The Los Angeles suburbs in the northwest portion of the county are engulfed in a massive wildfire that has consumed 17,000 acres and as of this writing is just 5% contained. Unfortunately, wildfires are extremely common here and homeowners with common sense have followed the mandatory brush clearance orders leading to a surprisingly small number of homes lost (at least so far). The newer subdivisions also have large greenbelts around each neighborhood which is an equally important protector from the fires.

Since I’ve lived in Los Angeles there have been too many major wildfires to count. When I was young in the early 60s, there was the “Bel-Aire Fire” (1961) that destroyed several hundred homes. I remember my father driving me through the area a few years after the fire and the destruction was still quite evident. That was probably the first lesson that the rustic look of a wood shake roofed home immersed in lush foliage had its drawbacks during fire season.This was also the fire that led to the Mutual Aid System used so effectively over the past several decades to fight fires in the state.

In 1970, there was a massive fire in the Santa Susana Mountains–the same area burning today–and a separate one called the “Malibu Canyon Fire” that together consumed 107,000 acres. The fires were on three sides of where we lived and only burned out after reaching the Pacific Ocean–something it turns out is not that unusual. Three of my teachers that year lost their homes in the fire. All of them lived in Simi Valley, which in those pre-freeway days didn’t have sufficient in/out access to fight a massive fire.

I remember seeing the flames of the aptly named “Malibu Fire” in 1978 (230 homes lost) from 35 miles away across the Santa Monica Bay. Then there was the “Mandeville Fire”, a particularly destructive fire that burned in the Santa Monica Mountains. Today if you hike in Mandeville Canyon you can go through the ruins of the home sites that were never rebuilt.

In late 1993, there was an enormous fire in Malibu/Calabasas (the “Old Topanga Fire” with 369 homes lost) and a separate one in Chatsworth. The Topanga fire also burned directly to the ocean and destroyed hundreds of homes in Topanga and Malibu. We could see the flames from down the street and packed our valuables in case the fire jumped the fire line at Topanga (it did not).

The extremely destructive fires of 2003 (there were 15 of them going on, here is a NASA satellite image of the fires) were generally to the east and south of us but we still got ash and smoke.

As you can tell, wildfires are a way of life here. Whenever the Santa Ana winds blow in from the desert dropping humidity to almost zero, there is a good chance that there will be a fire somewhere. Wildfires in Southern California will never be fully controlled and an argument is that the ecology of the area requires the occasional wildfire for the natural vegetation (a Southern California version of the circle of life). The key is for homeowners to: 1) build their homes with this natural disaster in mind by clearing brush and not have wood shingle roofs; and 2) have fire insurance. Even though the Red Cross might set up a shelter for evacuees, people shouldn’t live in high-risk areas if they can’t accommodate the two points above and most do. While a politician might fly in for a photo-op, in general the fire departments from all of the surrounding areas take care of the problem with the occasional prison chain gang working the fire lines. You won’t see a lot of whining for FEMA even from people who’ve lost everything.

That brings us to this particular fire. Today at around noon I jumped on my road bike, road a portion of PCH to get to Topanga. As I was on PCH, besides dodging cars, I could see the immense amounts of smoke coming from the fire which was probably 20 miles away. It was so heavy it looked like a big storm in an otherwise cloudless sky. (see below)

I rode up Topanga Blvd, past the site of the disappearance (and finding) of Christian Julian, and then up to the overlook of the San Fernando Valley. Here I was able to see a big portion of the fire but because of the smoke I could not see much of its north flank (the one threatening Simi Valley).

The shot above is of the Santa Susana Mountains and is looking north from Topanga. This is where Charlie Manson hung out at the Spahn Movie Ranch–which itself succumbed in the 1970 San Fernando Valley Fire. This is where the most recent fire started and where most of the action was yesterday and last night before winds drove it eastward into Ventura County.

The shot above is looking Northwest and is the range of hills above Valley Circle Blvd. with West Hills, Bell Canyon, portions of Woodland Hills, and Chatsworth all visible (well, they would be if they weren’t on fire). It’s hard to see but there is a rock formation in the center of the picture called “Castle Peak” where trespassers in the 60’s were supposedly greeted with a shotgun blast of rock salt–well that was the rumor when I was growing up and it was enough to keep me away.

This last shot is NNW and it is hard to see much of anything other than smoke. This is where the fire was moving and included north Calabasas, Oak Park and pretty much everything north of the 101 and west of Hidden Hills.

These are the only photos that I took and didn’t ride any closer for a variety of reasons. First, the firefighters didn’t need lookie-loos–even those on bikes. Second, it was hotter than heck  (about 100) and I didn’t have the energy to ride any farther and in fact the ride home was a challenge.

Update: IvyMike colored in his Google Map to show the general area of the fire. It appears he lives nearby and is blogging about it. 8763Wonderland is also blogging about it. I’m hoping Roger decides to fill in the gaps on some of the historical fires in the area.

All photos: Insider

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2005 at 12:14 am by Insider and is filed under Big Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.