[SeptemberMorn]

Day Fire
Just click to get the video going.

My old neighborhood!! Thankfully, the fire just missed the ranch where John, my youngest, lives!

I've driven down the street where the news crew was. I can see the glow of the fire from my front door now. It's been raining ashes for a few days now. My best friend lives in the hills in the back ground; I lived right behind her. My family fought a similar fire in 1994. The fireman says that they have crews ready to fight the fire?? YEAH RIGHT!! Maybe right in town, but forget it if you are up one of the canyons! We had to fight our own fire with the help of our neighbors while the fire trucks sat idle on the road and the men watched. When the fire started coming down our hill, I got in my car and drove down to where the nearest fire truck was and told the man that the fire was coming towards and the barns and our house. His response? "Lady, we were supposed to be out of hear half an hour ago!!"

Men don't earn any Brownie points with me when they tell me they are fire fighters!

Anyway... just a short chapter in my life...

[Bethsway]

so sorry ....did the fire damage your home? glad it missed your son's place...Fires are the worst!!! but glad no one got hurt!!

[SeptemberMorn]

No, our home didn't get damaged in the fire we had to fight ourselves. A neighbors friend, mind you, heard me talking to the fire fighter and heard his response. He and a bunch of his friends were already in the canyon helping fight the fire. They didn't live there!

When he heard the exchange, he ran over to me, asked me where I lived and showed up with his buddies to set a backfire. It kept the fire away from the barns and our home. Thank God for strangers that do random acts of kindness!!

Oh, BTW! The firefighter did drive his truck up to our property... to tell this stranger that setting backfires was against the law! Did I say "firefighter"??

[JustAPixie]

OMG Tomi... I'm glad you are ok!

[eskielover]

This fire has been horrible. It seems like they get it 20% under control & the wind hits again & wham.....1000's more acres are burnt. I know that when the wind changes, we get the smoke thick in our valley....no ashes, but I have a horrible problem with smoke & it has effected me. This fire has been going on since Sept 4 & has spread to Ventura on the west & all the way towards Frazier park on the north.

I know the fire in Santa Clarita just 2 years ago was when I ended up in the hospital for 10 days because if the asthma attack it caused me to have. Besides all the damage it does to the land & the little critters homes who are in the way....let alone the peoples homes in the path, the smoke does damage to people who aren't even touched directly by the fire.

I think I heard that this fire mostly was in areas where the firefighters couldn't even get to & like the fire years ago in Yellowstone, they were letting the parts of it go for the betterment of the environment. But when they don't take care of the houses in the path, that is unforgivable. I still don't understand why California hasn't purchased one of those huge fire fighting planes they have in Canada. It would pay for itself in just one year for the cost of all the firefighters that aren't effective.

On my way home from the San Fernando Valley yesterday, there was another fire starting in Placerita Canyon.....exactly where one had started just a few weeks ago. Hopefully they will be able to get control of this "day fire" which has been going on for 20 days soon.

Debbie

[SeptemberMorn]

Forecast for tonight

The fire seems to be moving back toward where my son lives. Not too worried since everything around his has already burned.

The smoke seems to be farther on the horizon but it's still irritating my sinuses and lung! OUCH! The drone of the helicopters and other planes fighting the fire is getting irritating, too!! Can't get away from it! I know! I'm being a baby about it! LOL I just want my quiet neighborhood back, already! I want to breath free and easy and not have to depend on my ihalers!!! ARGH!

(drone... drone... drone... ChopChopChop!!!)

[SeptemberMorn]

Thanks, Tanya! The only worries I have with the fire now are #1, my youngest son always seems to be around them, and #2, my lungs! ECK!

I live in town now, and they try to keep the fires away from towns, so... Anyway, I live by the beach, so I could always go jump in the ocean! LOL Yeah right! And I'm terrified of bodies of water!

[(JD)]

When I heard of the fires I thought of you (((sept))) I'm glad all is still there...but you must take extra precaution when trying to keep your lungs clear!

Hehehe I forgot to remind you (when I was razzing you about earthquakes) that you have the fires and the mudslides in spring Glad you're ok.

[SeptemberMorn]

Just heard some news reports and I think they said that 38,000 acres have been burned??? Oh, wow!

I'm having trouble with my lungs, too. I called to have my albuterol refilled on Thursday and I STILL don't have it!! I see my Dr tomorrow and is she gonna get a piece of my mind!!! I know it's not her. It's the girls in the office! They have a separate line for prescriptions and you rarely get an answer! It's always "leave a message and we'll call you ASAP." I guess ASAP hasn't arrived yet! ARGH!!!!!

How close were you when Hesperia was under evacuation?? I know it's not very far from you. I'll bet you were suffocating from the smoke then! NASTY!

Fillmore was under evacuation, too, which is just a hop, skip and a jump from John. Haven't heard much about that, though. Not sure if it was when the fire first travelled that way or if it was on it's return trip. You wonder what's left to catch fire, but it always finds something else to burn!!

A neighbor's son just drove up to her house and I heard him say that they came through Castaic and "it's giving it hell." Betcha they save Magic Mountain, though! LOL If it was a farming community they'd let it burn!

(drone... drone... drone... ) It's making me sleepy! LOL

[SeptemberMorn]

{{{{{{{Sky!!!}}}}}}} Thanks for thinking of me.

So, pray tell... what are those "extra precaustions" I must take? It's too hot to keep all the doors and windows closed and stay inside, but it's cool enough to go for a long ride in my wheelchair (ran the battery almost dead!!!) and work out in the yard??

Just don't tell me to wear a surgical mask! LOL Remember that idiot neighbor I had that was always calling the cops and fire dept. on me at the old place? HE'S been walking around with a surgical mask for days now!

Yeah, there's fires in late summer, early Fall and then mudslides and floods in the winter, but if you live in town, NO WORRIES!! Hurricanes aren't nearly as forgiving, are they??

Hope you're feeling better, Skeezers!

[(JD)]

Yes, wet rags or surgical masks or actual air pollutant gas masks (I thought we all owned one now, with the terrorist threats ) Keep your home closed up and change the a/c filter often... stuff like that... wet towels at the base of the doorways? Drink plenty of water to help your body extract the toxins. Hope the wind blows the right way for you

[SeptemberMorn]

I don't think so. It's not THAT hard to breath!

We don't have fallout shelters anymore, do we?? LOL

[bebop]

tomi I hope your son stays safe!

[SeptemberMorn]

So far, so good, Be! Thanks!

[bflatgary]

This fire has been unbelievable. I live in Simi Valley, and we are not threatened. However, we have found ashes on the cars, and the sky just doesn't look right.

You mentioned the Yellowstone fires. Fires are one of nature's ways of cleaning up the forest. The trees that are destroyed will be replaced by new growth. I just feel bad for the animals.

As for the firefighting planes, they were using a modified airliner today. The drops cover a half mile! I was watching it on the news. These planes can do the same work as seven of the others. Amazing. What took them so long?

The news said that the fire is 40% contained. I wonder if they will soon refer to it as the "Month Fire".

Gary

[SeptemberMorn]

So that modified plane was the droning I was hearing!! I knew it was a different sound somehow and it kept coming and going!

Where were they filling up with water, do you know? Or was it fire retardant? ... Now they that think about it, it was probably Lake Casitas because the fire was almost on Ojai and Santa Paula!

Yeah, I know the fires are necessary. There's even a tree seed or something that needs to be burned before it will sprout. I don't know... it will probably burn next year.

So we're almost neighbors, eh? Welcome to PC! I see you're new. Like they say "You've come to the right place!"

[froggie2]

Hoping everything is going o.k. for you. Saw the video today and it looks awful. That smoke is deadly. Take Care.

[SeptemberMorn]

The fire has receded more into the back country although they had a horrible fire storm yesterday when the winds kicked up. I didn't know there could be fire tornadoes! They showed two right together!

Air seems clear today. Been breathing a little heavier than usual because I've been working out in the yard all morning. No wheezing, so I guess it's okay. LOL

[bflatgary]

I would imagine it wqas Lake Casitas. The fire started near Lake Castaic, but that wouldn't be used for Ojai or Santa Paula.

Where are you if are are almost neighbors??

[SeptemberMorn]

Gary! Right after we posted about that tanker plane, I turned on the news and I saw it! I got all excited and was going to post the next morning but my computer had taken a dive. LOL

Anyway, I'm in Oxnard... behind the college, if you know where that's at.

Just heard that the fire might burn until December because the terrain it's in now is so rugged. Also heard on the news last night that some structures had been lost but there weren't any details because they followed a police chase for most of the news.

[(JD)]

Good to hear you guys are ok out there. Miserable times.