The Ojai Post

Why hasn't it been on the news? The fire near Santa Cruz has been on the news and it is 10,000 acres smaller. I thought there was a closer fire as the air and sun had an orange cast to it.

From the VC Star:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/aug/13/socal-fire-prompts-150-homes-ranches-to-evacuate/

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - Officials say 150 more homes and ranches have been ordered to evacuate because of a growing wildfire in northern Santa Barbara County.

County spokesman William Boyer says the new evacuation order was given Thursday afternoon along the western edge of the Los Padres National Forest, toward Santa Maria.

Ten other homes and 14 ranches had previously been evacuated.

Boyer says the blaze, which started Saturday, has grown to 56.4 square miles.

A temporary emergency shelter has been set up at the New Cuyama High School.

A shelter for larger animals including horses and cattle has been set up at the Santa Maria Fair Park.

More than 1,600 firefighters are trying to control the blaze.

so sorry to hear about another fire. but, i must say, that is a beautiful photo.

The fire was caused by a meteor strike in the Los Padres National Forest during the Perseid meteor shower over the last two days. We are not being sufficiently warned regarding HORRIFIC air quality due to concerns from Santa Barbara County's regarding of loss of tourist dollars and real estate depreciation. It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOT TO PERFORM ANY ACTIVITY OUTSIDE ACTIVITY - IT IS CURRENTLY THE WORST AIR ON RECORD AND WE ARE NOT BEING INFORMED. BRING ALL PETS INSIDE AND DO NOT GO OUTSIDE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. PERFORM YOUR OWN AIR QUALITY TESTS IF YOU DOUBT THIS INFO. LOCAL AUTHORITIES HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED NOT TO ISSUE WARNINGS. SPREAD THE WORD. SPREAD THE WORD NOW.

TYLER, PLEASE INVESTIGATE AND HELP SPREAD THE WORD - IT IS NOT ON THE NEWS BECAUSE:

(A) SANTA BARBARA DOES NOT WANT TO LOSE TOURIST DOLLARS
(B) IT WAS CAUSED BY A METEOR STRIKE
(C) THE AIR QUALITY IS SENDING LOCAL ASTHMATICS INTO THE EMERGENCY ROOMS

DO NOT BREATHE THE AIR!!! OUR LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE NO LONGER WARNING US!!!! STAY INSIDE AND CLOSE THE DOORS AND WINDOWS!!! NOW!!!!!!!!!

Emergency, are you talking about the air quality in Ojai? or Santa Barbara? What are you source for the meteor strike concept?

Go inside immediately and start smoking pot !

But I didn't inhale!

On a more serious note, Emergency/Whistleblower...

First, as I pointed out in the thread about the forest, Perseid meteors have so much ice in them, they do not land. They melt.

Second, why would a meteorite cause such horrible air quality?

Third, what is your source?

(I'll refrain from presuming that it's alien messages through the fillings in your teeth for the moment...)

Latest info (inciweb)-
The La Brea Fire has now crossed Horse Creek and is burning to the south. On the east side of the Sierra Madre Ridge, the fire has reached Bates Canyon. On the west side, the fire has crossed La Brea Creek and is now in Bear Canyon. In an effort to secure the western flank of the fire, the helitorch will burn along the dozer line from the Colson Peak area to the northwest. Crews will continue the burning operation tonight if conditions permit. The north and northeast fire lines continue to hold the fire in the area of Treplett and Miranda Pine.

Firefighters continue to battle the blaze with all means at their disposal including the best tools, technology and equipment available. Despite extensive efforts, the fire continues to grow thousands of acres each day. This intense fire activity is due to a combination of extremely dense, old vegetation, very dry fuels, and constantly changing winds

Plus there is a second fire - the Palmer Fire - location area of Highway 101 and Palmer Road - approx 100 ac - reported 80% contained.

I knew there were fires when I woke up this morning with an orange sun up here in Upper Ojai - in the afternoon (when the haze burned off) the sun was orange in Carp. Looks like it'll be another smokey day tomorrow. The La Brea is burning into the ol' Zaca area. This one is still a long way away - sure hope it doesn't turn into another Zaca or Day and end up on our door steps. Plus I sure hope all of our firefighters and neighbors up North stay safe.

the Sky is Falling!

Amazing how they put the fire in Santa Barbara earlier in the year was put out so fast and this one, not so much.

As of this AM the fire is now 67,092 ac and growing. If anyone is interested Live 25hr feed - La Brea Fire

It looks like it is cranking.

By the way, thanks Tyler for the link on how to make hotlinks work on this thread!

Nothing like trying to jam more hours in our days (24 vs 25)- sorry for the typo. I'm just thrilled I can finally get hyperlinks to work on this site(smile).

Maybe they are letting it burn so much to clear out some of the old growth or maybe the economy has cut back on fire fighting services.

Maybe they are letting it burn so much to clear out some of the old growth or maybe the economy has cut back on fire fighting services.

Meteors are broken off pieces of comets that continually orbit the earth. That's why we have meteor showers every year. Comets are made of ice and dust.They cannot melt in space. It is too cold.

Spirit, you're right, meteors don't melt in space.

However, they do as they enter the atmosphere. The vast majority melt miles above the Earth.

Another cool fact about meteors: the light we see is actually the air around them glowing because they move so fast they rearrange the air molecules...

most of the meteor showers are from asteroids, as I recall from my earlier years in the biz. but yes, comets and comet fragments which melt in the upper atmosphere can often have rock mixed in with them.

the small comestesimals which melt into the Earth's atmosphere, by the millions every year, bring about a hundred million tons of water to the planet annually ... and considerable carbon, nitrogen and probably minerals.

the meteorite showers however are normally old inner-solar-system material, so little or no water/ice/snow left. only the 'newly arrived' comets and cometesimals from the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud bring in 'fresh' water to our atmosphere.

and, yes, the fire you see surrounding the falling star meteorites is from the ionization of the air AND the burning and melting of the asteroids. the small ones normally break and burn up totally, the larger ones land small and large chunks of HOT rock on the planet.

would be fun to see some stats on the mumbers and sizes of meteorites which actually reach the planetary surface at terminal velocity. I recall from our experiences with satellite and skylab parts, and shuttle debris, that you don't particularly require large pieces in order to get through the atmosphere.

we don't get any data on the military and intelligence sector debris, for the same reason that we get very little reliable information from the public agencies like NASA ... "eyes only", need to know ...

They believe they have found the cause behind the La Brea Fire: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/announcements/article/1803/9150/

new photo, above, added to story.

in Ojai West we have been getting tiny ashes (meteorites?) raining down last 24 hours or so that we have noticed. fire-consumed acreage count as of this time is 85,000 acres ...

Hey MT:

Thanks for your post w/more info about meteorites! I find this all very interesting.

(And I should have been more clear in my post to Spirit -- I was talking specifically about Perseid meteors which are from the Comet Swift-Tuttle, and as such are pretty much bits from a giant dirty snow ball...)

Your question about meteorite data got me curious so I went a-hunting online...

According to Wikipedia, an estimated approx. 500 ranging from the size of marbles to basketballs hit a year and only about 5 or 6 of those are actually found...

But the really interesting thing I just found was the announcement that a large rock photographed by the Martian rover Opportunity is actually a meteorite:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sciencefair/2009/08/mystery-martian-rock-a-meteorite.html

Cool! :-)

electric-all, Leigh!

our electrodynamic/plasma knowledge of the Solar System and entire creation has wholly thrown-out the christian-corporate dogma of our divine living cosmos. this on meteorites from the Thunderbolts forum website:

Popular comet theory has never worked. The idea that (electric) comets are "dirty snowballs" or "icy dirtballs" evaporating in the warmth of the Sun is challenged by volumes of space age observation: an abundance of comet images and other data from several probes of comets, cometary dust samples, a close-up look at the impact of a projectile on a comet, measurements of charged particles in the comas of comets, considerable information on surface chemistry (including the baffling absence of water ice), and numerous observations of "impossible" comet behavior, such as (electrically) discharging way too far from the (Electric) Sun, explosive eruptions, and even breakup of comets.

Electric Comet

'tantalizing' ...

hope you don't mind if I post my (electric?) photo, 'above'.

Interesting argument on the makeup of comets -- I've been reading comments from NASA folks.

Can you tell me more about who the Thunderbolt forum folks are?

the most brilliant international dialog group on space science, astrophysics, cosmology that I have ever run across ... without peer (and no peer review, so LOTs of young people.)

it was organized by David Talbott of Oregon and Dr. Wallace Thornhill of Australia ("Electric Universe", "Thunderbolts of the Gods") -- so it is ninety percent free-ranging and on-the-mark (ten times more so than institutional physics). [Note, it does have to kowtow a little to Talbott's shallow science and patriarchal psuedo-mythologies.]

still, again, ten times more real science/physics there than you will get in a lifetime in academia.

Sounds marvelous, MT!

Thanks for sharing -- I'll go hunt it down when I have a minute...

Back to the original topic -- has anyone seen the LA Times this morning?

The La Brea fire was caused NOT by a meteorite (Perseid or otherwise) but by people on a marijuana farm...

Huge Santa Barbara Wildfire Caused by Marijuana Farm; Suspects at Large in Forest

Leigh, I posted that info (or tried to) a few days ago. I do not have the blessing of understanding how to do links yet...sigh::::
But I also tried to post it on the piece written about the pot farms in Los Padres? I think it's so intriguing that was written about then boom! this fire. Scary to think our peaceful forests are being threatened with international drug trade!

DK - I was as stumped as you until Tyler added a 'link to example' in his instructions on how to post (the text just above the box you start typing your response in).

Click on the link to the examples, and copy his first example (the one liner) - and paste it into your response. Then replace the "http//www.ojaievents.com/" with your link (make sure you keep the ' " 's at the start and end of your link - next replace the 'Ojai Events' with whatever you want to call your link (this will become the underlined text in your post that is the hyperlink). Then you can test it by selecting 'Preview' prior to actually posting your response.

I to sure wish it was easier to post links here, but at least Tyler gave us a few examples we can follow.