Los Angeles Fires – 15 NOV 2008

Last night I was talking to my sister and her husband, in Minnesota and they asked if fire was close to LA. I assured them the fire wasn’t bothering us as Santa Barbara is 2 hours northwest of us. A few hours after our conversation, things changed drastically. 

Forrest Fire 40 Miles Darkens Sky

The next morning I awoke to fire in the Angeles National Forrest. We were just up there a couple of months ago (see blog entry: Sacred Ground – September 13, 2008). At 3:30 PM when I went to leave the house, I found my car covered in soot and the sky grey with smoke. Above was the view looking North up Centre Street towards Los Angeles. It just looked like a dark overcast day, but…

Smoke Cloud Descending

When I turned around to look South towards the Ocean, it was obvious that the dark sky was from a cloud of smoke descending upon the Port. We drove up to Gaffey Street lookout, to get a view of the Port.

Then we went to the Korean Bell to view the Ocean. It was (or would have been) one of those unusually clear days were you could see the entire Catalina Island (23 miles away), but today the sky was filled with smoke.

At dinner, I found there were also fires in Orange & Riverside County. With 2,000 acres destroyed in OC and 8,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest this is turning out to be our worst fire ever. The smoke was so thick, this 4:00 PM shot with the sun still an hour from setting, looks like the pretty sunsets shots I used to get in the 60’s when the smog was bad.