Tuesday Firewatch AM

AS OF 2 PM, THIS POST IS CLOSED.  PLEASE CONTINUE COMMENTS IN THE "TUESDAY FIREWATCH PM" POST ABOVE.

And welcome to another day in the land of fire and smoke.

If you're new here, welcome.  Here's the ground rules:

• Read the comments.  They are the most important part of the blog right now. We are grateful to those who are sharing their on-the-scene reports.
• Want to ask a question?  Read the posts and comments first.  The Altadenablog staff (i.e., me) are too overwhelmed to answer individual email questions right now (a popular one is "How can I help?") We recommend that you drill through the stories and comments for the past few days, and most of your questions will be answered. Or, ask the question in the comments section, and we're sure somebody will have an answer! We have the greatest readers in the world!
• Bookmark www.altadenablog.com to return to this page.  The increase in hits is astronomical, and that's encouraging the cyber bad guys.  Google searches of "altadenablog" are turning up malware sites that will put a virus in your computer.  We're working with Google to identify and quarantine them, but naturally we can't devote a lot of time to it.  If you made it here, bookmark this page to come back.

And here's something cool: THEY'RE SICCING A 747 ON THE FIRE!

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(thx to Firefighter)

Supporting our work: We've had several requests about giving financial support to the work we do -- not just during fires, but the work we do throughout the year as Altadena's community news source. Of course we have display advertising (and feel free to contact us about it after the Current Unpleasantness is over, because we love our advertisers and encourage you to check 'em out).  And we certainly need it (we had to buy more bandwidth today because of all the traffic).  So we've put in a "tip jar" in the right hand column, which goes to our Paypal account.  Your support will go to buy more bandwidth and features for the website, and upgrade the equipment we use (we're particularly in need of a good DSLR camera!)  Thank you for supporting Altadena's community news source! (UPDATE 9:45 AM: Per one of our readers: These are NOT tax deductible and NOT endorsed by any government agency!)

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  UPDATE 2:00 PM 

Okay, we're back for a quick time and then it's back to the hospital (not to worry, everything's going fine on that end!)

Google Mail seems to have gone down, so we're not getting your emails. Will keep trying!

The Battle for Mt. Wilson: it's on.  Flames are in the complex, but there's a lot of "fog of war" as to what's really going on up there.  Air support seems to be the only way to fight it now, altho' LA County Fire twittered  around 1:45:

*Station IC* LACoFD is sending units to stage at Red Box Ranger Station for structure protection @ Mount Wilson.

Lots of aircraft flying over us in East Altadena, apparently headed for Mt. Wilson.

The comments have been great!  Keep it up!

  UPDATE 10:00 AM 

Altadena Sheriff Capt. Roosevelt Blow points us to a new list of Station Fire information that is now at the top of the LA Sheriff's website: www.lasd.org

Ken Farley has sent us the latest MODIS map.  Oy gevalt!

We'll be out of pocket for several hours.  Comments are still open.

  UPDATE 8:00 AM 

Missing Links: Sussy Nemer of Supv. Michael Antonovich's office has given us a couple of links for more information: the supervisor's website is antonovich.lacounty.gov or antonovich.com.  LA County Fire is fire.lacounty.gov.

And reader Emily Corey recommends KPCC's link as being very up-to-date.

AND: We have added a "tip jar" to the right column.  Explanation above.

  UPDATE 7:00 AM 

County disaster website: a motion will be presented by the County Supervisors today about the fire, which includes the following clause:

Instruct the Chief Executive Officer to ensure that the information posted on the County’s website about the fires is real-time, accurate and user friendly and that protocols and procedures are developed to institutionalize the real-time posting of such information/updates on natural disasters and other significant incidents in the future; and

Instruct the Chief Executive Officer to provide a report to the Board in two weeks with the status of [paragraph] above which shall also include a review of the County’s newly implemented mass communications system, its failures and anticipated modifications to ensure effectiveness in the future.

  UPDATE 6:30 AM 

Broadcast news says that the Station Fire is 105,000 acres. Mt. Wilson is still in danger, altho the cam is working.

Evacs for the most part have been lifted -- Millard Canyon, El Prieto, and the upper part of Chaney Trail are still closed, per the sheriff.  "If there's no deputy blocking your way, you can go in," is what they told us.

Coming home: The joy of homecoming was best expressed by Alice Wessen in the Chaney Trail neighborhood, who sent us this note last night:

It has been a roller coaster few days

As for all the miscues on communication with various agencies, the supervisor's office knows, our congressman knows, heck, even the Gov.'s office knows. The supervisor's office will review the last few days and the county's emergency response procedures. To be worked.

But for now.....

When we came home to Chaney Trail, we saw the handwritten signs by Eric McCalla and Leslie Lowes who had written "WELCOME HOME" ... and I just teared up. I honked my van horn and waved my idiot hands off.

There are large fire trucks parked on our roads right now. The fire fighters are sleeping in their rigs, though several of us "ladies" have said howdy...and I know one who offered to have their babies cept for being post menopausal.

On a serious note, we hear winds may shift around 2AM and flare ups possible so it isn't over.

But for now, my neighbors, my kids, my hubby, my pets and home are safe, and I am so so sooo grateful to all the firefighters who worked so hard and are doing their jobs even now, so we can come home.

Staging on Tanoble:  A comment from Karen from about 5:30 AM, which we're bringing up to the posts:

From one of my neighbors in the Woodglen, Altadena area: "A crew of "hot shots" from San Bernardino County are setting up a base camp at the head of Tanoble on the sand in front of the debris basin dam. I stopped to talk with the 'hot shot' team - they're building a firebreak on the ridge above us, laying hose, and planning a backfire up to Mt. Wilson for tomorrow IF winds permit (absolutely no wind right now - temperature 82, going down to 70, humidity 28%."