Fire is loose in my city! Pray for me! Major Fire

[89ARIES]

Fellow members, I have been up all night on firewatch. The worst fire I have ever seen is burning out of control right now here in Sylmar, California. We have lost over ten houses and 1,500 acres burned. I think when the sun rises it may be more like 50 houses lost. The freeways have been acting as firebreaks. Fire jumped across the freeway three times. Fire is within two miles of my house right now burning out of control in the city. We are like in the gray zone while just up the street is the red zone. I have been glued to the computer watching exactly where the hot spots are and where its heading. We have been having record heat in the 80s and 90s and the fire itself has kept it warm all night. Winds have been out of the north at 30-50 mph with gusts up to 80 mph. The fire started at 10:30PM and I was shocked to see flames shooting out of the ground level withing driving distance. Two people have been injured and the fire just jumped the I-5 and looks to be heading to the community of Granada Hills. Our saving grace is that 500 firefighters were already based here to deal with Santa Barbara fire that exploded yesterday and destroyed Westmont College. My family and I are worried about are storage facility directly in the path of the fire. Our family photos are stored there and we just moved out 75 percent of our stuff last week to get rid of storage. The storage facility at least is metal and concrete and has no brush. The air is heavy with smoke and the whole area is covered with fine ash. My eyes are stinging and only my bedroom has fresh air as it is sealed off. The lights are flickering right now. I want to go to bed, but will feel much better when that fire heads a little more west. I feel 80 percent certain we will be spared. I feel sick as this city is my hometown and I am seeing places and people displaced. Well, branches and debris is hitting the house. Guy signing off on this fiery freaky night. Oops, another flicker.

[Silverbeard]

I would gladly send you the snow we have in our forecast if I could,
My thoughts are with you and my fingers are crossed. Keep us posted.

Martin

[89ARIES]

After a night of howling fire and wind up to 80mph, I awoke at noon to find the smoggy sun and that we have been spared. This has turned out to be the worst fire disaster since the great BelAir Fire of 1961. Confirmed, we lost over 600 houses. Most of these were from a new housing community called Oakridge Mobile Home Park nestled between the two canyons about 2 miles from me. There might be a lot of fatalaties. The fire came as close as 1.5 mile to us and the westerly wind barely kept the fire moving like a revolving door that swept through the north parts of Sylmar into the Newhall Pass. 10,000 people have evacuated and the fire is marching west. Roads are closed and the freeway system is shut down. As I left to go to Van Nuys today, I noticed a remant of the fire growing in a monster mass and it may threaten the Sylmar area yet again. I hope not. My neighbor's friend right now is completely unaccounted for and we are fairly certain her Oakridge home is gone. This fire came on so fast last night at 80mph that there was no time to prepare. People jumped into cars in their pajamas and fled. People drove down roads where the fire was 200 feet high and lapping at their car. The ARCO Food Minimart at the freeway, 2 miles from me, exploded into a fireball as the gasoline detonated. The 210 freeway spared the main part of Sylmar from getting singed as it acted as a firebreak. The hillside abruptly touches the freeway in certain areas. The embers shooted into the sky as far as a mile and destroyed a couple homes on the southside we think as the fire jumped the freeway a few times back and forth. It is so smoky right now.

[88 aries]

you be in my prayers Guy, if you get evacuated dont forget to take the K-car with you.

[TomChrysler]

Ohhhh Guy.

I have been watching the news on television. I have been praying for you and your family. We have a family cabin near Lake Tahoe, and it has narrowly escaped several forest fires that have devastated the canyon several times since the cabin was built in 1939. It's a sickening feeling to see a fire closing in, and all you can do is pray that it gets put out in time.

When we have lunch, maybe you can give me a tour of the area and tell me all about it. Meanwhile, everyone is praying for you,

Love,

Tom

[Baron]

Glad to hear you, your family, property- and your car are safe.

I saw some pictures of the devastation, and saw some vintage cars- like a 50s era Pontiac- that didn't make it. One series of pictures was showing a guy pumping up the tires and pushing his old 1929 Roadster out of his garage and down the road. Hope he made it. Another series of pictures showed where it looked like one guy had lost his car collection. I'm sure that is the least of their concerns at the moment, but it is still sad to also see a piece of history that can't be replaced be lost. Hope it all settles down soon and they get a handle on it. Hopefully, we won't see any more fires of this scope for a long, long time.