The newscasts on the major TV networks this evening gave themselves over almost completely to the coverage of these terrible wildfires raging in the coastal mountains of Southern California. It has been my pleasure to attend several regional conventions in San Diego and as I watched the news this evening I could not help but reflect on the outstanding modeling that presents itself in that region of the country. If it has not already occured I am sure that there will be at least one model railroad layout destroyed by these terrible fires.
I would like to extend my sincerest condolences to those many people who have suffered property damage and loss in these fires; and to any model railroader who might find his property endangered remember: model railroads can be rebuilt - life cannot.
Being from San Diego and now Living in Los Angeles the impact of the fires didn’t hit me hard until I saw one of the San Diego News reporters report about the conditions of one of the fires as he stood in front of his own personal home as it burned to the ground. Most of my family is still down there and they say that it is horrible. Lucky for them the fires are close but still far away.
I can joke and say that, “Well this happens every year” and I wouldn’t be telling a lie, but hardly does those fires ever take out so many homes.
I too hope that all the modelers down south (of me) are taken care of.
My Aunt and Uncle live on the side of a mountain in San Diego. They just finished a $1 million home renovation. They can see fires burning in all directions around them. They don’t know if they’re in trouble yet or not. I was planning on going out there this Christmas and checking out some of the club layouts.
Anybody know if those folks can even get fire insurance to cover that? I know there are a lot of things insurance won’t cover out there.
If you live in a wooded area, the biggest thing you can do is follow the recommendations and regulations from the CDF and other wildfire agencies on preparing your property. This includes removal of brush and combustible debree, maintaining a “ring” around the property where the fire can’t burn through, etc.
I do this to our camp here in the northeast every year. It never fails that one of the people around us always has a brush fire that ends up encroaching on to the property. I maintain a 100’ ring around the camp where there is absolutely ZERO dry brush, leaves, etc. This is a bare dirt ring where absolutely nothing is left that can burn.
The driveway is maintained with zero potholes, tire ruts, and proper road dimensions to allow a full size piece of fire apparatus to make it’s way down, and one of the smaller brush apparatus with great ease.
The paths on the property are designed to allow the pickup-truck based brush apparatus to travel them and have a 4’ buffer where they are clear of branches and other brush on each side of the path. I try to keep this as clear as possible so they they are a fire break for some of the ground fires that stay low and run along the land.
We also have a 2000 gallon water tank that’s on site fed by a small stream. We built up a small “dam” to divert about 50% of the water to the tank. It feeds down into a trough and then through a screen in the top of the tank to catch some of the bigger items. The tank was designed to have dual 2.5" connections to a portable pump, and a 6" connection to a suction line for a fire dpeartment apparatus to refill it’s tank.
The run-off from the tank is collected by a large basin and directed back into the stream so that it doesn’t create a large sinkhole.
We have some 1 acre ponds throughout the property that are naturally occuring. We have installed a 6" pipe “dry hydrant” on all of them for the fire department to use if a
I would presume their line of thinking is that since you are so proactive about keeping the place so “fire department” friendly, that you are also proactive in preventing fire in the first place.
Exactly. If the camp burns down, there was either one hell of a fire and it was able to jump a 100’ ring, which is unheard of in Vermont, or it was caused by a person.
With or without the insurance break, I would have done it anyways. I’m a firefighter myself, and I know how hard it is to find viable water supplies in the woods, or at camps. The property could support a fire attack of 1000 GPM for 6-8 hours approximately based on pond sizes and how fast they refill.
But that doesn’t go without saying, unless you invite the fire department to come pre-plan the property, you’ve done essentially nothing. The dry-hydrants, the tank, and all the connections were positioned and planned for doing walk throughs of the property.
The building itself isn’t as “fire safe” as it could be, but the property as a whole is VERY prepared. To make the building “safer”, I need to install a basic alarm system that can disconnect the power, alert the neighbors that an emergency is happening, and work with the neighbors to figure out a system where they will notifiy 911 of what is happening.
It’s been a real mess, and continues to be so here in Southern California. I’ve lived in north Orange County (Anaheim Hills/Yorba Linda area) for 26 years and can’t remember so many large fires at one time. I’m not sure about the national news but it’s been non stop coverage here.
The smoke from the Santiago fire in Irvine can clearly be seen from my window as I type this. Still looks really bad.
When these fires started I couldn’t believe the “Santa Ana” winds. I personally have never seen them so severe and we live near the Santa Ana river in the Santa Ana Canyon (same area where the BNSF transcon traverses) so we’ve experienced the namesake winds as fierce as they can be…but again these seemed the worst since I’ve lived here.
San Diego county may never be the same after this disaster. Not much visual news is coming out of there and I live in Southern California! A few of my neighbors have relatives who were evacuated from the San Diego fires and they are now staying with them awaiting news of their homes. I heard on my scanner that the big DC-10 fire tanker was sent there today.
The fires in the San Bernardino mountains (Arrowhead) are pretty scary. Forest fires are a lot different from brush fires. I’ve been through a large forest fire. Our house and property outside Durango CO, came close to being destroyed during the Missionary Ridge fire. The fire came through our property and burned the underbrush, but thankfully the house and several of the pine trees survived. Our outdoor layout suffered damage, but nothing that couldn’t be repaired/replaced. We were obviously evacuated and ended up staying at a nearby hotel for several weeks. The worst part was not knowing what was going on and fearing the worse after. So I can really sy
My heartfelt sympathies to the folks affected. I’ve dealt with refugees in Bosnia and Iraq, and was one myself as I fled my Florida home in advance of Hurricane Frances in 2004. It’s an awful feeling.
Again, my prayers for the safety of people and property in the path of these fires.
No matter what started it, a wind driven fire is nothing to take lightly. I’ve helped fight many woods and forest fires in Louisiana and I can tell you that in a situation like that, 10,000 gallons of water doesn’t go far when that fire is moving through the tree tops, what we call a crown fire.
My daughter lives in Del Mar and she and her family were evacuated via the reverse 911 system on Tuesday. They now have now returned and their house was spared at this time. She may however, have lost her house at Lake Arrowhead and is waiting for further news.
We may bump into each other at the San Diego MRR Museum as I too am headed for San Diego this Christmas.
My daughter lives in Del Mar and she and her family were evacuated via the reverse 911 system on Tuesday. They now have returned and their house was spared at this time. She may however, have lost her house at Lake Arrowhead and is waiting for further news.
We may bump into each other at the San Diego MRR Museum as I too am headed for San Diego this Christmas.