I hope this thing gets contained. Nuart, i know you are safely way south of the fires. I hope you are all OK. Can you report? Thanks.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10988885

It's been very ashy here, Raymond.  Yesterday I didn't even want Lola to go outside.  Everything is coated in ash and soot.  The sky has one miles long ochre cloud stretching over the horizon for as far as the eye can see but we are a safe distance from flames -- about 20 miles.  Last I heard this fire is 30% contained.  That's mostly because it's burning right into the earlier burn zon from around a month ago.

33 years ago on Thanksgiving day I remember looking out at the purple-golden sky from the 1975 Sylmar fires.  

I guess they're in a fire zone kinda like the Malibu hills.  

Pretty awful and quite scary for those who are up close to the flames.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Here's a photo I took back in 2003 of the beginnings of the Topanga Canyon fires that burned through the hills all the way to the Pacific Ocean and then back over the hill again.  THAT was a fire.

Susan

CORRECTION:  This was a different fire.  This was a Topanga Canyon fire looking north -- not south toward the beach.  This one burned the hills from Simi Valley to the San Fernando Valley. 

The REALLY big Topanga fire was 1993. Lots of Grossman Burn Center action for that fire.  Those photos were not digital and hence not on this computer.  Yet.  Fires always make for dramatic photos.

Here's a shot of the very first smoke from the 1993 Topanga fires, which, if I recall correctly, burned down Sean Penn's house in Malibu. 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin