Things like this make me spew long strings of expletive-deleteds, so I’ll try to keep this brief and SFW…
Just a mere few months after the Napa and Sonoma counties were devastated by the Cascade, Atlas and Tubbs fires, This fire is possibly going to be comparable.
Who knows what the death-toll will be, but the possible numbers scare me, now that it’s eating through the edges of Ventura.
The fire-fighters are having so much trouble in containing this new blaze, they’ve said,
“The prospects for containment are not good,” Ventura County Fire Chief Mark Lorenzen said a news briefing overnight. “Really, Mother Nature’s going to decide when we have the ability to put it out.”
It’s been named the Thomas Fire, and it has prompted extensive evacuations in both Ventura (Ventura City, too) county and even areas of Santa Paula, a town about 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Vista Del Mar Hospital is gone... 7,786 homes have been evacuated, and 27,00 people evacuated hours later.
Well, FRAK...
An explosive brush fire tore through Southern California with ferocious speed Tuesday, spreading from about 50 acres to an estimated 45,500 acres in a matter of hours and forcing tens of thousands of residents to flee, while another fire prompted a wave of evacuations closer to downtown Los Angeles.
You can read the rest here.
Ohhh maaan… one disaster after another… Is anyone else tired and afraid?
UPDATE, 11:07 AM: Added more info.
Update:, 11:15 AM: Mandatory evacuation for Casitas Springs. 150 and 33 highways closed.
More from California Highway Patrol:
- Hard Closure- Highway 150 at Reeves Road (east end Ojai Valley)
- Hard Closure - Highway 150 at Stonegate (Santa Paula)
- Hard Closure - Highway 150 at Telegraph Road (Santa Paula)
- Hard Closure - Highway 150 at Richmond Road (Santa Paula)
- Hard Closure - Foothill Road at Olive/Cummings/Wells/Briggs (Santa Paula/Ventura area)
School closures
Ventura Unified School District, Hueneme Elementary School District, Santa Paula School District, Ventura Community College, Thomas Aquinas College, Mesa Union School District, Briggs School District, Mupu School District, Oxnard Elementary School District, All Ventura County Office of Education Schools (Including Providence School), Santa Clara Elementary (20030 East Telegraph Road, Santa Paula), Rio School District, Ocean View School District, Ojai School District, Oxnard High School District, Santa Clara High School.
More Updates as I get ‘em (gotta make lunch, be back later)
UPDATE 9:22 PM: Gee, that lunch lasted a long time… :-p Migraines are smug little… Anyway, a check-in diary for Ventura County and LA County went up this morning--if you live in the area, please go here and let folks know! If you need anything, a place to stay, a shoulder to cry on, help with vet bills and so on, say so in this diary and in Susans (that’s her username on DK) linked diary above. Reaching out here will be forwarded to Susans’ diary, but vent here, if you need to. More ears means more ideas and/or help.
If you need help to get out of the evac area, CALL 911 (assuming that phone lines are still operational. Fires can damage the cell towers)—the fire dept and police have that covered. DO NOT try to get into the fire area yourself!
Winds have been heavy as of this morning and are suspected to continue until at least Thursday, possibly making the fire prospects more difficult to predict and harder to fight. The Thomas Fire has now been reported to have expanded to 50,500 acres in one report and 50,000 in another.
Apparently, this fire tops the worst fire recorded for this area, a scary thought. 400 homes have been evacuated, I’m not sure how many people at this point.
Be safe, all!
(Bottom of the page where no one looks. :-p Fixed some typos and missing words. WTH, brain? You had one job...)