Old Magnet hope you are doing well and everything has survived the fire burning near Corralitos.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_re_us/wildfires

In the Central Valley its a big dust bowl with the strong north wind and visability down to a mile in places. I could only imagine what those firefighters are dealing with over there.

Hi CR,
Thanks for your concerns.........big excitement in our one streetlight town:eek:
So far we are well away from the fire path but even the ten miles can be traveled fast. Just to be on the safe side I fired up the D4 and dozed an escape route down to the orchard just in case. Smoke is really thick and winds have been fierce. Typical California seasons, fire , flood, earthquake and drought.
More later

Pete,

Good to hear all is OK. You heard from Don or the older gent who lives a mile or two up the road in the forrest.

Windy as hell hear in SJB. Smoky with poor visability. My daughter got evacuated from Monte Vista with the whole school today and it was first school to close for tomorrow. Daughter is happy about the closure tomorrow but not sure if damage in the area.

Could see the flames coming over the Morgan HIll ridges around 3 PM today when I darted down Hwy101 out of work to beat any possible traffic.

Greg

Glad to hear you are ok OM.

It's one thing to have a wild fire this time of year, but with that wind it would not have taken much to push a fire faster than a fire line can be made.

Last weekend when I got home it was in the triple digits and I was wishing for a little breeze. I couldn't really do anything outside after working all week at 68 deg.

This week it has been nothing but wind and dust storms, however right now at the sun has set the wind has started to die.

Like they say here in No Calf if you don't like the weather drive an hour or so, now it's more like wait a day or two .

I dozed a lot of that area near the fire a few years ago with my 1938 RD6, and D-2. I wish I would have sold it to someone up there when I moved to the Islands. It was perfect for that area, forestry cab and all.

After spending 20+ years patrolling and (living) in that region for the Sheriff's Office, I new the big fire was do. The last time it burned like that was 1949.

Thoughts and prayers to all the mountain folks.

Hope you stay out of it Old Magnet, good luck. How' s Pete's hide out doing??

Maybe some of the old Bomber's at the Watsonville air show could assist?

John

Hi all,
Well it's a new day and the media doesn't have any news they didn't have yesterday!!!!
Good news is the wind is gone and we are back to the early morning fog and cool sea air.
Did hear something about 15% containment but from what I can tell the FD efforts were spent mostly protecting homes.
Haole Cat,
Did think about your former location, bet your glad your not there now.
Fire did touch upper end of Redwood Rd. but it didn't get as far as Pete's Hideout as far as I know. Would have seen flames from my place if it had.
Looks to me like it's going to work it's way down the West side of the mountains.
Interestingly enough the origin of the fire appears to be not far from the epicenter of the 1989 earthquake. Must be a bad spot:(

Greg,
Talked to Don, same nervous observation but no crisis yet. I'm sure Lew Reider is ok so far also. I don't hear the bombers and choppers yet, probably have to wait for the fog to burn off. At this time the smoke appears to be going East as I am South and it's not here like it was yesterday.

More later.

Magnet---

Will be paying closer attention to the news

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haven't had chance to watch cosely---just new there was a fire in California.

Stay alert and take the necessary precautions

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best of luck to everyone out that way.

I can well imagine the problems with fighting a fire with the winds whipping through and over the mountains and canyons

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its bad enough trying to put one out here on flat land.

Delta Dirt

Here are a few pics from different vantage points. There is no immediate danger here at all at the moment I feel for the people that are in harms way. It is a pretty serious fire, luckily it is in a pretty remote area. I have friends that are potentially vulnerable, but all are safe thus far.
Can't really see much but smoke, yesterday the wind was blowing ash all over here.
We did evacuate the cows off the top of the hill as a precaution.

Thanks for check'n on me Greg. Lou is OK at this point but he is in a dangerous area.

Well, the fire is still burning....about 25% contained.....appears they lost ground today.....blame it on the wind (almost none at lower elevations) terraine etc etc:rolleyes:
Haven't heard so many helicopters since Viet Nam.....still going at 7:00pm but I understand they brought in private contractors.
Claim to have 3,000 firefighters on site and $1.7 million so far.
It is moving in the opposite direction to me but lots of folks have had their homes wiped out. It jumped the Summit Road fire line and is now headed towards the Uvas area.
Amazing...still no injuries.

Pete,

I was in Gilroy today and could see that the fire is approaching the ridge to the SC county line given the flames and smoke so from the observers side it appears to still be on the move. I was however impressed when I drove by the Fire base camp at Chrismas Hill park where the Govenator was yesterday and it was an significant site andfast this mini fireman's city came up with tents, trailers, generators, food-prep trailers. I have seen fire trucks from LA, central valley, and of coarse SF Bay area.

First fire of the season has turned out to be a tough one.

Greg