Cali Fires..this'll break your heart..

Why??? it looks like it was a driver...

 

personally, if I had a stock 30's car and...pretty much anything else, I'm gonna be driving the fastest car avalible to avoid...Oh Say a FIRE OF CATASTROPHIC PROPORTIONS.


Call it a hunch-I bet he (or she) was more concerned with drawing breath for another day.

 

Looks like lack of planning, or a victim of the "it won't happen to me" mentality. Those fires move fast, but they usually have a decent idea of where it's heading.
Or maybe it's insured for a boatload?

 

A friend of mine in that area lost his '29 RPU and a really nice 1949 F-1 truck, he was on vacation out of the country......lost everything.

 

Over the next weeks and months we'll probably be seeing 100s of pictures from that nightmare just like this.
The same thing appeared after the disaster on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Southern Louisiana and NOLA.

 

A friend lost his '68 Mustang. First they were told to evacuate then officials told them the fire was going into a different direction so they relaxed but then it reversed course suddenly and nabbed their neighborhood.

There was no "lack of planning" on his part just the course of events changed.

 

Did you notice the 2nd old car in the background

 

Hey guys I was close to the fire came within a quarter of a mile to us overnite I have 3 old cars 2 dont run without work, 1 boat . el camino. 67 ford truck , car trailer, car dolly, motor home and mama's late model jeep
aint no way when the fire started 85 miles away I even thought about it long story short ya cant plan on this type of situation with only 2 drivers in the household. And yes I have relatives in area but they were in same situationthanks Ken

 

Unless you've seen how fast a Santa Anna fueled fire can move it's hard to appreciate the feroscity of it.

Todd

 

Yeah, you're right, those winds can really spread it fast. Not a bad idea to have a trailer or two on standby...

 

I went through the Cedar fire of 2003 in East Escondido. I was lucky; my house and cars stayed out of harms way ( by about 500 feet...)
Unless you have seen a fire move across 100 foot tall eucalyptus trees at over 60 mph (or sometimes even faster), you don't really grasp what happens.
All it takes is the wind to change directions (which a Santa Ana can do with NO advance warning, of ANY kind) and what was "all clear" 30 seconds ago, is now englufed in flames.
I've seen it.

 

there is a barn full of cars out on some family property in Alpine, we are still waiting to here if it got hit. last we heard the whole hill was on fire and every one was evac'd and safe. c'est la vie.

 

I worked a fire for 18 hrs as a volenteer in 82 or 83 in Villa Park CA and the Coal Canyon fire i think is was named and saw what were then million dollar homes across the way taken out by just what was quoted above!! Alot of that area then didnt have fire service-hydrants- and i ended up on an old fellas roof with a fire hose off a truck!! Scarey is just the beginning of what these fires are capable of.

 

That's some scary ****. My heart goes out to those people dealing with that fire.

 

Anyone who has never seen one of these up close and personal (Idaho 1989) can't really appreciate how quick it changes its mind. I really do feel for these people.

 

I talked today to a friend of mine in Escondido. Several houses in the same subdivision burned to the ground, within a short distance of their place. Her description was "Dante's Inferno." Way more than a lifetime's excitement quota in just a few days.

 

I don't think people fully understand the mind**** that happens when stuff this like does actually comes close to your living quarters.

For example, we were told Katrina would be bad, but noone knew it would be THAT bad. You hear the word Hurricane prior to Katrina and your think Camele or however it was spelled. It was bad, but it wasn't INSANE. You say hurricane AFTER Katrina and people say "oh ****, it might be like Katrina!"

You don't have a clue what to do unless you have been through it once before. News stories, books, and anything else just can't get your mind in the right order compared to experience.

 

Has India sent any help yet? I mean, we kinda rushed over when they had their Sunami. Didn't we? I'm keeping an eye out as to who helps us out, since we're usually the first country to jump into everyone elses ****.

I hope things work out for those people and material things shouldn't be a concern. I'm sure most of those people were well insured, but it still hurts.

 

Thats why I keep an old u-haul towbar handy. I can do 55 with a car on the back if I have to. And I can clamp it on good enough to haul *** in about 5 minutes.

 

Not near as big a fire as this but about two summers ago here it was so dry gr*** fires were starting all over the place. Mama Rash and I were on our way to her parents house and swung off a side road to check out an estate sale we saw signs for. We were looking around and we smelled smoke but we'd been smelling it for days, weeks maybe.

We came back around the front of the house and the wind was howling, scorching hot and I could not believe my eyes. Everything ahead of us was on fire and it was moving fast, right towards us.

The house across the street had a pole fence all around it and a horse on the property. There was obviously no one home and the gates were locked. The horse was up against the fence closest to us. I couldn't figure out what to do. I was starting to climb the fence and head for their garden hose wondering how stupid that was. Would it reach? Did it work? would I beat the fire to it? Lcuky for me the volunteer fire department showed up about then and started pumping. The house got scorched but the horse was alright.


It is amazing how fast it can sneak up on you.

 

Yep...plenty of bushfires in Australia too.......the only preparation u can do is keep ur wedding pix and legal do***ents in an innercity Bank safety deposit box.

As far as inaction, over here in Japan, there are ******* earthquakes all the time.....and after all my emergency drills and **** like that.......I STILL JUST FREEZE.....let alone think about where my car is!

It's sad news for sure, but its always AMAZING how quickly these people affected by natural disaster pick up the pieces and get going again!!!! All the best to you all.

 

I've fought a few forrest fires and almost bought the farm from two different fires, they move fast and they are on you before you know it. Your not thinking about cars, trucks, any equipment, or house, almost everything until your safe.
That is why we carry insurance!

 

I used to be a firefighter and got caught in a fire storm that blew right over the top of us so fast all we could do was duck and pray we didn't get burned. I thought that was a fast moving fire, but nothing like the west coast fires. You just don't realize the magnitude of a fire until you experience one. From the sound of things alot of those folks were just happy to be out and alive and not alot of time for moving much stuff.

 

Looking at that picture I can see a few other vehicles there. Who can tell how many the guy saved?

If I were in that guys situation, I'd be pretty screwed. Too many vehicles to to be able to get them all to safety, several that do not run. If there was time to save some, I'd have to make some tough decisions. Even if i had the gall (sp) to ask a freind to risk their safety to help me to save my cars, there probably wouldn't be enough time anyway. Bottom line, as much as we love them, our cars ar just machines. They are repairable or replaceable, people are not.

Hell, with all shuffling I have to do, it usuallty takes me 45min. or more just to move one car in or out of my back yard. Good job I live in an uban area.

 

Yea, someone mentioned Katrina effects. I'm just waiting to see how the President and other Government personnel get blamed for this one.

because it's always someone else fault.

 

And like Katrina, the twist of the knife will be the "New" insurance rates.

 

not to get off subject, but how can a million dollar neighborhood not have fire service utilities? folks make fun of us calling us hicks and such, back here in tennessee, but everyplace thats high end is gated and has all the amenities to protect a big time investment.

 

Screw the cars. They should be insured. Get your family and *** out of Dodge and hope for the best. You might get something better later, don't die over that stuff.

 

Alot of those homes up in the hills and more rural areas rely on idividual wells for their water because there is no city/county water service in the area. No city/county water service means no fire hydrants.

 

At the risk of being hard headed..once my family was clear...the cars would be moved......we had a Flash flood hit the old shop..(my home was there too...) Once the wife and pets were clear ,(My sons wouldnt leave me....apple not falling far from the tree... ) We moved 14 vehicles, runners, non functionals, etc in less than 1 hr to higher ground....it was a circus, no doubt, but we did it....I know fire is different, but i'd still give it a shot...maybe my stuff means more than$$$ signs to me, but I could not just let it go without trying. And yeah, before some smart*** says it" it might be worth my life" Let the bashing begin.....