Wildfire Coverage
Jan. 10th, 2025 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wootsauceSoooooo....
On Tuesday, January 7th, the Eaton fire started in Altadena. I'm currently living in Altadena. Well, actually, I'm currently at my mom's house. Trying to figure out what to do next. And I feel like I need to write down my thoughts and document what's going on somewhat -- more than just posting photos and sharing stuff on Instagram which is what I've mostly been doing because, like, we're EVACUATED FROM A FIRE and you know. Spoiler alert, I'm fine, my roommates are fine, our cats are fine. Our neighborhood is less fine. I'm going to start from the beginning.
So anyway, on January 7th, our power was out. My roommates were home and I had a meeting after school so I didn't leave right away, but the meeting MERCIFULLY was short, one of the first strokes of luck in this story. Courtney texted at like 3:30 saying the power was out. Not really a surprise. Prior to this we had advance warning that a HUGE windstorm was heading our way, which is not unusual although the magnitude of the projection was pretty crazy. Long time LJ friends might recall (or locals would) in 2011 there was a big windstorm out this way that knocked power out for a lot of people for a few days, lots of home insurance claims for roof damage, etc. That's what I was expecting. Of course, we're also in prime wildfire conditions due to the extremely low humidity and zero precipitation for months. In 2020, during the Bobcat fire, we were on Evacuation Warning for an extended period of time; you know, peak pandemic. I was literally teaching class on Zoom with bags packed next to me on the floor and some of my belongings already in the car. We live less than a mile from Eaton canyon, and very close to the north to other canyons (that we REGULARLY walked to during the pandemic* when nobody was allowed to be out of their neighborhood.) We aren't in prime fire danger spots--to me that's always homes that are isolated up canyon roads with only one way out--but we're in the "if houses in the canyon catch fire, get out of dodge" range. Anyway, we didn't end up having to evacuate then but that was wildly stressful. Further, the canyon near us last burned in like 1993 and then there was the Station Fire in the hills nearby in 2009. These are important details if you live in a fire prone area; years where the hills burned recently, even if it's really dry, I'm less concerned because there's less fuel. This was a perfect storm of an extremely dry year after an extremely wet year. Bad news for brush fires.
I'm currently sitting at mom's house about 20 miles away; this is also in a fire prone foothill area, although she's further from the hills. Also, the canyon in between the Eaton fire and this area burned like 2 times in the past couple of years and the hillside here burned in 2014. At that time, I stayed home to hose down the roof and keep a watch on the house in case of embers, although we weren't concerned about a big wall of flame sweeping down this far, and schools were evacuated and stuff like that. In 2003 or so there was another big fire out here, we could see the flames from the quad at school, that went on for a long time. Anyway, the point is, I'm no stranger to these kinds of fires, pretty used to seeing them nearby, and don't tend to flip out if a hillside is on fire. It's part of living here.
So back to January 7th. Right. Our meeting ended early. I was glad because I wanted to get home before the winds REALLY went wild after dark. I had a pick up order at Home Depot to grab a fire extinguisher, fire blanket, and some batteries and emergency supplies. Seems funny now, but honestly, it was one of those "well, our fire extinguisher for the kitchen is expired anyway, let me grab one while I'm thinking of it." As far as I know that stuff is all still sitting where I dropped it on the floor in the house. I got Chipotle on my way home since the power was out -- we have a gas range but I was like eh, let me be lazy, and let me not be using an open flame in this windstorm because I don't NEED to. (If our power went out, it would be out past when it was super windy and I'd be able to use the stove then.) So I got home around 6 probably and I brought in all my junk, which was a TASK because the wind gusts were trying to knock me over; our kitchen door is where we come in and out of the house, which faces our north-south driveway. Wind just howling down the driveway SLAMS the door out of your hand. I could have gone in and out the front door but it was wildly windy and I was carrying stuff. Y'all, I had bought 4 air filters for our HVAC system because they were ON SALE. I was just ready to be in the house with my battery powered lantern not sleeping because wind stresses me out. I cannot stress how much we were PREPARED for there to be something weird going on, but I did not THINK what happened was going to happen outside of like a 5% change of weirdness. You know, possible, but usually we're the zone of "there's been a fire going on somewhere, it's kind of coming this way, keep an eye on it and pack your stuff just in case." So I came in and out of the house with all my goodies, then I had to open and close the garage door manually. I thought of leaving the car outside but I didn't want a tree to fall on it. Now, keep in mind, in this kind of fire danger you are supposed to like have your car facing out in the driveway just ready to GTFO. So finally I do all this whatever and I pop out of the back door of the garage and go into the house--they're separate buildings--all ready to eat my Chipotle and chill out and I spot a warm orange glow what appears to be a few doors down from us and I stop and think. 1. Nobody should have power. 2. Does someone have a really bright....orange....lantern? 3. Does someone have a generator that's....doing....something legitimate? 4. Maybe it's like a city vehicle? Doesn't seem to be any of those things because none of that shit makes SENSE so I go into the house and go...
6:22 PM
"Courtney....can you come outside and tell me that what I'm seeing ISN'T a fire?" (May not be my exact words as I was already kicking into high gear because I knew the answer, but the thing about me is, I hate being right about this stuff and am SO READY to be told I'm overreacting)
Courtney of course was like WHAT ELSE COULD THAT BE. We called 911 which didn't give us any info except confirmed what I thought -- "I think there's a fire by Eaton" -- "Yes, multple units are en route. *Click*"
I know exactly how far that is from the house and how long it takes me , a human person not fueled by 70mph wind gusts, to walk there. WE GOTTA GO.
The next 20 minutes felt like 3 hours to me because I was ACTIVATED. Went inside and told Amy what was going on, showed her the photo. Went into my room, opened the curtains so I could watch the fire. It spread SO FAST. Now, with hindsight, I know it was moving laterally, and not towards us, but it wasn't possible to tell that at the time. If it was on the other side of the canyon, we would have more time. If it was on OUR side of the canyon, we didn't have long before we could potentially be in the direct path of flames. Now I know we had a little more time, but not much. I would have grabbed a handful of other things but not been able to pack another bag or whatever.
Luckily, Courtney was already packed--she had several bags and stuff ready to go. I already had my bug out bag in my car since I work far from home and I knew the wind was going to start early--it was possible something could have happened before I could leave work and I wanted to make sure I had all my asthma meds and whatever--knowing I could just go sleep on mom's couch, so I basically had an overnight bag packed. I also have my hiking bag and some water, beach towels, warm items, and random junk in my car at all times because I'm a mess of a person, but unfortunately, things keep happening that reinforce this weirdo behavior. I helped Courtney get her stuff into her car and helped Amy catch the cats. Courtney asked me to hose down the back of the house while she was pulling out of the driveway. I took another couple of pics while I was trying to hose down the roof--the wind was blowing most of the water back on me but I did hose it down. Between those 2 photos, it's only like 25 minutes.
6:48 PM
I cannot emphasize how incredibly lucky we were in this situation. I HAPPENED to see the fire within 5 minutes of it starting because I HAPPENED to be outside getting home from work. We had all our blinds and curtains closed tight because of the wind!
Leaving the house was harrowing because of the wind and all the power being out--street lights were out and there were already some big downed branches and trees. A big light/traffic pole was snapped in half. I went out the west side of the neighborhood as the fire was to the east. Amy went out the east side and saw a big tree just blowing across a parking lot. On the freeway there were some downed trees and debris, lots of stuff blowing around but luckily everyone was going SLOW (not a concern bc the freeway is several miles south of us so I wasn't worried about getting stuck in the path of the fire, it runs parallel to the mountains.) Saw multiple flashes from transformers exploding on our way out of town. We also saw the fire from the freeway--a full ridge on fire--and the thing is, the thing about all these areas on fire, is we know ALL OF IT. We hike in these hills all the time. We know these mountains, canyons, and ridges. You see it on fire and you know EXACTLY where it is and how close it is to the house. Literally within walking distance. Not just because we're hikers, either. You can just STROLL over there in like 20 minutes. We left so fast we got the evacuation notice when we were driving. I don't remember ever getting it, to be honest. The cel reception in our area is really bad. It's spotty whether or not I can call or text up there but my phone has the satellite feature for emergency calls, which I wanted for hiking, but clearly helped when I called 911 here.
6:48 PM
There's more to the story of how we left and where we were going or whatever but that's less harrowing. Amy took the cats to a friend's house and Courtney and I came to mom's. I knew we could get over here and at least regroup before going somewhere else, but of course mom is like, just stay. So I'm not sure what we'll do next but we've been here for a couple of days while waiting to find out what happens.
Next two photos are from my mom's house, between 12:30-1 AM.
I was still ready to find out that we were fine and had overreacted and could go back to the house, but instead, the evacuation area kept expanding. I felt so upset about the cats. Last December the kitty Aster had a broken leg, and I had to grab her by her leg to get her out from under the bed to evacuate from the fire and I felt so bad about it. (To be honest, I still do. I haven't seen them since then. I miss them) I thought Courtney and Amy would be annoyed with me for being so pushy about leaving that fast. I thought maybe we'd be at mom's house for a day or two and I would have a fun story for my kids about why I only had one pair of pants for the rest of the week at work. Instead we're living through something nobody here has ever seen and it's still ongoing. There's a curfew in the evacuation area because people keep trying to go back and there are looters and stuff. I have next to nothing with me--my overnight bag, my medications (mostly), my iPad, my computer tower. My hiking stuff and random things from the car. Two spindles I grabbed at random off my desk. Literally the "we have to get out NOW" items. Didn't grab my camera, any artwork or art supplies, my second key fob for the car, just dropped stuff and left. But you know what happens when people get hemmed in by fire.
I've retold this story so many times and it still sounds crazy. And the thing is, we've just been hunkered down at mom's house since. Mom has power--she has solar and I think the power in this part of town hasn't gone out at all, although the northern part of her area did lose power-- and the wind isn't as bad. It's surreal.
I spent the next day watching my neighborhood burn live on the news. All the business on Lake in Altadena--the Brakemasters where I drop my car off and walk home. We were hearing reports about what was burning and what wasn't. Some people didn't leave right away or evacuated but came back to help (like a neighbor's son went around and shut off the gas in our street--we found out a lot later--and I saw someone else on the news who was going around pumping water out of pools.)
Anyway, more later. I feel like I need to write down what we're doing and what happens next. For me and the cats and the roommates, it's all up in the air but we are physically safe. I don't know if we'll be able to go back to the house or whatever but we probably won't find out for a few days either way, and whatever happens to us and our stuff I probably need to keep track of because of insurance and blah blah blah, but I also know I'm going to want to refer to these details later and, well.... I'm just not doing a good job of documenting things in general. So here we are.
* It's still the pandemic in my world. I mask every day. But you know what I mean by this. Commonly understood to mean "peak of when everyone was taking stuff seriously"
On Tuesday, January 7th, the Eaton fire started in Altadena. I'm currently living in Altadena. Well, actually, I'm currently at my mom's house. Trying to figure out what to do next. And I feel like I need to write down my thoughts and document what's going on somewhat -- more than just posting photos and sharing stuff on Instagram which is what I've mostly been doing because, like, we're EVACUATED FROM A FIRE and you know. Spoiler alert, I'm fine, my roommates are fine, our cats are fine. Our neighborhood is less fine. I'm going to start from the beginning.
So anyway, on January 7th, our power was out. My roommates were home and I had a meeting after school so I didn't leave right away, but the meeting MERCIFULLY was short, one of the first strokes of luck in this story. Courtney texted at like 3:30 saying the power was out. Not really a surprise. Prior to this we had advance warning that a HUGE windstorm was heading our way, which is not unusual although the magnitude of the projection was pretty crazy. Long time LJ friends might recall (or locals would) in 2011 there was a big windstorm out this way that knocked power out for a lot of people for a few days, lots of home insurance claims for roof damage, etc. That's what I was expecting. Of course, we're also in prime wildfire conditions due to the extremely low humidity and zero precipitation for months. In 2020, during the Bobcat fire, we were on Evacuation Warning for an extended period of time; you know, peak pandemic. I was literally teaching class on Zoom with bags packed next to me on the floor and some of my belongings already in the car. We live less than a mile from Eaton canyon, and very close to the north to other canyons (that we REGULARLY walked to during the pandemic* when nobody was allowed to be out of their neighborhood.) We aren't in prime fire danger spots--to me that's always homes that are isolated up canyon roads with only one way out--but we're in the "if houses in the canyon catch fire, get out of dodge" range. Anyway, we didn't end up having to evacuate then but that was wildly stressful. Further, the canyon near us last burned in like 1993 and then there was the Station Fire in the hills nearby in 2009. These are important details if you live in a fire prone area; years where the hills burned recently, even if it's really dry, I'm less concerned because there's less fuel. This was a perfect storm of an extremely dry year after an extremely wet year. Bad news for brush fires.
I'm currently sitting at mom's house about 20 miles away; this is also in a fire prone foothill area, although she's further from the hills. Also, the canyon in between the Eaton fire and this area burned like 2 times in the past couple of years and the hillside here burned in 2014. At that time, I stayed home to hose down the roof and keep a watch on the house in case of embers, although we weren't concerned about a big wall of flame sweeping down this far, and schools were evacuated and stuff like that. In 2003 or so there was another big fire out here, we could see the flames from the quad at school, that went on for a long time. Anyway, the point is, I'm no stranger to these kinds of fires, pretty used to seeing them nearby, and don't tend to flip out if a hillside is on fire. It's part of living here.
So back to January 7th. Right. Our meeting ended early. I was glad because I wanted to get home before the winds REALLY went wild after dark. I had a pick up order at Home Depot to grab a fire extinguisher, fire blanket, and some batteries and emergency supplies. Seems funny now, but honestly, it was one of those "well, our fire extinguisher for the kitchen is expired anyway, let me grab one while I'm thinking of it." As far as I know that stuff is all still sitting where I dropped it on the floor in the house. I got Chipotle on my way home since the power was out -- we have a gas range but I was like eh, let me be lazy, and let me not be using an open flame in this windstorm because I don't NEED to. (If our power went out, it would be out past when it was super windy and I'd be able to use the stove then.) So I got home around 6 probably and I brought in all my junk, which was a TASK because the wind gusts were trying to knock me over; our kitchen door is where we come in and out of the house, which faces our north-south driveway. Wind just howling down the driveway SLAMS the door out of your hand. I could have gone in and out the front door but it was wildly windy and I was carrying stuff. Y'all, I had bought 4 air filters for our HVAC system because they were ON SALE. I was just ready to be in the house with my battery powered lantern not sleeping because wind stresses me out. I cannot stress how much we were PREPARED for there to be something weird going on, but I did not THINK what happened was going to happen outside of like a 5% change of weirdness. You know, possible, but usually we're the zone of "there's been a fire going on somewhere, it's kind of coming this way, keep an eye on it and pack your stuff just in case." So I came in and out of the house with all my goodies, then I had to open and close the garage door manually. I thought of leaving the car outside but I didn't want a tree to fall on it. Now, keep in mind, in this kind of fire danger you are supposed to like have your car facing out in the driveway just ready to GTFO. So finally I do all this whatever and I pop out of the back door of the garage and go into the house--they're separate buildings--all ready to eat my Chipotle and chill out and I spot a warm orange glow what appears to be a few doors down from us and I stop and think. 1. Nobody should have power. 2. Does someone have a really bright....orange....lantern? 3. Does someone have a generator that's....doing....something legitimate? 4. Maybe it's like a city vehicle? Doesn't seem to be any of those things because none of that shit makes SENSE so I go into the house and go...
6:22 PM
"Courtney....can you come outside and tell me that what I'm seeing ISN'T a fire?" (May not be my exact words as I was already kicking into high gear because I knew the answer, but the thing about me is, I hate being right about this stuff and am SO READY to be told I'm overreacting)
Courtney of course was like WHAT ELSE COULD THAT BE. We called 911 which didn't give us any info except confirmed what I thought -- "I think there's a fire by Eaton" -- "Yes, multple units are en route. *Click*"
I know exactly how far that is from the house and how long it takes me , a human person not fueled by 70mph wind gusts, to walk there. WE GOTTA GO.
The next 20 minutes felt like 3 hours to me because I was ACTIVATED. Went inside and told Amy what was going on, showed her the photo. Went into my room, opened the curtains so I could watch the fire. It spread SO FAST. Now, with hindsight, I know it was moving laterally, and not towards us, but it wasn't possible to tell that at the time. If it was on the other side of the canyon, we would have more time. If it was on OUR side of the canyon, we didn't have long before we could potentially be in the direct path of flames. Now I know we had a little more time, but not much. I would have grabbed a handful of other things but not been able to pack another bag or whatever.
Luckily, Courtney was already packed--she had several bags and stuff ready to go. I already had my bug out bag in my car since I work far from home and I knew the wind was going to start early--it was possible something could have happened before I could leave work and I wanted to make sure I had all my asthma meds and whatever--knowing I could just go sleep on mom's couch, so I basically had an overnight bag packed. I also have my hiking bag and some water, beach towels, warm items, and random junk in my car at all times because I'm a mess of a person, but unfortunately, things keep happening that reinforce this weirdo behavior. I helped Courtney get her stuff into her car and helped Amy catch the cats. Courtney asked me to hose down the back of the house while she was pulling out of the driveway. I took another couple of pics while I was trying to hose down the roof--the wind was blowing most of the water back on me but I did hose it down. Between those 2 photos, it's only like 25 minutes.
6:48 PM
I cannot emphasize how incredibly lucky we were in this situation. I HAPPENED to see the fire within 5 minutes of it starting because I HAPPENED to be outside getting home from work. We had all our blinds and curtains closed tight because of the wind!
Leaving the house was harrowing because of the wind and all the power being out--street lights were out and there were already some big downed branches and trees. A big light/traffic pole was snapped in half. I went out the west side of the neighborhood as the fire was to the east. Amy went out the east side and saw a big tree just blowing across a parking lot. On the freeway there were some downed trees and debris, lots of stuff blowing around but luckily everyone was going SLOW (not a concern bc the freeway is several miles south of us so I wasn't worried about getting stuck in the path of the fire, it runs parallel to the mountains.) Saw multiple flashes from transformers exploding on our way out of town. We also saw the fire from the freeway--a full ridge on fire--and the thing is, the thing about all these areas on fire, is we know ALL OF IT. We hike in these hills all the time. We know these mountains, canyons, and ridges. You see it on fire and you know EXACTLY where it is and how close it is to the house. Literally within walking distance. Not just because we're hikers, either. You can just STROLL over there in like 20 minutes. We left so fast we got the evacuation notice when we were driving. I don't remember ever getting it, to be honest. The cel reception in our area is really bad. It's spotty whether or not I can call or text up there but my phone has the satellite feature for emergency calls, which I wanted for hiking, but clearly helped when I called 911 here.
6:48 PM
There's more to the story of how we left and where we were going or whatever but that's less harrowing. Amy took the cats to a friend's house and Courtney and I came to mom's. I knew we could get over here and at least regroup before going somewhere else, but of course mom is like, just stay. So I'm not sure what we'll do next but we've been here for a couple of days while waiting to find out what happens.
Next two photos are from my mom's house, between 12:30-1 AM.
I was still ready to find out that we were fine and had overreacted and could go back to the house, but instead, the evacuation area kept expanding. I felt so upset about the cats. Last December the kitty Aster had a broken leg, and I had to grab her by her leg to get her out from under the bed to evacuate from the fire and I felt so bad about it. (To be honest, I still do. I haven't seen them since then. I miss them) I thought Courtney and Amy would be annoyed with me for being so pushy about leaving that fast. I thought maybe we'd be at mom's house for a day or two and I would have a fun story for my kids about why I only had one pair of pants for the rest of the week at work. Instead we're living through something nobody here has ever seen and it's still ongoing. There's a curfew in the evacuation area because people keep trying to go back and there are looters and stuff. I have next to nothing with me--my overnight bag, my medications (mostly), my iPad, my computer tower. My hiking stuff and random things from the car. Two spindles I grabbed at random off my desk. Literally the "we have to get out NOW" items. Didn't grab my camera, any artwork or art supplies, my second key fob for the car, just dropped stuff and left. But you know what happens when people get hemmed in by fire.
I've retold this story so many times and it still sounds crazy. And the thing is, we've just been hunkered down at mom's house since. Mom has power--she has solar and I think the power in this part of town hasn't gone out at all, although the northern part of her area did lose power-- and the wind isn't as bad. It's surreal.
I spent the next day watching my neighborhood burn live on the news. All the business on Lake in Altadena--the Brakemasters where I drop my car off and walk home. We were hearing reports about what was burning and what wasn't. Some people didn't leave right away or evacuated but came back to help (like a neighbor's son went around and shut off the gas in our street--we found out a lot later--and I saw someone else on the news who was going around pumping water out of pools.)
Anyway, more later. I feel like I need to write down what we're doing and what happens next. For me and the cats and the roommates, it's all up in the air but we are physically safe. I don't know if we'll be able to go back to the house or whatever but we probably won't find out for a few days either way, and whatever happens to us and our stuff I probably need to keep track of because of insurance and blah blah blah, but I also know I'm going to want to refer to these details later and, well.... I'm just not doing a good job of documenting things in general. So here we are.
* It's still the pandemic in my world. I mask every day. But you know what I mean by this. Commonly understood to mean "peak of when everyone was taking stuff seriously"
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