The largest fire in Los Angeles County history was apparently set on purpose.
Outside the fire zone itself, the result downwind is still dramatic and deadly. Even as far away as Northern Arizona, the results of the fire are what you might call rather incendiary themselves.
It isn’t uncommon for SoCal fires to fill the desert with smoke. I’m thinking of a 2003 visit to the desert this later post describes. I was sick for a long time after.
1 comment on "Fire"
Wildfires are no laughing matter but I did get a chuckle when I went to this gov’t website:
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
to find out that there was a fire in the Olla Boldly Complex of the Endocrine National Forest.
I didn’t find your blog until after I moved from Oakland to Floyd Co a few months ago. Love it here but it’s nice to maintain some connections to the Bay Area and the desert via your writing and photography.
Thank you for writing this.
Pappy and Harriet’s and most of the the ‘movie set town’ was saved but over 40 homes have been lost.
Images, including Pappy and Harriet’s still standing can be found here: http://desertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Unfortunately rumor has it that somewhere you’ve visited, Rim Rock Ranch, has lost the main house while the cabins are still standing.
Scott, thanks for the updates. That was a nice house there at Rimrock Ranch. Becky and I started thinking seriously of moving to Rimrock after we visited, and then life intervened. As you can imagine, our feelings are now mixed. Good to hear that my expectations re: Pioneertown were slightly more pessimistic than necessary, though the photos are still wrenching.
jimhart, yep. At least in the Sonoran Desert, according to Julio Betancourt, there were fires in places where there had been none since the Pleistocene.