during 2018 Norcal fires: 1. typical day. 2. bad day 3. really bad day. As the fires were north of the Bay Area, "only" risk was inhaling the equivalent of a pack of unfiltered Camel cigarettes.

 

[J007B]

From my house around midnight last night.

 

[steve williams]

Last night when the moon came up, it was an eerie orange color due to the smoke in the air

 

[steve williams]

From my house around midnight last night.

View attachment 136165

I see youre in Santa Ana area so further away. Stay safe

 

[steve williams]

It remains another brutally hot dry day where it is now 98 at my house. The fire has spread and has now skipped from the base of saddleback mountain southward along the hillsides of the next two mountains in the mountain range. This is no where close to being a fraction contained.

 

[steve williams]

 

[J007B]

I see youre in Santa Ana area so further away. Stay safe

Tustin, nowhere near as close as you. Please be safe yourself.