Monday, October 22, 2007

Fire fire everywhere

Your Mama is taking the rest of the day off to follow the news reports of the devastating infernos burning all across Southern California.

Malibu continues to be engulfed in smoke and flames, Lake Arrowhead is on fire with few firefighters on the scene to deal with the huge blaze, 3,500 acre have been scorched in the eastern reaches of Orange County, and up to 250,000 people have been are are being asked to evacuate as a result of the out of control wildfires around San Diego.

Your Mama's heart hurts for all affected by the fires.

Be well and safe.

Sources: CNN (photos)

42 comments:

Anonymous said...

On x17 they have video of the owners [probably staff] hosing down the cox-arquettes old place on carbon & the katzenbergs [or staff!] a few doors down doing the same thing ... It's so strange when you see the videos of the 2 properties on malibu rd burning - all the others are untouched even though they're all squeezed together so tightly. I guess it just comes down to luck & where the embers land. Anyway, everyones concentrating on malibu but we need to remember everywhere else i guess ... Just so sad when you see horse owners releasing their horses into the wild b/c they're unable to get them out ... On the news some ranch guy in Agua Dulce had to release his 25 horses into the wild & the video showed them running away from the fire that was surrounding their ring ... having grown up with horses this breaks my heart but hopefully they'll all be captured once it settles down ... tragic, tragic, tragic ... [& yes, i know humans are as important as horses b4 anyone jumps on my back!]

Anonymous said...

carbon beach


:)

Anonymous said...

good pic ... they certainly failed to mention some of the most famous residents of that stretch ... larry ellison, eli broad, riordans, katzenbergs, haim saban etc..

Anonymous said...

anon 1:45...

where are their houses respectively?

Anonymous said...

I'm in Carlsbad & we've been called & put on "voluntary evacuation". Everything is packed up but we're sad because we never thought the fires would affect us living so close to the beach. Can't go north so we've got to go south. It looks like all 8 fires here are closing in on the ocean, going west. We're running out of evacuation space somehow...

Anonymous said...

time to move to NY

Anonymous said...

It seems pretty bad down towards San Diego, it's hard to tell b/c it's so malibu focused ... I hope you're safe in Carlsbad anyway, do you know the situation in Del Mar? are there any fires heading that way? I have a great aunt who lives there but she's at my grandmas in Europe at the moment ...

Anonymous said...

North SD is getting wiped off of the map as we speak, no rain, over 15 separate massive fires equals ?

The fire chief down there said "We give up ?"

you do the math, I wonder if the insurances companies are going to declare bankruptcy or try to get out of their obligations through some other legal maneuver, this is worse than 911.....

All of LA is covered in smoke, I am glad I am in NY as expensive and dirty as it is at least there are no fires.

Anonymous said...

My heart goes out to all those affected by this. I've lost a house in a fire and it is a truly heartbreaking experience. While a house is only that - a dwelling - what you fill it with is gone - photos, albums, all the stuff that makes a house a home.
You walk away with nothing but your memories.
Awful.

Anonymous said...

My heart goes out to everyone as well, I am at a loss for words as to what is happening out there right now, god bless everyone....

Anonymous said...

I just saw the news 5 mansions on a culdesac, the fire is 20 feet right behind them on a hill, no fire trucks, just 4 police cruisers, what the ?

this is very bad.......

Anonymous said...

very sad, and scary.
May it end soon

. said...

Mama, bless your kind heart for your touching posts. We all make fun of people and their horrid tastes, etc. etc, until it comes home that these are real people and not our entertainment and they are hurting now and we all want to go help them. Nature is all powerful. We humans may think we control things but we are gnats in Ma Nature's eyes. We should eat our humble pie and bury our hubris. Ma Nature is in charge, as she always has been and always will be. We just have to be smarter than her and stay out of her way. Which we are and we can. Here's hoping all lives will be spared, human, feline, canine, equine, and all the rest.

Author said...

We evacuated in Irvine yesterday night about 8:30PM. The flames were just a block away and the smoke was too strong, even inside our house. A very bad situation for little kids and older folks. Many other neighbors left before us.

I guess it gave me a different perspective of these fires: Watching on TV and seeing pictures is one thing, but feeling like you could really lose your home or worse is something entirely different.

I feel very very bad for the hundreds of families that have lost their homes all over. It is a terrible thing.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what the shifty insurance companies will do to get out of this one.

Why does our society care so much if celebrity homes will burn. Who cares if Britney looses her Malibu Barbie Home. She will move to her Beverly Hills home with the other celebrities.

Care for the people with one home. That is on fire. Not David fuckn Geffin.

Anonymous said...

^

Thats just plain dumb. Yeah, if you have billions / millions it doesn't matter if your house burns down. Get Real you moron. It doesn't matter how much money you have, everyone still has personal possessions & I'm sure those possessions mean a lot more to them than the billions in their bank, the rich have pets in their home they need to get out just like everyone else, the rich have horses on their properties they need to get to safety - fire affects everyone & everything regardless of your wealth. News Flash - the rich feel pain just as much as the next person.

Anonymous said...

I am not going to feel sorry for someone who had a $5 million week end house burn down. Not when thousands of others had their only home burn and are now living in a football stadium.

I could care less if rich people have feelings. I do care about people who are homeless though.

Anonymous said...

Sure, people with money suffer loss and feel pain when they lose their homes, things, etc. But people with money have a helluva lot easier time when it comes to recovery. Their money allows them that luxury of starting over, etc. Like hiring private jets to fly the family out of the path of a killer hurricane, etc. All they have to do is get what they can get and leave. And when they return they just build again and have it even nicer than before. So, I have to agree, I feel more for those who have one home, possibly no insurance and lose everything they own, than I do for those who have horses and hundred thousand dollar cars and multi-million dollar houses with staff and security personell, etc.

And you bet your butt that the insurance companies will weasel their way out of as many claims as they can, but again, the people who will feel that hurt will be the little guy, not the mansion owner or the celebrity wannabe.

Anonymous said...

No not Shame on me. In New Orleans the rich were taken care of and the poor are still forgotten. The only home Bush cared about was Trent Lotts.

It is important for our society to care about those who need it. I could really care less if the whole town of Malibu Burns down. It would be safe to say that Malibu houses some of the most selfish people around. Why should they be helped when others need the help more.

San Diego is burning and the media is watching to see if Spears home might burn.

who cares

Anonymous said...

Good point, anon @4:36.

My niece is (still) stranded on the Pepperdine campus, and she'll celebrate her 21st birthday today with fires all around her, hoping the winds don't shift.

I am incredibly grateful that, so far, my sibling and his family- even the stranded daughter- is safe. I hope their home is spared, but their safety is paramount.

Homes, even cities, can be rebuilt.

Anonymous said...

I actually can't believe this moron. As a west L.A resident & a former Malibu resident I'm actually astounded by the hate he/she is spewing ... Yeah, lets just let Malibu burn to the ground - the people there don't matter - are you for real or are you just some jealous, spiteful lunatic? Malibu has lots of wealthy people but it also has lots of regular people & many of the people up in the hills have bn there for decades & are just ordinary people ... I agree that it's easier to start over if you have money but whether you lose a $30M home or a $300K home it's devastating either way.

Anonymous said...

Live radio.

http://www.sundiegolive.com/virtualcitytour/

Anonymous said...

It just goes to show you that these fires are equaling the playing field between the uber rich and the middle class/poor.....


NOT !!!!!!!!!!

I am on my way to NY to work on Wall Street so that I can be uber rich to!!!!

The only way to start to live in this world is to make enough money to have at least 4 private jets at any of the 4 locations where you have your mansions so when a disaster like this strikes ?

You can go............

I have rich friends, not uber rich but rich in LA, Hollywood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills that are far away from the fires, they are now starting to feel the effects from the smoke, thank god I already left.

I wonder what this will do to the real estate market in LA ? Southern California in general ?

Anonymous said...

shelters at the stadiums, hmm....

can we say social experiment ?
it really pays to be rich, the question is how ?

Anonymous said...

Sure, 4 private jets are the answer. Pollute the world and worsen the climate even more you moron.

Anonymous said...

well they have it down to a science....

ironically most of these stars/philanthropists that are for a green earth, they sponsor or are apart of events that we contribute to, they drive hybrids instead of SUV's but yet they fly all over the globe in small private jets including Julia Robers, Gibson, Leo, some of them fly in large jumbo jets, they own massive yachts, ellison, allen, adding more pollution to the air, sounds a little hypocritical don't you think ?

Anonymous said...

a very few have created doom for the rest of us that are just trying to get by day by day. is there no justice ?

Anonymous said...

I would rather be a moron and have a chance to get away from a hellish disaster than to live in the middle of it esp at age 55.

If I do not do it someone else will, so it might as well be me.

Anonymous said...

I just talked to a friend of mine who is a big time music manager, he has a mansion in chula vista, he told me that he had to evacuate, he is not rich enough to fly out in a jet, he is being forced to go down to the shelter at the stadium ? did they close off all routes in and out of SD ?

Anonymous said...

why can't they just seed the clouds that would cause the clouds to create rain and that would eliminate the problem !!!!!

Anonymous said...

the officials did did over 300,000 reverse 911 calls to homes which is how they got so many to evacuate, this is a scam is I have ever seen one, some of my friends that left said there were no fires in the area and now they are down at the stadium, they want to go back but they can't this is completely nuts !!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Okay, Geffen has one of the finest collections of contemporary art in the world. Do we want that to burn up?

And to the idiots who continues to think that only the rich live in Malibu, are you aware that there are mobile home parks there? Do you think the people there are rich too?

Why all the hate for the rich? Some of you people better quit the hating, one day you might be in the middle of a disaster and no one will feel sympathy for you because they think you're "rich".

Anonymous said...

THIS IS PATHETIC

Insurance companies have now decided to pay fire engine companies to put fire retardant on the homes to keep them from burning down.........

WHY DID THEY NOT DO THAT YESTERDAY ?

well katzenberg and the other rich folks in malibu were smart, they ordered that done in malibu before anyone else could find out about it.

as you can see, water is not enough to put out these fires anymore, esp these days, now they need to stock up on fire retardant for the next one.

another disaster that could have been avoided if the public was informed.

Anonymous said...

the news is already saying that the insurance companies are going to stiff their customers or drop them entirely.

Anonymous said...

What a heart.......

In another classy Malibu move -- billionaire showbiz mogul and Malibu resident David Geffen has opened up his recently renovated Malibu Beach Inn to both evacuees and firefighters -- free of charge.

Anonymous said...

Well, Carlsbad is off evacuation totally & some people have been let back into their homes in Del Mar. Rancho Santa Fe is some of the saddest I've ever seen. That fire is out of control. Yes, these people are well off, but they are human and some of them don't have family to go to. The only thing I can think of is confused, scared children sleeping in the stadium or displaced livestock & pets.

Anonymous said...

Is Irvine okay ?

Anonymous said...

OK- I have to weigh in. ONE insurance company, AIG, is paying to spray fire retardant on the homes it insures. The "uber-rich" you are heckling pay uber- premiums to one of two insurance companies that will insure them... Let's just say that a $10,000 premium check is getting off easy.

The super big, super risky homes are self insured or insured out of a special risk pool.They aren't in "California Fair Plan" or raising your typical homeowners policy.

BTW if you want to goo your house, a home kit costs about $500

Anonymous said...

well it was just on the news katzenberg hired his own private fire department to make sure his house stays intact.

how much did that cost ?

Anonymous said...

New Flash !!! CNN, flamable eucalyptus trees, lack of fire fighting aircraft, lack of tree/bush burning every few months are the main contributing factors to this HUGE disaster, our governor is in complete denial, a little to positive I think, I thought he was going to hit the reporter, she kept on pressing on him and pushing his buttons, she asked him about the shortage of aircraft, lack of periodic bush and tree burning, he sounded like someone who just got out of the institution, very scary.

Anonymous said...

Well, the inmates are running the asylum you know.

Anonymous said...

LOS ANGELES - As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

State rules require all firefighting choppers to be accompanied by state forestry "fire spotters" who coordinate water or retardant drops. By the time those spotters arrived, the powerful Santa Ana winds stoking the fires had made it too dangerous to fly.



shocking !!!!!!!!!