The big news here is the Griffith Park fire. Last Tuesday evening, the Griffith Park that I know burned and burned -- approximately 800 acres, nearly 1/5 of the 4,300 acres in the park. The fire started around 1:30ish in the afternoon. A colleague of mine heard about the fire while she was driving home so she called me to tell me about it. At that time, the fire was moving NE of where I live. In fact, I work in the La Canada/Pasadena area and the smoke was visible from there. The smoke and ash assaulted you immediately when you went outside, it was so strong. When I got home at around 6:30 p.m., the fire seemed as if it were contained. In fact, it just seemed as if it were a normal day. I decided to go to the gym.
It was dusk when I returned from the gym and I noticed that the color of fire looked a brighter orange/red. I just figured that the color was more brilliant due to the contrast of the now darker sky. The traffic was also really heavy along Franklin and Los Feliz. Normally, I can drive to the gym in approximately 10 minutes but I just chalked it up to the Looky Lous who wanted to see the fire. That night it took me closer to 20 minutes to get home. When I returned to my apartment, the power was out, the fire appeared to be moving closer and closer to my place, traffic was being diverted from Los Feliz, the homes north of me were being evacuated and the media swarmed to my neighborhood. In the hour-and-a-half I was at the gym, the winds had shifted and the fire moved dangerously closer to the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.
I'm not sure how much danger I was actually in since I live at the bottom of the hill and what chance the fire would jump and actually move down the hill. I didn't want to take any chances. I made a couple calls to some friends to see if I can crash at their places should I need to evacuate. My neighbors and I talked about those chances happening against the continuous wail from the fire engines trying to move through traffic to go up the hill. Half of the building had evacuated by this point. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet and packed a suitcase --just in case the fire department (or police?) decided to begin evacuation the homes south of Los Feliz. I barely remember what I packed. I'm not sure if any of the clothes would have matched. I did throw in a prodigious amount of underwear because I remember thinking the clean underwear would be a good thing to have should I become homeless. My emotional state at this time was percolating just under panic level. It's a nerve-wracking process to determine what to grab when everything you own can be gone in twenty minutes. You just realize most things are just stuff at that moment. I wanted to grab some books but couldn't decide what to bring in that rushed time. Books are replaceable, cats and photos are not. It was also dark as the lights were out and I couldn't fully read the titles of my books.
After putting my brand-new laptop (a week old! The one no-brainer item I knew I wanted to bring) and hastily thrown-together suitcase in my car, I joined my neighbors on our front lawn to watch the fire. By about 12:30, the media had left, the crowds had thinned. We spoke to the traffic cop on our corner to find out what was happening. He said that if the area were to evacuate they would use loud speakers (probably bull horns) to evacuate the 'hood. I decided to go back in to try to get some sleep. I did have work the next morning. The wind calmed down overnight and by morning the fire was 40% contained and no longer a threat to the residences of Los Feliz.
Today (Saturday) parts of the park reopened: the zoo, the observatory, golf courses and museums. I plan to walk up there tomorrow to view the damage. I can see a lot of it down here. While there was no human life lost or homes lost, it's still sad to see the damage. The hiking trails I use all the time are gone but wildfires are part of the ecosystem. Shortly the vegetation will be growing again. I heard on NPR this morning that it appears that some the plants' roots may have survived the fire, which is a good sign. I'm including the photos I took of the fire. The pictures turned out horrible because I used the night-time setting on my camera but in the excitement, I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture. I should have known better. I plan to take some pics tomorrow too of the damage and will post them later. Casey and I have survived our Los Angeles baptism by fire.
It was dusk when I returned from the gym and I noticed that the color of fire looked a brighter orange/red. I just figured that the color was more brilliant due to the contrast of the now darker sky. The traffic was also really heavy along Franklin and Los Feliz. Normally, I can drive to the gym in approximately 10 minutes but I just chalked it up to the Looky Lous who wanted to see the fire. That night it took me closer to 20 minutes to get home. When I returned to my apartment, the power was out, the fire appeared to be moving closer and closer to my place, traffic was being diverted from Los Feliz, the homes north of me were being evacuated and the media swarmed to my neighborhood. In the hour-and-a-half I was at the gym, the winds had shifted and the fire moved dangerously closer to the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.
I'm not sure how much danger I was actually in since I live at the bottom of the hill and what chance the fire would jump and actually move down the hill. I didn't want to take any chances. I made a couple calls to some friends to see if I can crash at their places should I need to evacuate. My neighbors and I talked about those chances happening against the continuous wail from the fire engines trying to move through traffic to go up the hill. Half of the building had evacuated by this point. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet and packed a suitcase --just in case the fire department (or police?) decided to begin evacuation the homes south of Los Feliz. I barely remember what I packed. I'm not sure if any of the clothes would have matched. I did throw in a prodigious amount of underwear because I remember thinking the clean underwear would be a good thing to have should I become homeless. My emotional state at this time was percolating just under panic level. It's a nerve-wracking process to determine what to grab when everything you own can be gone in twenty minutes. You just realize most things are just stuff at that moment. I wanted to grab some books but couldn't decide what to bring in that rushed time. Books are replaceable, cats and photos are not. It was also dark as the lights were out and I couldn't fully read the titles of my books.
After putting my brand-new laptop (a week old! The one no-brainer item I knew I wanted to bring) and hastily thrown-together suitcase in my car, I joined my neighbors on our front lawn to watch the fire. By about 12:30, the media had left, the crowds had thinned. We spoke to the traffic cop on our corner to find out what was happening. He said that if the area were to evacuate they would use loud speakers (probably bull horns) to evacuate the 'hood. I decided to go back in to try to get some sleep. I did have work the next morning. The wind calmed down overnight and by morning the fire was 40% contained and no longer a threat to the residences of Los Feliz.
Today (Saturday) parts of the park reopened: the zoo, the observatory, golf courses and museums. I plan to walk up there tomorrow to view the damage. I can see a lot of it down here. While there was no human life lost or homes lost, it's still sad to see the damage. The hiking trails I use all the time are gone but wildfires are part of the ecosystem. Shortly the vegetation will be growing again. I heard on NPR this morning that it appears that some the plants' roots may have survived the fire, which is a good sign. I'm including the photos I took of the fire. The pictures turned out horrible because I used the night-time setting on my camera but in the excitement, I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture. I should have known better. I plan to take some pics tomorrow too of the damage and will post them later. Casey and I have survived our Los Angeles baptism by fire.
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