You guys in Orange County doing ok? Fire looks bad there!

[Joeaksa]

Hope everyone in the Orange County is doing ok, the videos of the fire do not look good and its going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

[sammyg2]

I first saw the smoke this morning after church and said to my wife that this will get ugly fast. I've been watching it all day. My son and I just came in from the back yard watching it. Luckily it's about 5 miles away and I'm west of the fire so my house will not be in danger. The wind is blowing almost due south.

It's hot here, the wind is blowing pretty good, the humidity is about 10%, not good. This fire will prolly be out of control for days.

[Joeaksa]

Sure looks rough on the newscasts over there.

[sammyg2]

Just took this picture from the back yard, It looks worse in person:

[sammyg2]

BTW, there is a very expensive, very large car collection in that hidden canyon neighborhood owned by Gerald Barnes.
A 906 that has bveen shown at Dunkel's, rarest of the rare 356s that are better than perfect, about 20 or 30 cars.
The museum is built under his house.
He opened up up to the OCR PCA one saturday, almost hard to believe. An F-40 parked next to a Ferrari Daytona, at least 6 porsches, a 1920's mercedes cabriolet limo, lots of neat stuff.

I hope Gerald and his family are OK, we'll worry about the cars later.

[sammyg2]

Here's a picture of Gerald's 906E which was a class winner at the Palos verdes concours in 2006, he has a Ferrari Enzo (that has not been wrecked )

[sammyg2]

Another pic of his 906 and a couple of his RSK. One is taken in his museum which has mrals painted on the walls that depict he and his family driving through famous European streets in his collection of cars.

[Joeaksa]

Just heard that there is another fire that just popped up, 20 miles away in Corona CA.

Santa Ana winds do not make this easy. Still remember them when I was living in San Diego.

Good luck guys!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Geez, just saw this. . . Is that what I smelled today? I didn't see any smoke and didn't know there had been a fire break out (was out for a nice long bike ride today). Hope everyone is okay.

[Joeaksa]

Sammy,

Any updates on the situation? Does not look good on TV and tomorrow is forcast to be more wind and high temps.

[sammyg2]

This afternoon the wind died down quite a bit and that slowed the advance of the fire. it's still zero percent contained but having the wind basically go away was a godsend. It'll probably be back in the morning but as least people will still have their houses until then.

I was amazed at how many helicopters and planes they brought in to fight this fire along with many hundreds of ground crews. They are taking it very seriously and are throwing everything at it they can get.
Earlier today I expected this to be a terrible tragedy. Now I'm starting to
feel a bit of optimism.
Keep your fingers crossed.

There but by the grace of God.....

[84porsche]

It's definitely burning out here, I have all the windows closed now and the fans running but everything smells like smoke. I am probably about 3-4 miles away from the heart of it. Hopefully they will contain it pretty soon. Same place as last year burning again.

[450knotOffice]

From 36,000 feet today I could see the smoke for over 150 miles and the plume actually was carried in a straight line all the way out to sea and at least 20 miles PAST Catalina Island toward San Nicolas Island.

[Joeaksa]

Wonderful... just came out that the car that started this fire was stolen and that it was set on fire to try to hide the crime.

All of this destruction for a punk or three stealing a car....

[fingpilot]

80% contained as this latest news report. Came in from Vegas last night, could see the glow.

Is supposed to be 95F today here in the Valley, is 84F in the hangar at 1145. East wind.