California Wind/Fire Thread January 2025

What? No one has started a thread yet? The reports are devastating! Any Southern Cal CC’ers to report in - or friends and family of the area?

DH’s family – mom, dad, one sister, two brothers are all in the area (LA/Santa Monica) and can watch the fire from their homes. Air is practically unbreathable. No one in the direct path, thankfully.

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There is some discussion about it in the hodge podge political thread.

My heart is breaking for the residents impacted. Just awful!

Praying that all our CCers are safe.

(Thanks for starting the thread in the Cafe).

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My niece lives in a zone where it was suggested she evacuate (not mandatory). She was heading to my sister and brother in laws (her parents) house yesterday afternoon along with the cat. They are in a safe place, thankfully.

Pasadena breaks my heart. I was there for the first time last week, went to see the Rose Parade a week ago today. I could not get over how beautiful it is (was?). S almost moved there last summer.

Just hoping the fires are contained soon and everyone is safe.

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I posted 2 updates, one last night and one this morning with pics. If a moderator would (could) move those over here, that’d be great - they’re in the photos you’d like to share thread.

My D is smack in the middle of the Pacific Palisades and Pasadena fires. She’s (currently) safe but the air quality is horrific.

My best friend is in West Hollywood and works about 5 miles away, it took him over an hour to get there today. He’ll be heading home soon. His air quality is also horrific.

I grew up in Santa Monica and still have many friends in the area, including Pacific Palisades & Malibu - everyone I know has been evacuated. Everyone. One family I know lost their home in the Paradise fire, and had just started rebuilding in the Santa Monica area where they grew up. They are freaking out.

Currently a thousand structures gone. The fire has made its way to the Pacific Coast Highway (the ocean).

The winds are not expected to calm until tonight - they’ve been intense. I live 40 miles away, and we had 39 mph gusts last night (nothing compared to the wind up there!), that have uprooted trees in the neighborhood, and several glass lanterns I had hanging from branches were downed. I feel “lucky”.

I’m overwhelmed. I want to hear from my friends who are evacuated. I’m in touch with my D and best friend.

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That’s fire - making its way down the Santa Monica mountains from Pacific Palisades (California) - taken from my friend’s office building about 10 miles away.

The winds here are so strong right now I was almost knocked off my bike. They’re not expected to calm for another 24 hours.

:frowning:

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It’s hard to not worry about the fires in Los Angeles right now. Many of our friends are affected.

This is smoke obliterating the sky - pic from my Ds balcony.

We had just changed the air filters in her place, and will do so again when things calm down.

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@JustaMom thinking of all of LA and hoping the winds die down soon. These fires are so frightening.

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A colleague just sent these from our offices where he relocated to and his ring door camera in real time.

Just horrible!!

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Friend in the Palisades says much of it destroyed. Palisades Village and Pali High burnt down. Her home survived but she said entire blocks and neighborhoods are gone.

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Watching a CNN correspondent walk down a street totally engulfed in flames. A small detail caught my eye that is so striking when you think about it.

There are garbage cans at the curb in front of houses that are on fire, which suggests to me it was just a “normal” day until it wasn’t. Just devastating and a reminder how quickly the world can go sideways.

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This is D2’s friend’s parents house in Pasadena. They have evacuated.


Here is one a friend posted from the Santa Monica pier.

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Our synagogue just sent out an email about the total destruction of the Pasadena Jewish Temple:

https://www.pjtc.net/

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I’ve been watching the news about it this afternoon and what amazes me is that the fires were 0% contained. So devastating.

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My DIL grew up in that synagogue. She knows several families who have lost their homes in the Altadena area.
My daughter sent me a video taken of PCH where the homes on the ocean side are gone. We recently drove this stretch of the road a few weeks ago. Just hear a young woman my kids went to school with lost her home in the Palisades. We lived for our early marriage years in Santa Monica and we used to walk the fire roads up in those canyons.
It’s heartbreaking but also a reminder to be prepared to evacuate. I ordered some masks from Amazon today.

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Well now my niece’s Santa Monica neighborhood is under mandatory evacuation…

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D lives n Santa Monica. This was the view from her window yesterday afternoon. No evacuation yet, though.

Our friend’s daughter and her husband have been evacuated and their son’s daycare has burned down. Their rental house may or may not be destroyed—they don’t know yet. Fortunately they are all safe.

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How far do people need to go to evacuate? Is there enough room? Where are people going?

Even if your house survives you’ll be living in a war zone for a very long time.

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We know people that have evacuated to San Diego. They all have family here and they were in zones that may be evacuated so they decided to leave before it becomes mandatory. One of the women is pregnant and the air quality was so bad she came with her H to her parents home.

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Thank you for moving the pics over - sorry I didn’t think to go look for them there.

It’s beyond devastating. Fire is SO destructive. So fast. So awful.

My heart is with anyone here who has friends/family in the area.

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