Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch


Big awful wildfires are attacking the Chatsworth and Northridge hills, places where Dinah and I have spent years with our horses, though we don't have any there now. We can't get tv here but I'm crawling over the internet trying to find what's going on. The potential path described by the fire chief, straight on down to the Pacific Ocean 15 miles away, is the fire path everyone who lives out there has feared since it happened once in the 1970's.

Two times when we boarded in Bell Canyon we had to evacuate in a hurry. I read that Bell Canyon's on mandatory evacuation again.

In Brown's Canyon, where I kept Luna for seven years, the fire came on so fast they had to just let 150 horses go-- no time to trailer them out. This photo is credit to Al Seibl, the LA Times.

4 comments:

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Fires are scary stuff! Nothing like being away from home and finding out there's a fire nearby.
You're probably better off using the internet to find out what's going on- I flipped through the channels and it's the usual footage with reporters repeating the obvious "You can see there's smoke" and lots of commercials. No maps or warnings or anything practical.
I found a live map here
The winds seem to be calming down (as I write this) so I hope that helps.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

hmm... my link isn't working... let me try that again...
link

Anonymous said...

California fires are catastrophic, yet routine, or so it seems to those livng far away, reading reports. The LA Times website allows the viewer to vote for his favorite fire photo, among photos sent in by readers. Favorite meaning most vividly horrific? The old VWs on fire; I look at them and wonder if they were junked or still being driven. When you return to LA do you drive to where the firestorm was to see the damage, or is knowing about it knowledge enough, knowledge aplenty. Wishing you safety.

Sally said...

So glad the winds died down quickly. And just as quickly any stories about the fire vanished from the news sites.

Ordinarily I'd never go to see the extent of fire. But when I get back I might drive up Brown's Canyon. It's an area I knew so well for about seven years-- I'd go there every day.