Southern California Wildfire Maps, Video’s, Information and News

California wildfire maps, California wildfire video, California State of Emergency, California Wildfire Information

In Southern California, the Carbon Canyon fire, Chino hills State Park fire, Brea fire, Corona fire, Sayre fire, Sylmar fire, Freeway fire, Yorba linda, and Anaheim hills fire have destroyed over 100 homes and displaced tens of thousands of residents. On Saturday, wildfires reduced over 500 mobile homes to cinders and forced homeowners and even firefighters to flee as flames as high as 50 feet licked at their heels.

California Wildfire Map

For more California Wildfire Maps, please see California State Wildfire Maps or Federal Active Fire Maps.

The Sayre Fire, the worst of the blazes, raced through Sylmar, a San Fernando Valley town on the edge of the Angeles National Forest, forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people and shutting down major freeways including Interstate 5.

But that was just the beginning. By day’s end, the Freeway Fire in Orange and Riverside counties was burning out of control, destroying more homes.

The havoc came just as firefighters were getting a handle on the 1,900-acre Tea Fire in the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito. That fire, which erupted Thursday night amid superheated winds – known locally as “sundowner” winds because they blow down from the mountains at sundown – destroyed 210 homes and forced the evacuation of 5,400 people.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles as Santa Ana winds continued to whip the fires in unpredictable ways.

The Sayre Fire, which started Friday at 10:29 p.m., had jumped I-5 and burned close to 8,000 acres by Saturday night, forcing the closure of I-5, I-210 and numerous interchanges in the path of destruction.

Some 1,400 firefighters joined the battle, which burned to the edge of the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center campus, causing an electricity outage and forcing officials to evacuate two dozen patients in critical condition.

Still, nobody was prepared for what happened at the Oakridge Mobile Home Park early Saturday.

“It was an absolute firestorm,” said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Steve Ruda. “Firefighters were battling 50-foot flames sweeping over the mobile homes, burning them to the ground.”

Witnesses described a frantic scene as dozens of firefighters rushed to help elderly residents get out of the mobile home park as hurricane-force winds pushed flames down the hillside above the park. Some residents refused to leave their pets, most of which were taken out, but some animals undoubtedly perished.

All hell broke loose sometime after 2:30 a.m., according to witnesses.

“The flames just burst open, and the hillside looked like a volcano had just erupted,” said Anthony Aguilar, 23, who had come to the park to help a friend’s grandfather. “It looked like a river of fire. Fire was literally flowing down the hill.”

Telephone poles burst into flame as the last residents fled. Ruda said firefighters were forced to abandon their fire hoses and run for their lives.

“It was an extremely, extremely heavy fire,” Ruda said. “The firefighters left at the very last second they could to save their lives.”

No deaths have been confirmed, but Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton expressed concern that some elderly residents might not have heard the call for evacuation and perished in the flames. Search dogs will be deployed when the debris cools, he said.

The scene Saturday was one of complete devastation – even the street signs had melted away. What had once been a large neighborhood of neat mobile homes was a smoldering ruin of charred metal and unidentifiable debris. Water spurted from scattered water lines, and small flames leapt from the charred remnants of a few furnaces. The fire hoses left behind had melted into the pavement.

Residents pleaded with officers at the gates to tell them whether their homes had survived or to allow them to go see for themselves, but they were not permitted inside. At a meeting early in the day, an emotional Ruda told the residents to prepare for the worst. He choked up when he lifted a singed American flag found in the debris in what he said was a sign of hope.

But hopes were mostly dashed by late morning. After an hour of trying to find out what happened to their mobile home, German immigrants Heinz and Oralia Leigsring walked around to a perimeter wall to see for themselves.

“Oh, oh,” moaned Heinz, 80, when it became apparent that the home they had spent two decades caring for and remodeling with new wooden floors and double-pane windows was gone.

He comforted his 75-year-old wife, who quickly turned away holding a handkerchief to her face as she wept. They had escaped the flames with little more than the clothes on their backs.

“This is no good, no good,” said Leigsring, who wore only shorts and a T-shirt. “So much love and labor and work. We’ll have to start over again. The thing is, we don’t have anything left. Nothing. Oh, it’s mind-boggling.”

A month ago, residents of a nearby trailer park lost their homes in an eerily similar fire, which also closed Interstates 5 and 210 and forced the evacuation of the hospital.

By Saturday evening, the Sayre Fire was 20 percent contained. Some 1,000 structures were being threatened, while nine single-family homes and 11 commercial buildings were destroyed in addition to the mobile home park.

The Santa Ana winds that blow in Southern California this time of year also were blamed for the Freeway Fire, which began Friday at 9 p.m. It had consumed 5,800 acres as of Saturday night and was only 5 percent contained. In Orange County, it destroyed 60 residences in Anaheim and 30 in Yorba Linda, along with 14 more in the Riverside County town of Corona.

Four Corona firefighters were slightly injured when flames engulfed their engine, according to Christy Romero of the Orange County Fire Authority. Mandatory evacuations were under way.

In the Orange County city of Brea, a separate 1,500-acre fire destroyed the main building of a high school.

As the flames approached high-powered transmission lines, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged residents to conserve electricity to avoid rolling blackouts.

Meanwhile, more than 1,900 firefighting personnel were battling the Tea Fire in Montecito, a wealthy enclave dotted with the homes of such celebrities as Rob Lowe, Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas and Oprah Winfrey.

Thirteen people were injured and a small Christian college was among the 210 structures destroyed.

Strangely, there was almost no wind Saturday and firefighters made significant progress, said Battalion Chief Doug Lannon of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, with the fire 60 percent contained by evening – although 1,500 residences were still imperiled.

About 1,000 residents were allowed back into their homes, but the vast burned area in the hills remained closed off.

That didn’t stop filmmaker Michael Collins from sneaking up back roads to check on his home in the tight-knit Mountain Drive community, which was founded in 1949 by artists and bohemians. The house, built out of redwood timbers from the destroyed Ellwood Pier, was gone. Decades ago, it had been called “the Castle” and had hosted such legendary figures as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jim Morrison.

“I have never seen a fire move that fast. We knew we didn’t have time to do anything but grab the dogs and the computers and go,” said Collins, 64, who lost cameras, 5,000 books and the raw tape from two documentary films he was working on about the community.

“I don’t actually know what I feel right now, a little sad, a little numb,” said Collins, as he picked through the remnants of his home. “It’s a new chapter, and I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

A PROCLAMATION

OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY

WHEREAS on November 14, 2008, a wildfire started in Los Angeles County and continues to spread; and

WHEREAS the fire has burned approximately 2,600 acres with no containment; and

WHEREAS the fire has damaged or destroyed over 165 homes and threatens the electric power supply for the area; and

WHEREAS the fire has required mandatory evacuations and road closures, and residents have been forced to seek emergency shelter; and

WHEREAS the fire has caused the evacuation of patients from Olive View Hospital; and

WHEREAS I requested, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency granted, a Fire Management Assistance Grant for this fire; and

WHEREAS on November 15, 2008, Los Angeles County declared a local emergency and requested that I declare a state of emergency; and

WHEREAS the circumstances of this wildfire, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat; and

WHEREAS under the provisions of section 8558(b) of the California Government Code, I find that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist due to the fire in Los Angeles County.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the state Constitution and statutes, including the California Emergency Services Act, and in particular, section 8625 of the California Government Code, HEREBY PROCLAIM A STATE OF EMERGENCY to exist within Los Angeles County.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that all agencies of the state government utilize and employ state personnel, equipment and facilities for the performance of any and all activities consistent with the direction of my Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the State Emergency Plan, and that OES provide local government assistance under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act.

I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this proclamation be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this proclamation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 15^th Day of November 2008.

My question for you, faithful reader, is “Do you think that the frequency and intensity of Wildfires in California is exacerbated by Global Warming?

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