Palisades Fire - Los Angeles

[Anonymous]

Pasadena too parts of it. My daughter is out there, like many of you I’m worried. The Santa Ana winds are not helping. The acreage of fire is growing by the minute

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up in SoCal and this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a fire storm of mass destruction and will only get worse over the night.

Iconic landmarks like the Getty Villa and Palisades HS are on fire. 0% contained.

I grew up in SoCal and this is a disaster. People had to abandon their cars in traffic and run.

30,000 people evacuated but the Getty staff say the museum is very secure. My LA friends left their home before the gridlock. I have been through three fire evacuations in the last few years in the Rocky Mountain West, and several friends lost their homes with minutes to get out. The trauma of losing everything you have is unimaginable, especially for children. I have totally changed how I arrange everything. My heart goes out to anyone who has to evacuate, and wait and wonder what is happening to their home. The wind forecast looks terrible.

If you don't mind sharing, I'd like to hear what changes you made. I live in LA and have several family and friends sheltering in hotels right now.

I am glad your friends made it out, and I hope their homes make it.

We had 15 minutes in our first evacuation, many of our friends had literally two minutes. Here is what I’ve done

-Reorganized “must have” paper and objects so that they exist in one grabbable plastic file box stored in the front closet. This means that the overall organization is disrupted. Obviously it has passports, banking, emergency cash etc., but it also has my favorite drawings from each child, original genealogical documents, love letters. This is the box that is first out. It’s what you need and what you feel like you will die without. I sharpied symbols on the box to remind me to close windows, doors, and shut off power/gas. We don’t have propane but if you do you should try to remove it. This is where you put the things that you take if you have two minutes. I also have a small box of charging equipment. This is totally an emotional crutch for me. I learned the first time that slinging chargers into random places made me feel out of control and panicky, but I really wanted to take them.

-The front closet also has flat boxes, packing tape, bubble wrap, scissors that are not used for anything else. They are there primarily for art and books.

-I have packed a box with one or two pieces of each of the multiple sets of china and crystal that are family things.

-I have a packed box of our most treasured Christmas things.

-Jewelry is stored in a box with trays and I am religious about putting it away

-Books are shelved so that high priority keepers are together. Old photo albums are there (yes they are scanned, but some photos I want if I can have them).

-Every bedroom has a box of big black trash bags. You can stuff a ton of clothing, stuffed animals, special blankets, etc. in really quickly and the bags will squish into vehicles efficiently. Kids can do this while you do something else.i will never forget holding my kid’s quavering friend who barely escaped with her family and did not have a single thing left. Not one stuffed animal, baby toy, pillowcase. Nothing.

-Scanning and photographing. Pretty much everything that can be scanned is scanned, if it can’t be scanned it’s photographed. I have thumb drives here and send copies to my mother and cousin. This serves two purposes. Whatever we can’t take out, we will have a memory of, and we will get the max for our contents insurance (start scanning receipts for things as you buy). Insurance for build cost is usually not enough, and they’re only obligated to pay a % of contents unless you can document it all.

-Priorotized lists. We know approximately what can go out in 2, 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. We know what fits in our vehicles and what we can add if our friend comes with a trailer. This is all written in order and stored in an envelope taped to the must go box. Be sure to include a device list. No matter how prepared you are, it’s scary. It’s not a time to make decisions. You don’t want to be in the basement staring at your sorority memorabilia and your grandmother’s ice skates and wondering what to take. This also means someone else can pack if you put locations and ideally a photo on the list.

Overall, my house is no longer organized for maximum efficiency, but for maximum evacuation efficiency. It doesn’t change much or look weird. It just means some extra steps and discipline here and there. Everyone will have different priorities and choices. The key is making those decisions before the crisis and organizing so you don’t have to think or search for things when you evacuate.

Thanks so much, pp!

[Anonymous]

Santa Monica is being evacuated!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually it is power lines that are downed by the wind storm and they spark on the ground near dry vegetation.

I'm in LA now, that's what normally causes a wildfire, but yes sometimes an idiot doesn't put out a camp fire properly or in other cases, starts one on purpose.

SoCal Edison was supposed to shut down power today. Who knows if they did it - this is an extremely wealthy area.

Do they do this to encourage people to leave or does doing so prevent additional fires?

I know very little about evacuating for fires or handling wildfires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn’t the wind in Europe result in massive wild fires?

Europe is not a desert.

Iberia would like a word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Usually it is power lines that are downed by the wind storm and they spark on the ground near dry vegetation.

I'm in LA now, that's what normally causes a wildfire, but yes sometimes an idiot doesn't put out a camp fire properly or in other cases, starts one on purpose.

SoCal Edison was supposed to shut down power today. Who knows if they did it - this is an extremely wealthy area.

Do they do this to encourage people to leave or does doing so prevent additional fires?

I know very little about evacuating for fires or handling wildfires.

They shut off the power in high wind to prevent fires caused by downed lines.

[Anonymous]

Here in the Bay Area and just devastated. My house backs up to San Pablo ridge/ a regional park and it’s super windy here at the moment. I can only imagine the conditions in socal. We’ve been extremely lucky with lots of rain so the ground is saturated here, but we had a brush fire in the canyon over the summer and it was terrifying even without the high winds. A calfire plane handled it quickly. My heart goes out to everyone going through this. I can’t stop watching the news..

[Anonymous]

I’m concerned that the Altadena fire can approach the Jet Propulsion Laboratory campus. Major national security failure if that happens.

The fire crews are absolutely overwhelmed.

[Anonymous]

Almost 200k addresses have power cut off, fires approaching 3000 acres. The winds near Pasadena are so strong they can’t use aircraft which is a huge blow. What an absolute nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Live in Southern California in a community that had a massive wildfire that burned for 40 days and spread 50 miles - FIFTY MILES five years ago.

The worst thing I ever heard in my life as the hills above my neighborhood burned closer and closer was the dispatch of the county fire department yell, "abandon and move on" "no hope" "abandon the hospital is gone". The neighbors gathered on a corner listening to a the dispatcher on an app that a neighbor had playing. It seemed like twighlight on a hot summer day even though it was midnight in winter.

If you are in a wildfire in in the West, NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU. There simply aren't enough resources. Neighbors ran door to door banging to wake everyone up. Men stayed and fought for our neighborhood as embers starte falling and only one house burned and a few others were singed.

We drove away and parked and watched 500 homes burn in our community.

If anyone has kids at UCLA, they need to be prepared to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why doesn’t the wind in Europe result in massive wild fires?

Um : https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/2023-among-five-worst-years-wildfires-europe-2024-provides-some-relief-2024-11-19_en

[Anonymous]

I just saw a pic someone posted as they were landing at LAX. Absolutely horrifying.

[Anonymous]

This is a good book to understand what we're in for increasingly when it comes to fires are the urban-wild interface: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B96CH5ZP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_351_o04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Anonymous]

3rd fire now in Sylmar - 50 acres. Calling for evacuations.

Anyone living near hills in SoCal should absolutely pack tonight and be ready to go. I imagine there will be fires in Orange County too.