I'm in Northridge right now, rather close to the 12000+ acre blaze and it's pretty bad. Hard to breathe with all the smoke. Too much smoke to see anything but a lot of air tankers overhead.

Visible from space:

Click to view attachment

Fire is in the red circle, which is where I also happen to be (cough!).

Adam--Don't stick around if you don't have to, I hear Pendleton is close to going up in flames, so that's not good at all, I do know they have fire breaks on the mountains there, but from what I've seen, it ain't gonna help much with 60 mph winds. Good luck, and take care.

I am in the Valley surrounded by fires. It is nasty air out there today. I can ride my bicycle to Porter Ranch. If it isn't a train crash, its fires, or an earthquake, total shake and bake territory. I really love Arnold getting out there to do his Bush standing on rubble ceremony.

Wow, I just looked at the smoke trail going out to sea. Just think, it all passed over my house.

Like I said, don't stick around if you don't have to, also, do you need respirators yet? I can't imagine that...

Adamquestor and Randilover......RUN AWAY!!!! NOW!

It's nasty - we're getting ashfall as well. My company started passing out respirators yesterday.

I'm saddened by Pendleton; the part on fire is the USMCs wildlife refuge. It's a great refuge because it's so well protected.

This is a rather bad fire season this year, because of the drought.

Thankfully neither of them live near the fire and neither do I. That whole area burns once a year. If someone offers you a house in Porter Ranch just say no!

I was stationed at Pendleton so I am familiar with that refuge. It is near a night fire range and sometimes the Bison would get out and wander onto the range, no doubt their trying to get out now. Hang tough!

Pulling my skirt up and running like a fascist candidate.

Smells like a campfire outside.

My car was covered in ash this morning.

Except with a camp fire you can walk away from the smoke...

That is what windshield wipers are for out here.

The wind is actually blowing to the southwest so I have not gotten covered in the ash yet.

I had a friend from Wa who lived through Mt Saint Helens, you want ash, he's got some ash for you!!!

Good news! Local radio reports that the Camp Pendleton fire is under control.

He probably grows pot in it.

well, the best firefighters in the world are there fighting these fires, including our son...He works for one of the counties and protects homes/structures....

brave sons a bitches they are

Adam--Good news, I also heard that just now.

XRS--Why do you always reefer to pot talk? Got any?

Randys--I was friends with a smoke jumper and you're right, they go right in there where the shit is burning the fan. My friend was from AZ but he would go to wherever he was needed, cool dude. Hope your son is ok.

Shit. Shake and bake season, for sure.

We didn't have weird phenomenons like "shake and bake" when I was a kid growing up there.

smokejumpers are insane

i had a friend who did that also...our boy is a county firefighter, gets to ride around in big fancy truck and so on...at the end of the day, he would risk his life to save yours, and that is cool

Randys--What gets me is that so many of these people go virtually unnoticed by the MSM, they are in a place where the weather can shift the risk in a heartbeat, and no one with a camera crew seems to notice. I guess the whole storm chaser thing is so stupid in comparison, and that's what get's me. No one told the storm chaser to go chase the tornado, but the firefighters and smoke jumpers actually risk their lives for much more, and in some instances, much less. Our country has gone from recognizing real heroics to recognizing really good dancers and singers, some how that is wrong and will bite us in the ass eventually.

Nice play on words. Volcanic soil is the perfect medium. Not nearly enough.

Boy, I dunno about coverage where you are, but in SoCal we see LOTS of coverage of these guys, from the prisoners who volunteer for the fire camps, to the pros who come from throughout the western US, through the forest service pros, and everything between. And every couple of years there is an episode exactly like that you describe, a crew is killed, and in this area anyway it's treated as prominently and somberly as a death in the White House.

More than that, local media is diligent about following the investigations of these episodes all the way through to conclusion. Even local TV news - virtually the equivalent of TMZ.com in almost every other facet of reportage - covers fire fighting with all the glory that I assume a North Carolina station might cover the local NASCAR track.

As fires are underway right now, chances are good there are at least one or two area stations that have wiped out all their regular programming and they're covering fire-fighting live and round the clock. And if any of those flames should hit a structure, you'll see most of the other stations wipe out their schedule - including the network affiliates - to provide an hour two of live, on the spot coverage. And a very good portion of that time goes to covering not just the flames, but who the various fire fighters are, where they come from, how they work and so forth.

Bushwa--That's good to know, I guess the further you get from them the less they get covered. I pay attention because I was there and my friend Roy is a smokejumper. Today we have rain, so I feel even worse for ya'll, we get what we don't really need, and you guys don't get enough of what you do. I hope all of ya'll are ok.

Much better today. The people bushwa was referring to are doing a spectacular job! Many evacuees are being allowed to return. Sesnon fire is 20% contained and expected to be fully contained by late tomorrow. Merritt fire is still burning, but expected to be contained in next couple of days. It's been a long slog.