Firestorm 2003:  A look from the Polar Den

Animation built by Darrel L. Exline using NASA satellite photos

[Hi-res (800x600) version here.]

Saturday:  Drove up to North Hollywood early in the morning for a Loscon staff meeting.  Ash was falling like snow as we passed through Santa Ana and Anaheim.  No traffic all the way up, though... Wow.  Not listening to the news, I thought this was from the Camp Pendleton fire that started Thursday.

We left the LASFS clubhouse around 1am Sunday morning.  Kris took over driving near Irvine, and I went to sleep.  Kris told me that the ash was falling like snow all the way from Capistrano till we got home, and the smoke was like driving through fog.  I groggily take note of this and go to sleep.

I'm awaken Sunday morning about 10am by concerned friends who are seeing the news.  I look outside... no sun, and everything is orange.  Kris and I spend the day inside, watching the news and making phone calls to see who is affected.

Christian McGuire tells us of a website that is being set up for fen to see how eachother is doing.  You can visit the site here.

Sunday night, San Diego's mayor asks employers to let their employees stay home, fearing power shortages (A major transmission line was taken out) and health issues with the smoke-filled air.  I call my boss, but he says our calender is too full, and I have a meeting with a client scheduled at 10am that I can't miss.

Monday morning, about 5 minutes before I was going to leave for work, my boss calls to tell me the meeting was cancelled, and I can stay home if I choose...  I chose.

Tuesday, more cancelled appointments, so I stay home again.  Good thing, too, since my lungs were beginning to feel it.  Toward the end of the day, the sky clears a little bit, so I go outside with a damp cloth for a mask and begin cleaning up.

The place looks like a big ashtray.  Everything is dirty, black-grey, and the ash is piled an inch deep in corners where the wind piled it up for me.  I put a layer of water on the ashes to keep them from being stirred up some more, rinse off the cars, and water the lawn, thus turning it green again from it's previously slate appearance.  At least the soil will be fertile for a while.

Tuesday night, it's my sister's birthday, so ew go out to Cheesecake Factory.  When we leave, the air has gotten moist, which means the marine layer has drifted onshore again.  The Santa Ana winds are officially over, but San Diego has that "wet dog" smell, now.

Wednesday morning, my boss is sick, and my only item left on calendar was a meeting with him and a client.  He calls the meeting off and I get to stay home a third day, but on call in case I'm needed.  I do take a client's support call from home around midday, but it's nothing serious, so I don't have to go in.

...This sure is a change from all the extra hours I put in from May through August.  I get to cash my comp-time hours in and get things done around the house.

Wednesday afternoon, I go out and do some shopping.  The sky is clear, the wind is blowing from offshore, and everything smells clean again.  I know better, though, since there is still ash on the ground everywhere, so I wear a wet-towel mask whenever I'm outside.  It feels funny to walk into a store with a mask over your face ;)

The firestorm is far from over, but at least today, there's a break for the main part of the city.  I hope on one level that the offshore breeze continues, but the news is showing that it's really whipping up the fires as they travel east.

We lost a firefighter today.

There is no one group of people on this planet that I feel I owe more to than our firefighters.  My best wishes to his family and to his injured comrades who are being cared for now.

That suspected arsonist up in L.A. county... if he's found guilty (Murder charges are likely) I sure hope his execution can be shown publicly.

--Darrel L. Exline