Oh gods, the smoke smell just cranked up in the house.

[KitchenWitch]

x(

[Parche]

1. Fire

You be safe...........

How many firefighters do they have?

They should have a pump to the Pacific Ocean to pump water on those wildfires.......

:hi:

[Fire Walk With Me]

50. I think that Ahnold veto'd money for superlifter airplanes meant for this sort of thing.

KW, be well!

[Haole Girl]

2. Any news reports?

I'm hearing conflicting reports about how close the fires are to Irvine.

What are they saying?

Sorry to bug you so much...

[KitchenWitch]

3. It has hopped the 241 and is heading toward the old El Toro base

Although the bigger part of the fire is in the Foothill Ranch area. I do not like that it has jumped the 241 again.

[Haole Girl]

6. Oh crap...

They are pretty close to El Toro.

Damn.

Please keep me posted... if you are able to...

and please be careful. :hug:

[MnFats]

62. tellin' ya, ya shoulda stayed here.

we don't get this shit here...

sorry, that's probably not what you want to hear right now.... I do sympathize but you really should TAKE OFF!

[KitchenWitch]

66. If all the routes east were not consumed by flames, I would seriously consider it.

:)

[In_The_Wind]

4. It must be hard to breath.

Damn!

[KitchenWitch]

5. It is.

But we have breathing aids here (asthma inhalers).

[Tyler Durden]

8. WHAT are you doing staying there? Will you PLEASE get safe???

Lock up the damned house and RUN.

[Tyler Durden]

10. THOSE WILL NOT HELP.

Are you KIDDING ME? You're going to blast open your bronchial tubes so you can breath MORE SMOKE???

Will you please get the fuck out of there? There are TOXINS in that smoke, even if it's only a FOREST.

[Sugar Smack]

7. JUST GET FUCKING OUT OF THERE!

:cry: Please. I've never met you but I love you too dearly. PLEASE!! Keep us updated. I hear you'll bring your laptop. PLEASE be safe!!!

[Sugar Smack]

11. Where are you? Are you in the house?

Are you on the road? :cry:

[LaraMN]

9. Aren't you overdue for a trip to MN?

Like a trip wherein you move back?

:-)

:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

12. Long overdue.

[LaraMN]

13. Awww, hon'!

I can't quite fathom what it's like to deal with the situation you've got looming down there. Scary.

:scared:

[Tyler Durden]

14. Can YOU talk her into making tracks out of there?

Frankly anyone who thinks an ASTHMA inhaler is going to help here....oh for crying out loud. Talk her into LEAVING will you?

[LaraMN]

15. My persuasive wiles are lost on the heterosexual female.

:shrug:

[Tyler Durden]

18. This is NUTS.

Witch will you just get OUT of there? I'm telling you, if you smell smoke, you are too close already.

[huskerlaw]

44. That's not entirely true

All of Southern California smells like smoke. I'm 15 miles away from the nearest one, but because of the wind it smells like a campfire here. We're talking about thousands of acres burning in multiple areas, with wind gusts up to 100 mph. Nobody's escaping the smell or the horrid air quality.

KW is keeping track of the situation, and I'm sure she'll leave if she's in any imminent danger, but there's NOWHERE around here (for hundreds of miles) to go that doesn't smell like smoke.

[Haole Girl]

16. OMG... omg... omg...

My sister lives in Northwood too. For some reason, I thought she was in the Woodbridge area... guess it is pretty far down Culver. Crap.... just talked with her on the phone. She said the fire got within 1 mile of their house last night. I can't believe they were not ordered to evacuate with it that close. God. I think I am more frightened than she is... maybe she is still in shock, I don't know.

Anyway, she said the winds just shifted and the fire is headed in the other direction.

The bad news, though, is that they expect the winds to increase tonight from 70 mph to 100 mph.

Seems like you guys just can't catch a break. :-(

[KitchenWitch]

28. Oh gods!

I am sorry.

No new news here.

:hug:

[Haole Girl]

33. Please let us know when you hear more, ok?

:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

39. It appears as if the fire has moved over to the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest

Still a little close for my tastes, but Northwood is not in any immediate danger.

[Haole Girl]

41. Thank you for keeping me updated

My sister is probably sleeping now She sounded on edge when I talked with her today. The way she described having all their photos lined up in the hallway, ready to go, freaked me out. :hug:,

[KitchenWitch]

45. Sure thing

Actually posting about it was a lifeline for me.

We went to Garden Grove for dinner tonight. Much less smoke there. Did wonders for my state of mind.

The fire is now at least 6 miles away from us now. There are some hotspots right off of Irvine Blvd at Modjeska.

Saddleback Mountain is on fire, you can see the glow from the back side.

I think it is Foothill Ranch that will be having the night that we in Northwood had last night.

[Haole Girl]

46. Irvine Blvd at Modjeska is very close to my sister's house...

I think. She said Irvine Blvd. and something. It's been too many years since I lived there now (18 years) to remember all the streets.

Anyway, I'm pretty tired... going to bed now. Hope you can get some rest, too... and hope everything settles down soon. I'm going to say a special prayer, as I fall asleep, that the arsonist for those fires is caught-- and soon!

:hug:

[KitchenWitch]

47. Irvine Blvd at Modjeska is a vast wasteland

South of Irvine Blvd there is El Toro and north is a bunch of warehouses.

[Haole Girl]

49. Well, without giving her exact address...

she's at the end of the road... near a little organic market. Do you know the subdivision I'm talking about?

[KitchenWitch]

51. I live IN that subdivision.

:wow:

[Haole Girl]

52. OMG!

It's that 6 degrees of separation thing again!!

:rofl:

[KitchenWitch]

53. No doubt!

:hi:

[Haole Girl]

54. Now I'm wide awake again!!

LOL!

I can't believe, in all this time, I didn't realize you were neighbors!

[KitchenWitch]

55. Me neither...

I can understand why she was so freaked, because I was too over this fire thing.

[Haole Girl]

58. Yeah...

One mile (from the fire) is whaaay too close for comfort.
:scared:
I'll be glad when the winds calm down.

[Sugar Smack]

17. Will you PLEASE leave?

Please?:cry:

[KitchenWitch]

59. Fire has MOVED

Smoke not being blown over us anymore.

[question everything]

19. How is Irvine?

CNN had an I-Report from Irvine showing smoke and fires from the canyons but I don't think that there are actually fires in Irvine, right?

I remember the Laguna Fire from 1993 when, again, we could see smoke and flames jumping above the canyons and then, for days, the air in Irvine smelled of smoke and there were ashes every place.

[KitchenWitch]

23. They are crossing back and forth.

We would haul ass out of here but there is nowhere to go that is not smoky around here. Seriously.

[Tyler Durden]

24. SHIT.

You have wet towels? Put them at your doorsills, they might ease the smoke.

[KitchenWitch]

25. Good idea

Doing that right now.

[question everything]

30. On the news they suggest to stay at home and turn the A/C

and to recycle the air, though I have no idea how to do this at home..

And, really, to evacuate will be a nightmare if you don't have to. There are 9 million people in LA county alone! I-5 is probably a mess and you cannot go inland.

Good luck, thanks for posting here.

[JVS]

20. I'd get the hell out of Dodge if I were you.

[KitchenWitch]

29. In my Dodge?

:silly:

I need comedy, STAT.

[Tyler Durden]

21. If the fire comes, you cannot save the house.

It's time to go, that is, if you still CAN.

[Sugar Smack]

22. DON'T stay if you can smell smoke.

Get out of there. Take your little ones and leave.

[Kutjara]

42. You can smell smoke all over the area.

I'm fifteen miles from the fire and can still it strongly. The air is hazy and my car has a fine layer of ash on it. Basically, most of L. A. smells like a smokehouse at the moment, so there really isn't anywhere to go where the air will be cleaner (except perhaps fifty miles out in the Pacific).

[merh]

26. Take care sweetie

I wish you would get out to some place safe, call the cops and ask them if there is an evac center and how to get to it.

Saying prayers for you and yours and all in that region. Lord settle down the winds and let the embers die out please.

:pals: :hug: :loveya:

[ThomCat]

27. I hope the wind changes direction.

And I hope you are well.

I hope there is someplace safe you can get to if you need to.

:(

[Critters2]

31. KW, I'm with those who are asking you to leave.

I've never been near a fire like that, but it seems to me that it's dangerous to be there if you can smell the smoke. Please leave. If it's not necesary, but you do leave, well no harm done. But if you wait too long, well, I don't want to think about what could happen.

Please leave, KW. Please. :loveya:

[Whoa_Nelly]

32. Which one of these is yours? (Google Map)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.00043d0e9ca465cefeeed&ll=35.960223,-117.443848&spn=4.827737,8.876953&z=7

Hope things get under control SOON! :hug:

[NMDemDist2]

35. her's is the Santiago Canyon fire n/t

[Whoa_Nelly]

38. That's what I thought

Thanks, AZDD6! :hi:

That's the one that they think was started by arson.

Hope KW is doing better. It's only about 30% contained right now.

[Midlodemocrat]

34. Kitchy, please get out of there.

[lost-in-nj]

36. Hey KW

PLEASE
please take care of yourselves....

worry about you .....


:hug:

lost

[Arugula Latte]

37. Please take any humans and pets and get the heck out.

Seriously. If you drive far enough away, you'll get away from the smoke eventually.

:hug:

[Kutjara]

40. I'm smellling it up here in Brea, which is over 15 miles away.

My eyes have been stinging most of the day and there's a definite haze in the air. I just got home and noticed that my sunglasses have a layer of dust (well, ash really) on them, so no doubt my lungs do too.

This is certainly taking the gloss off the whole "California Dreamin'" lifestyle deal I signed up for. I gotta find someone to sue.

[KitchenWitch]

48. I am in for a class action suit!

:hi:

[Kutjara]

56. It's a deal!

I also wouldn't mind getting my pacifist mitts around the throats of the people who are setting some of these fires.

:hi: :hug:

[KitchenWitch]

57. hear hear, or get in line!

:hi:

:hug:

[Tektonik]

43. Where I work

We sold all four or five of our sharper image air purifiers within the first hour of being open.

I'm lucky I live directly west of a marine air base, so I don't think there's an iota of a chance of the fires being allowed to engulf an entire base then reach me, but damn the smoke at times is too much. :(

[kedrys]

60. Would you PLEASE get the f*ck outta there??

Pretty please...? Before you permanently singe your lungs...?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

61. From one S. CA gal to another

I am going through the same thing here - we have the AC on to filter out the impurities and it helps a lot. I think people from outside need to know the following:
Leaving prior to being told to leave means getting in a giant bumper to bumper parking lot situation. We have literally no place to go - The fires are in every direction. Evacuation centers are places considered safe but are in the same areas we are already in. If we go to a high-school we end up on a gymnasium floor with 700 people and the same air to breath we are now breathing plus we have the pleasure of sharing HS bathrooms. The National Guard does their best to make us feel like we are probably not going to get shot.
The hundreds of thousands (in the 6 digit numbers) of acres that are burning are forcing hundreds of thousands of people out onto the roads. Think of it as one of those SCI-FI movies where Los Angeles is trying to escape in one night... Gas stations are closing and fuel is a problem. Even if home is shitty... UNLESS YOU MUST LEAVE, it's best to just hang tight and keep the AC on and watch the news and make sure you know the path of the fires... that is plural. I have fires coming from three directions and no place to go. (but here to talk to friends) I have an extended Yahoo group of progressives and we are all staying in touch via email. It has been heart wrenching when one of us loses a home.

Peace to all

[grasswire]

63. It looks like hell.

I'm so sorry.

[KitchenWitch]

64. Gilligan - just be safe.

Promise?

:hug:

The fire is moving away from us in a Southeast direction. So we are not in imminent danger anymore.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

65. Oh, we are being safe.

My husband and I are taking shifts sleeping - his turn now. We are watching news and making sure we will get out. Right now the fire is looking like it will go past us to the north and the south. If it crosses over the hills to the east we will be toast. It all depends on which way the wind blows. We are packed and ready to leave. I have lost everything in a fire prior to this. It is the most horrible thing besides losing a loved one.

We will be okay.