L.A. Fires spread, more than 100,000 evacuated (video)

As the dark gloom of multiple fires cover the LA basin this morning, more than 100,000 people have been evacuated and more than 500,000 have no power.

Expensive homes of celebrities and the rich have been completely destroyed in places like Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

Can the fires be brought under control today? As of now, there is still 0% containment.

Is this just a taste of things to come everywhere? Fortunately there have been few deaths so far.

And guess what? Many of those homes destroyed have no insurance as thousands had their insurance cancelled this year.

I fixed the video.

 

Over the years for one reason or another, I've been to all those areas--and nothing like this has ever happened, that I can remember. Santa Ana wind gusts to 99 miles an hour? No wonder it's so bad.

 

I've lived in So. Cal during many Santa Ana wind storms. They often cause fires and damage. But this year's severe drought in the LA basin during the "rainy season" may be unprecedented.

 

Here's whose homes burned down. I'm sure most of them have more than one home.

 

I dunno. We can read a license plate from a satellite, but nobody can seem to spot smoke until it's an inferno. I may be thinking simplistically, but one would be led to believe that if they're willing to spend billions in losses, they could put a few more people to work on prevention. What a cake job it would be for students or retirees or even those seeking citizenship - sit up in a fire tower - you know....like it used to be?? Put in a fleet of fast attack vehicles and choppers....those planes dumping water or that red fire retardant on a tiny spot of a huge fire is like a fart in a tornado.

Trump did say they could just turn on that giant faucet up north and irrigate the entire state.....we're waiting.

 

500,000 with no power. But cell phones probably still work.
Did you know you can use your cell phone as a Wi-fi hotspot?

Down-swipe on Android from home screen. For me, the first things I'll see are my Bluetooth and Flashlight.

From there I leftswipe twice and it talks about a hotspot. Activate that!

What you will do next is called 'tethering'.

From your laptop or desktop pc you will select your Wifi options from the bottom right on your 'taskbar'.

 

We have family near Valley Circle Blvd., Box Canyon, LosAngeles. While visiting we noted a huge dry resevoir. The Chatsworth Reservoir. Uncle said it has been dry for years. Wishing that it could be filled up and used for fire fighting.

One might complain about rainy weather but adequate water is a blessing.

 

Chatsworth. Super! They are pretty much northeast but they also have hills nearby in Santa Susanna, and there are beautiful homes all throughout that area. The part of Chatsworth most are probably familiar with happens along the route from Calibasas to route 118.

 

That must be near that giant faucet that tRump was babbling on about ....

 

Drone shots capture horrifying LA fires aftermath

 

I have a friend who lives there,she hasnt been on in days,I hope she is ok!!

 

I have a former raver friend who used to live there with her mom and a dog named Chico. She has not tried to message me in a while. I used to give her rides to raves in the last part of the LA rave scene between the time of EDMs mainstream advent and the inception of Facebook and formerly Twitter changing significantly the medium through which we understood our lives online. I remembered her from MySpace but I couldn't get into

Facebook or Twitter since it wanted to know some 'social network' things I felt were 'priority privacy' oriented.

 

I hear you.

But, despite the concrete jungle of the LA basin and it's tens of millions residents, there is a lot of open wilderness around the city. Multiple mountain ranges, tree filled canyons, hills, desert--you're talking about lot of land to cover. I don’t know feasible it is to put someone out in a tower in the Malibu hills or San Gabriel mountains to watch over a million acres in case of a fire.

I'm not saying this isn't the right thing to do, but the cost of keeping that area under constant surveillance probably just isn't reality. I hate to victim blame here, but even I--who's been to LA a total of once--know exactly where and where NOT to build a house out there. A little individual responsibility has to come into play here. These aren't poor neighborhoods either. The people who live there certainly had the resources to relocate after the previous zillion fires.

I'm not one of those typical I-hate-LA-people. I'm just saying. You couldn't pay me enough to live in the hills and canyons around that city.

 

Nope. Nothing about California excites me. You can't expect a desert to be anything other than that. You know, the winds come every year. You know shit burns. Figure it the fuck out. There's billions to fight fires and recover, but nobody can spend anything on prevention. What the hell is left to burn? Why do they allow stick built homes? It's like the Florida coast - no, you can't build anything except for concrete bunkers. For instance....my sister lives in Orange CA. For years her house had a cedar shake roof....in a fire zone....but oooh, it looked pretty...who in their right mind allowed that in the building code?

Ahh. Yes, all easy things to say for me from this side of the nation. What a terrible thing, but it keeps happening ... nothing changes if nothing changes...figure it the fuck out.

So, now all the insurance companies get to cherry pick where they want to insure and cancel anytime they feel like it....maybe they can pony up for some prevention money vs. throwing it into the fire.

 

If we get rid of insurance people will get off their asses and take preventive measures instead I have insurance so who cares I will get a nice payout if things go bad.

Ideas on prevention posted all over so many ways their is no need for everyone to agree on the best way.

Oh I want to build a house in a fire zone I can't get insurance let me talk to my architect masonry fireproof windows metal roof please.

Its entirely predictable the old system won't die they are going to come up with some codes and endless layers of bureaucracy everything built to code and insurance bla bla bla bla

Its awlways a structural engineers job not to build a strong structure but to comply with codes and insurance stuff as cheap as possible.

Insurance and bureaucracy enabled this entire disaster no one would have built those multi million dollar flammable houses if insurance was not available. They would have built it right.

 

I'm guessing you've never seen the redwoods, the Lost Coast, or the Big Sur area?

Majestic.

 

I've been only through CA on the way to somewhere else or to visit my sister for a day or two... Putting up with the rest of CA doesn't make up for the redwoods. I would like to roll through Yellowstone before that all burns..

What I'd like someone to explain to me is how the hell normal people can afford to live there - they don't make THAT much more money....just show me how you do it....you have to drive two hours each way from your postage stamp lot house that cost $1.5M, everything costs double, utilities are crazy, sales tax, price of gas....

 

Many / most of the overpriced houses in California were purchased at very close to the 'appraised value' at the time they were originally purchased. What changes along the way: (1) appreciation (some years the appreciation was 20 percent per year), (2) people inherit homes from their parents or even grandparents where they obtain a home with 30 to even 50 years of appreciation -- and the new owners don't have to pay inheritance tax on the value of the home unless the value exceeds about 11 to 12 million dollars. Caveat: The home must be acquired by inheriting it - not by sale, gift, or other way of transferring the title.

Our first house was in California. We could barely afford it. We bought it for $96,000. Four years later we sold it for $198,000. The $102,000 profit was exempt from any and all taxes.