It's been pretty nasty here the last few days... this evening I went up to the 9th floor of Caltech's library to get a view of the damage. I live 3 miles closer to the fire than this... (pano taken with a 500mm + 1.4x tc, 5D2 - see power lines for scale). A little more hellish looking than Paul's shot!
Posted by Paul Dileanis on August 29, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Ouch, I can feel the heat all the way up here in San Jose! Nice shot, Floris, I can see that this was a fast moving fire. I like the way the flames are flowing down the mountain.
Posted by Paul Duval on August 29, 2009 at 2:56 PM
The smoke plume from this wildfire is clearly seen this morning from North Long Beach, surface winds have shifted 90 degrees and are hopefully blowing the beast back upon it's self. Power image Floris.
Posted by Paul Duval on August 29, 2009 at 9:56 PM
No go the beast is in full cry...the Station fire has consumed 5,000 acres and is only 5% contained. From the CALFIRE website.
Posted by Steve Sieren on August 30, 2009 at 2:59 PM
Oh, my god, it looks more like a Hawaiin Volcano. Just saw the mushroom cloud plume yesterday. The fire just looks way too big. Hope they get a handle on it.
Fire season in California must be the 5th season between summer and fall.
I wonder if we'll get some good wildflowers next spring...
Posted by Paul Duval on August 30, 2009 at 6:39 PM
This fire is unusual in that it is not associated with a bad Santa Ana wind event. Winds for the most part have been almost calm, but in the brush areas, the heat has been triple digit and the humidity single digit still a recipe for disaster. As for wildflowers there are many species that are fire dependent to germinate, however with the fuel loads so high in many areas through our past misguided fire management policies, these fires may burn so hot that it will kill the seeds with excessive heat. Our low and mid altitude brush enviroment has evolved over the millenia to live with fire, even some species becoming dependent on it for survival like the Sequoia. We can only hope for the best, and with luck something good will come out of this.
Posted by Eric Good on September 1, 2009 at 5:57 PM
I still don't understand why So California doesn't have a small fleet of water dropping planes ready at a moment's notice during fire season to put out any newly developed fire before it gets out of control. You'd think that would be more cost effective in the long run than having battalions of firefighters risking life and limb for weeks on end. There must be something I'm missing.
Posted by Greg Cope on September 2, 2009 at 8:27 PM
I had a feeling you'd post a photo of the fires. Very reminiscent of a volcano, and an excellent shot. Here's hoping for progress on those front lines!
Discussion
11 repliesPaul
Fire season in California must be the 5th season between summer and fall.
Station Fire, LA County: 35,200 acres - 5% contained.
Not good.
-P
I wonder if we'll get some good wildflowers next spring...