For Hurricanes and Forest Fires, the answer is the same: cut down the vegetation. Make sure the roofs are of material that cannot burn, as well as all exposed parts of the buildings; do away with all shrubbery in dry weather; It can be grown back in wet years. Those people who do not cut down all the dry years vegetation, are dumb, dumb, dumb! As a dog returns to its vomit; so a fool returns to his folly! Stupid education majors just baby sit their students, when mathematics, science and engineering, and accounting majors could teach them how to prepare of natural disasters, fix their houses and autos, keep books on their spending, etc. Shut down the departments and graduate schools of philosophy and education, legally invalidate their degrees. Every student should study military defense and strategy in secondary school before the age of 15, so as to know now to evaluate national defense claims. They should study The Natural Law on which the US Constitution is based; also business law. The so called social sciences are, except for anthropology, mostly trash. History is not a social science. Let the departments of Semitic, Classical Common Greek, and Latin Languages and Culture, teach The Philosophy of Aristotle and The Natural Law, and the Bible.

We are in Newport Beach and the inside of our house smells like a bonfire! Where is the news about the fires near Irvine? We are worried and, while we understand the situaitons elsewehere are far more dire, it would be good to have some info as we also have to deal with our asthma conditions and pets.

There is ash floating everywhere outside and it if we go outside our throats burn and we cannot breathe.

I live in Costa Mesa, and I am pretty much downwind from the Irvine fire. The air quality is terrible! Yes, like the previous reader its is like a campfire. I think I may leave the area because there is no way to keep the smoke out. LIke many costal homes, I don't have A/C.

I'm here in Canyon Country. We spent the night listening to the radio, watching the hills around us ablaze. Our cars are all packed. We are ready to go when we have to. Some of our neighbors evacuated, but they came back later. There are at least three houses completely burnt down a few blocks away on Camp Plenty Road. Very sad to see the homeowners outside the burning homes.

Terrible tragedy inCalifornia, but I don't understand the Spanish Channels on sunday 10/21/2007 with regular programs, m questions is how they protest and celebrate they "Cinco de Mayo" and the "grito"and more mexicans things and in front of this tragedy they ignore and only transmit they regular programs, will you Californian's notice that. TRhank you

California is paying the price for its love of homosexuality and its attacks against Christianity. I hope the fires are followed by the "big one".

When a wall of fire was on the hill above the homes across the street, our development volunteerily evacuated at around 5:30 pm. No fire trucks came through in Canyon View Estates that has 450 homes. Mandatory evacuation was at 8:00 pm. I returned at 6:30 am. Ash came in through bathroom vents and the smell of smoke is still here.

I'm so damn tired of hearing about multi-million dollar homes. A home is a home is a home. Value doesn't change the fact that it's the center of someone's life. Get out of Malibu and cover the other areas being affected by the fires. Do you even know or care that there are evacuations going on in the San Bernardino Mountains because of new fires that started this morning? No mention of that anywhere in the mainstream press yet. When are you going to care, when the value of the homes in the fires path hit the million dollar mark?

Why not put pumps in the swimming pools in the affected areas,such as Malibu to help put out or control the fires?
I'm watching helicopters fly over these homes with pools, and ...........

ABC never showed the NASCAR race choosing instead to run some So Cal is Burning repeat news show, I was pissed off.

We are not too far from the Santa Rosa fire. Today the fires seem to be all over the news. Yesterday, however, we couldn't find out any information - this as our house was filled with the smell of smoke and the skies turned from blue to yellow to orange. It was like dusk at 1:30pm in the afternoon. Even today, there are several stations that aren't mentioning the Santa Rosa fire. Perhaps it isn't as newsworthy as the Malibu fire - but for those of us that are sandwiched between the two in Thousand Oaks it sure would be nice to have *all* of the details.

I work right next to Pepperdine University. I was not able to go to work today. Hopefully I will be able to go tomorrow. Not going to be easy or a pretty site.

Maybe now the Hollywood elite will tell the tree-huggers where to go next time they demonstrate to prevent the forest service from clearing out the dead brush littering the forest floor. That's what is burning so fiercely.

Can somebody make a locator map from a Thomas guide to show exactly where the fires are?

All we see on TV is smoke, a burning bush,. people driving away..

The reporters use locations and communities I've never heard of.

I would like to see/hear
a Thomas guide location,
ie,,page # 516 e-5 to e-7

My specific concern is
a hike on Nov 11th to Towsley Canyon.

Will it be burned out or not?

At our Santa Clarita - based Web Development agency we've been surrounded by the fire and wanting to help in some way. We've put up a web site with maps and info that we are doing our best to update as we learn news. here is the link:

http://www.thefirststep.org

Now through the end of the year (07) we are offering 50% off all photo scanning and document scanning services to Southern California residents. If you've ever had to be evacuated, you know the fear of losing decades of priceless photographs and important documents...never worry again. Take this opportunity to get these items archived. www.epocharchiving.com or call 866-SCAN-365

I'm wondering why we don't hear anything about the fire retardant gel that can be sprayed on houses to protect them from intense fires. It could save a lot of homes from being burned. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_on_re_us/firefighting_gel

It seems like accurate information is almost impossible to find. We're outside the affected block, but not by enough, and we really have little to go on. It would be nice to have some way to reassure the people in the community that are new to the idea of wildfires. I work with a lot of people that don't understand the way it works and without accurate information they're spending their work days terrified.

And for the one up top: I have one of those horrible "lib arts" degrees and I know better than to let brush pile up, no reason to be a jerk in the middle of a tragedy.

Just 5 years ago last June a Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. welder started the 20,000 + acre "Copper Canyon" fire within 5 miles of today's "Magic" fire. The investigation into the "Copper" fire placed the blame for the fire squarely on CB&I's careless & reclessness acts. It was determined that CB&I did not follow any of the State fire codes that required them to: 1) shut down "hazardous work" on windy days; 2) post fire watches, 3) using shields to confine sparks & hot slag.
To date CB&I or their insurer AIG has not paid one cent in restitution. Maybe if the State fire codes were strictly enforced after the terrible "Copper" fire, then the "Magic" fire would never have happened. As long as billion dollar companies like CB&I can get away with putting us all in grave danger to save a few bucks, then we can expect to see more workmen starting fires "accidentally".

To El Gato
Get some counseling.You make a terrible Christian.

Has anyone calculated the CO2 emissions from these fires???

I think "El Gato" is more like El Pollo. If you want to talk smack, have some cajones. Take your chonies off of your head and post your name. Until then... bawk bawk Pollo.

Sadly the Malibu fire damaged Charter Cable's equipment in Malibu. So the residents were unable to get media coverage of much of the fire Sunday night well into Monday.

It's not surprising that so much is burning. With the extra vegetation that grew from the extra wet winter we had a few years ago to extremely dry conditions and lack of rain we have today. The vegetation has dried out and become a tinderbox so to speak. My thoughts and prayers go out to those who lost their homes and their entire lives as result of these fires. I grew up in brush fire country and every year we spent many sleepless nights wondering if we had done enough to protect our home. When brush fires rage they way that they do--even the most prepared homes are overran and all is lost. And to el gato--get a life!!

To El Gato,

I can't even begin to tell you what I went through evacuating my family on Sunday, with literally minutes before my parents, both my sisters and my aunt lost their houses.

I will be checking back on these posts, if you would like, I will post my address, name and place where I'll be. Come say it to me, looking me in the eye if you have any balls.

AND YOU BETTER HOPE YOU HAVE GOD ON YOUR SIDE, AND A PLASTIC SURGEON.

Shouldn't the question be "how are the fires affecting you"? Or was the question meant only for the very wealthy, like the news coverage and the evac calls? I have fire on three sides right now and had to search the net for three days looking for information on my area. I'm just so glad this time I know when to evacuate myself so I don't find it on all four sides like it was in the 2003 fires. I'm just white trash though our homes are only 1/2 to 3/4 million. That's slumming it in $an Diego. I guess mostly they make me tired. I've had to stay awake for 3 days to make sure I'm safe. :)

you show that no one was evacuated in L.A county,
their were a lot of people
evacuated in Santa Clarita
my whole neighbor hood was in Westridge( Stevenson Ranch)Valencia

As a christian and citizen of Los Angeles county I would agree that there are a lot of sinful folks living in the area. But this is NOT God's wrath on the people, this is what happens with the lay of the land and recent years of weather. It is unfortunate to hear statements made like some previously posted, as there are just as many good God-fearing folks, in addition to good people not claiming any faith, that live hear. Those who live here know the risk of natural disasters, as with any other part of the country. Right now we have the wind and fires, but when it starts to rain, then later will be risk of mudslides. Plus, there was just a 4.3 earthquake in the area this week as well (fortunately not anything significant to those who live here). But, despite all this, that doesn't lessen the devastation one feels when they've lost everything. I am fortunate to live in a particular area of north Los Angeles county not in the direct path of a fire, but still have felt the effects. You can see the glow on surrounding hillsides and know many people who live in those areas, and many have mentioned the affects of smoke. Where I live the smoke has actually worsened since the wind stopped as the wind is no longer pushing it out to sea. But the wind needed to stop to give the firefighters the upper hand on this, so I am not complaining. What most who don't live here should understand is that LA has grown so much in population in the last 10-15 years. The homes that were built into the surrounding hills to accomodate this growth is lower priced (in most areas) and thus have more families just starting out in home ownership and trying to make it. Most who actually lost a home in these fires will really be impacted by the loss.

On that last note, I am happy to hear how many volunteers have come out to support those in the direct path, and that despite the sheer size of numbers evacuated, we are not experiencing the same stories of the Hurricane Katrina evacuation. And there is no political implication in that statement, only an expression of gratitude for the humantarian side of all of this.

I wish the best to those who will be starting over. It will without question be difficult in the beginning, but you've been given a clean slate to work with. I hope you find some joy in the adventure ahead, if you can find some peace and comfort to see it as that. Blessings to all from LA!