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

Here's a link to a large map of California which pinpoints the locations of this latest round of conflagrations:MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program

Am asking around for causes
of these fires, and the word on the sreet is the
majority of them are arson.
Why so many all the sudden
as soon as the Santa Ana winds come? I went through
the painted cave fire in SBarbara in the early 90's
which was set by a digruntled neighbor.

pete, did you see my post about the tv show starting tonight?

This one is pretty detailed too.

Just how insane does the "pet psychic" have to be before we're suppose to begin worrying about her? Huge fires everywhere, and she's imagining she's in a two-way conversation with a bunny rabbit? And she won't even allow comments under her article?

she won't even allow comments under her article?

for precisely the reason you just illustrated, anonymous 3:33. and since you believe she's distracting from the fires, i'm going to ask that you not do the same by dragging that thread over here.

now, back to fire coverage...

I hate to be an optimist when so many folks are suffering in SoCal, but maybe (for once Ojai – especially Upper Ojai) is going to be spared from fire. Last night the progression toward Ojai was slowed because the Ranch fire burned into the ol’ Piru fire area (2003) – which I was evacuated for. Today the fire slowed its move toward Ojai ‘cause it burned into the Day fire area (last year). Maybe I won’t have to evacuate for a couple of years ‘cause most of the fuel surrounding Ojai has burned. At least I can hope, begin to relax, and not worry about what seems to be my annual evacuation calls (smile).

Maybe Ojai is going to have a quiet fire season – for once in many years!

Geez - maybe I got my hopes up to soon (sigh).

Latest from CalFire 7:53PM:
Ranch Fire
Angeles National Forest
Los Angeles County

This fire has burned 47,240 acres since October 20 and is 10 percent contained. Fire is burning six miles north of Castaic in Los Angeles County. The communities of Fillmore, Piru, Ventura, and Ojai are currently threatened. Evacuations continue in Chiquito Canyon, Hasley Canyon, Val Verde, Hopper Canyon and toward Filmore. An evacuation center is available at Fillmore Veterans Memorial Building, 511 Second Street. Large animals can be evacuated to Ventura County Fairgrounds and small animals to Camarillo Animal Shelter.

Three homes and four outbuildings have been destroyed. 500 residences, 50 commercial properties and 50 outbuildings are currently threatened. Three homes and four outbuildings have been destroyed. 1,264 personnel are assigned under U.S. Forest Service command including 80 CAL FIRE staff. The estimated cost of this fire to date is $4.5 million. Ranch Fire Information Line (626) 574-5208.

I'm still gonna keep my happy thoughts we are going to be safe.

Ginnys, any idea how far distance-wise this fire is from Ojai? I keep having people ask the distance from ojai or ventura but i dont know...
Meanwhile I was glad to hear they think there is much less chance the three fires will merge. at least something is going well!!

Here is some amazing google earth sights.

Today's LA Times has an OpEd entitled "Fighting fire with common sense," by fire expert Daniel James Brown. I promise you it's worth reading!

The on-line version is called "Smarter ways to handle fire." Here's the link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brown24oct24,0,7479526.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

I hope Pete catches this Post. I think he missed my other ones.

What I was asking early in the thread is the extent of
arson- 16 going at the same time is coincidence? In the Santiago and San Diego there is already confirmation someone torched, and it strikes
me as strange the TV would already offer tips on how to renegotiate homeowner's propery claim if first
offer to settle is not high enough. Anyone with
hard factual info to this apparent "conspiracy theory?"

Authorities did say that the brush fire in the hills near Santiago Canyon were deliberately set. I Googled "arson, southen california fires" and found this:

http://amboytimes.typepad.com/the_amboy_times/2007/10/southern-califo.html

Among other things, it points out that "There were 10+ seperate, un-related fires. What are the odds that this many fires could have started coincidentally this close together? Everyone points fingers at the Santa Ana winds and I have heard one story about a downed powerline. But the bottom line is, that is ONE downed powerline, not 10. And wind doesnt start fires, it fuels it."

PS I'm not saying I believe what I read here, just responding to anonymous.

Every Santa Ana season brings out the pyromaniacs & arsonists. I once read, but cannot quote the source, that 85% of all fires in the U.S. are caused by human activity, and that more than half of those fires are arson. Some of the people who set these fires are truly ill, and are doing what they do for no other reason than personal gratification.

However, as I noted (in a possibly paranoid fashion) during the Zaca fire, I believe that some fires are set for economic reasons, and that cover stories are created to explain the fires and hapless dupes are set up to take the blame.

Supposing, for example, one of the largest land-holders in the area was planning on building 70,000 homes in the Piru/Magic Mountain/Santa Clara River area and needed to do an extraordinary amount of land clearing -- land clearing that would otherwise cost millions of dollars -- might it not occur to someone within that organization that a really cost-effective way to get the land cleared would be to set fire to it at the right time of the year, and allow the taxpayers to foot the bill for fighting the fire after it had burned out the required amount of brush? Is this notion any crazier than the notion that someone might overstate or completely fabricate a claim of WMDs in Iraq in order to bleed the U.S. treasury for 2.4 trillion dollars, most of which has apparently gone to private parties and not back into governmental operating costs?

This chills me to the bone!

A couple of random, slightly off-topic points:

1. Suza- you are a very sensitive, slightly "gullible" person. Surround yourself with positive thoughts, white light, should be easy for you as yoga person.

2. Phalarope- 2.4 trillion dollars?
Are you sure?

Thank you El Anonimo, I appreciate that!

I do recognize that I'm, as you say, "slightly "gullible". But, in my own defense, I'm painfully aware that much of humanity turns their gaze away from the shameful cruelty and exploitation of people and animals on the planet.

Did you watch Planet In Peril last night on CNN? Part two is tonight at 6pm. Alas, most of humanity is ignorant and gullible. Things are far, far worse than I thought...Yoga is not just about living in the light. It is about facing the darkness that exists on this planet.

El Anonimo:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_kmafp/is_200402/ai_kepm364272"2.4 trillion dollars

That's one source, but it was also on the front page of USA Today today.

That last one was me.

Phal-
of course I read it as ALL the $2.4T was going into the Iraqi war "effort".

Suze-
I admit it- I'm skeptical, cynical, envious, with a huge inferiority complex and a mega-ego complex to compensate for all of it.

I'm also grateful that our Valley has been spared from the conflagration (that gets us back on topic).

Suza & El Anonimo:

Back when I was collecting 4 year credits at a 2 year college, I had a history teacher who had been at Manzanar. He went there when he was 8 years old - quite old enough to understand what was happening to him, his family, and every other Japanese-American in California. His family lived at Manzanar until they closed the place down, and to say that he left the place feeling bitter would be an understatement.

He was an old man when I took his class, but it was without a doubt the most shocking and unusual California history class I'd ever had. Everything he told us was horrifying, defied just about everything we had ever been told in any other history class we had ever taken in our lives, and was backed up in writing. All of his teaching materials had passed muster with the California Community College system, and I have to assume that these sources were all creditable. One of the books we used was called Readings in California History. I don't know if it's still around, or if it still contains the exact same information if it still exists.

His goal: to disabuse his mostly white, mostly middle-class students of many of their fondly held beliefs about how their state came to be. I guess it worked on me, because to this day I still remember what we learned in that class, and I assume that these things are still happening. That's one of the reasons I think the way I do. The other reason is that for some reason I do not understand -- perhaps it's the way I look -- some very creepy people have told me some truly horrifying things and exposed some of their demented dreams to me, perhaps believing that I was on their side, and that I saw things their way, politically speaking. Imagine finding out that things you thought were merely your own annoying paranoid fantasies were actually true.

That was before the internet -- today, all you need do is Google your worst fears, and you'll find out that someone thinks that these hideous things are actually great ideas.

Things are going to happen -- locally and in our lifetimes -- in the name of land and water that none of us want to believe could ever happen. Why? Because things have always happened in the name of land & water & power & money that most of do not want to believe ever happened, or ever could happen. You don't have to be gullible to know that this is true.

(off topic again)

Phalarope-

My parents were H(with a capital H)olocaust survivors.
They certainly trained me to become a survivor and, among other things, I "survived" my parents.
I have tried my damnest my whole life to trust, accept and love people the best I can.
I have been rebuffed countless times (what else is new?).

And you know what...???

....it's all good!!!

... or at least has the potential to be better

We all survived another fire scare

Big scare
Big relief

(back on topic)

El Anonimo:

I wish I were as positive as you, but I have a hard time with the concept of "it's all good". What am I missing? Am I just having a problem with semantics>

If it were all really good, would this blog and almost all other blogs still exist? Would we bother to worry about Darfur, Iraq, New Orleans, the people who just lost everything they owned in the fires, slaughterhouses, chain stores, fossil fuels, and everything else we talk about here if we thought that "it's all good"?

I can agree that all things MIGHT eventually work out, after a lot of grief and suffering in many cases, but I have a hard time with "it's all good". Can you clarify a bit?

It's new age hip-hop slang shorthand for
"keep on truckin".

I'm sorry I can't be more precise or verbose.

Despair and desperation and grief and suffering could turn me into a robot or an addict.

But I respect what, where and how I can and just "keep on truckin"

phalarope and El Anonimo, kindred spirits on the path, it's easy for new age guru's sitting on their comfy cushions to smile and say "it's all good."
That's just more opium for the masses. Gulible as I am, I don't believe it!

Suza and El Anonimo:

Thanks for responding. What I can agree on without qualification is that you both have good hearts, and that you both want the best for people. That's enough for me, and with that I'll let it drop.