ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Thanks Tyler. I'm in Upper Ojai and the smoke has been pretty bad. Today was better.

Hey Demitri - how you doing? Swing on by this weekend and we'll catch up. Unless you have a nice air filter in your place you don't want to leave, which I'll understand.

Thank you, Tyler!

Thank you, Tyler!
Here in the East End the smoke was pretty bad last night. It cleared late in the afternoon.

I love the updates and the personal accounts as to how the fire is affecting those in and near Ojai-Thanks.

At 155,445 acres burned, that puts The Zace Fire as the 6Th largest wildland fire recorded in California. The Zaca Fire is only 7,257 acres away from displacing The Day Fire from 5Th place. Interestingly, the second largest wildland fire recorded was at 220,000 acres, in the year 1932-It was called: The Matilija Fire.

For publication or broadcast if desired : I feel I should comment on the state of affairs regarding the fires in Santa Barbera and ten states whereby the U.S. Forest Service is, as usual, refusing to use the DC-10 Supertanker waterbombing aircraft on federal land to stop these terrible fires that could be stopped in days if the supertanker were used. However the DC-10 is now being used on State land only. Because of such government incompetence, see: www.JBS.org (search:wildfire), sadly we have only one Supertanker aircraft in our country today. It is the DC-10 aircraft (able to carry and drop 12,000 gal. of water or retardant) at SCLA airport in Victorville, Ca. (See: DC-10 supertanker (on internet). The other Supertanker, the Boeing 747 aircraft (24,000 gal. capacity), is out of firefighting commission at evergreen aviation in Oregon because of NO U.S. Forest Service use. -see: evergreen supertanker (on internet). We must create a public outcry to force the U.S. Forest Service to use the DC-10 Supertanker on federal land continuously until the fire is contained as the DC-10 is now ONLY being used on STATE land and is thus critically restricted . Meanwhile we should get the Boeing- 747 back in service immediatly and build more supertankers. We owe as much also to the heroic ground level firefighters presently risking their necks fighting fires against inhuman overwhelming odds. Sincerely, Ed Nemechek Landers, Ca. 92285. (760)- 246-8059. (ednemechek@verizon.net) (also see: firebomber publications blog (on internet).

Tyler,

Thanks for assembling these resource sites once again.

Here's another link to a Google map that is from the Santa Barbara News Press (one of the last good things that paper is doing).

The link is updated periodically and sometimes doesn't work just right, but when it's on, it gives one of the better views around of the entire fire. One can also see its proximity to Ojai and Matilija Canyon.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=105524280382284020010.0004351434f7c4b6bb5eb&ll=34.82395,-119.881439&spn=1.165669,1.492767&t=h&z=10&om=1

Hi Ed - thanks for participating. If you read my article above, you would see that they are in fact using the DC-10 for "repeated drops".

THE DC-10 SUPERTANKER AIRCRAFT SHOULD BE USED CONTINUOUSLY (EVERY HOUR) DROPPING ON FEDERAL LAND, AS WELL AS STATE AND COUNTY LAND, TO STOP THIS MASSIVE FIRE! THE BIG PROBLEM NOW AND FOR MANY YEARS HAS BEEN THE U.S. FOREST SERVICE REFUSING TO ALLOW SUPERTANKERS TO OPERATE ON FEDERAL LAND THUS FACILITATING THE DEATH AND DESTRUCTION OF PRESENT AND PAST WILDFIRES. ONLY STRONG PUBLIC OUTCRY WILL CORRECT THIS SELF-CENTERED DANGEROUSLY OUTDATED POLICY. WE MUST CONTACT EVERY PUBLIC OFFICIAL THERE IS AND DEMAND THE DC-10 BE USED ON FEDERAL LAND ALSO CONTINUOUSLY TO STOP THIS TERRIBLE FIRE AND FUTURE FIRES! OUR HOMES, LIVES AND FAMILIES ARE AT STEAK! --ED NEMECHEK- 760-246-8059.(ednemechek@verizon.net)

Thought some of you might be interested in these posts that were posted on one of the firefighter sites early this AM:

First -
The Zaca Fire has now climbed to number 5 (171,750 Acres) in the top 20 largest wildland fire in California surpassing the Day Fire of 2006. By the end of the day the Zaca Fire should be number 3 surpassing the Marble Cone Fire of 1977 (177,866 Acres). The next would be the Matilija Fire from 1932 at 220,000 Acres.

Second -
The Zaca fire is set to surpass the Matilija Fire of 1932, and it is just starting to burn into the Matilija area. The last fire in this area was the Wheeler Fire in the 1980's and it went 100,000 plus acres and was a serious threat to the community of Ojai. Based on fire history, this fire is nowhere near done.

For those of us who have missed the fire meetings in Ojai - I think we better show up to the Sunday meeting!

Hi Ed - thanks for the clarification. Feel free to continue posting on this issue, and keeping us all up to date on the usage and limitations of the DC-10s and 747s in fire fighting efforts.

Fires, smoke everywhere and now a murder? Despite the rather quiet reporting of the OVN, it appears that a homeless man was beaten to death in downtown Ojai in front of the Library. Is this not major news because the man was homeless? Or is it because discovering stiffs on the lawn of the public library might adversely affect the two major industries here in Ojai--tourism and real estate.

the apocalypse is here! armageddon! the war on fire has dragged on long enough...it's time to pull out! our families and homes are at steak! where's Osama? He's beating up transients in front of our socialist libraries!

Dear Ojai Post and Evan,

This is the rhetoric of a so called peace activist? The community you are serving expects more of you than this. This comment degrades the post and our community, and is in poor taste, at best. To mock the victims of violence in our community, of whatever "social class" they happen to be, is unacceptable. Someone, please teach this child some sensitivity.

Something tells me that's not really Evan.

anonymous 12:26 - thankfully you are incorrect; nobody's trying to frame me. i did indeed write the post above, triggered in part by Anonymous 11:15's opening line of "Fires, smoke everywhere and now a murder?"
it just seemed like a "panic! panic!" kind of line, coupled with my amusement at Ed Nemechek's last line that our "HOMES, LIVES AND FAMILIES ARE AT STEAK!" (emphasis mine, spelling his).

i was also touching on my frustration that there really doesn't seem to be a better analogy for how we deal with fires than the war-themed one. when there's a fire, we send in our troops and fight it until it's defeated, and seldom does anyone suggest that we let it be to sort things out on its own.

i referred to the "socialist libraries" as a connection to the current debate over "socialized medicine" and the continued irrational fear and paranoia of "socialism" in spite of our many wonderful, unquestioned socialized services.

i explain all this merely to open up my thought processes, and not necessarily in a defensive posture. i do hear what Anonymous 12:24 is saying, and offer my apologies for offending your sense of taste. my post was NOT written with a great amount of detailed forethought, and perhaps i've seen the price of that. it is not my intention to mock anyone nor make light of violence.

Speaking of the fire. Is someone going to be held to account when the fire comes over the devide and tries to destroy everything in Matilija Canyon? I mean, it's pretty clear that they were letting this fire burn up the chaparral which needs fire as a part of it's life cycle. They've been letting this thing burn for almost two months.

REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE U.S.FOREST SERVICE SAYS, THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO LIMITATIONS ON THE DC-10 AS A FIREFIGHTING TOOL. IT IS THE ANSWER TO UNCONTROLLED WILDFIRES IF OFFICIALS WILL ONLY USE IT AS THE FINAL SOLUTION THAT IT IS INSTEAD OF DIDDLING AROUND STARTING DESTRUCTIVE BACKFIRES AND DEPLOYING HOARDS OF UNNEEDED FIRE PERSONNEL DRAGGING THE FIRE ON FOR WEEKS OR MONTHS WHEN THE DC-10 COULD END THE FIRE ANYTIME. THE DC-10 CAN DROP ON VIRTUALLY ANY TERRAIN ANYTIME, SO WHAT'S EVERYBODY WAITING FOR? THEY'RE WAITING FOR THE SPECIAL TALENT OF THE U.S.FOREST SERVICE WHICH IS BUREAUCRATIC INDICISION!-AND WE SHOULDN'T TOLERATE IT ANY LONGER. WE MUST CONTACT OUR LEADERS AND STOP THIS ATTACK BY FIRE ON OUR SOCIETY NOW. -ED NEMECHEK 76O-246-8059.

It's flyking over Nordoff Ridge right now.

Hi there,
The Santa Barbara Independent posted this:
One of those at Live Oak told me the radio traffic was intense. “From 2-4pm the reports coming back to us were that we’d lost the Monte Arido ridge. By 5pm, however, we got the word we’d held the ridge.”

The commotion heard on the radios was focused on a section of the Monte Arido ridge where the fire had jumped the line. Two hundred acres had burned into Matilija Wilderness on the Ventura side before air attack could get a handle on it. Without any hand crews in the area, everyone thought the ridge was a goner, but with an intense air attack out in front of the slopover they were able to check it — at least for the evening.

So, guess what? Matilija people should be packing, yesterday weather conditions were favorable in terms of calm winds so that the tankers could get in there. It is in mother nature's hands (the wind), and not "containable" without some luck/destiny or whatever you'd like to call it. There is a lot of fuel to burn out there, everyone be safe and those with tender lungs, go out of town for ahwile if you can.
R-

airnow.gov is reporting our current air quality at 76, which falls in the middle of the "Moderate" category (51 - 100). that's down again from the 120 and 104 posted yesterday.

According to the firefighter sites I've been monitoring, the D-10 was called up around Noon with an ETA of 1:25PM. From Anonymous' earlier post it sounds like it made it.

Zaca is raging with several spots burning - Follow the link, and then click on Visible Satellite Animation at the top of the screen to put it in action.

http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/loops/satmaster.pl?S_California

heliport activity has doubled or tripled here from yesterday, so far we have observed three different helicoptors operating out of Casitas Base today ...