Monday, October 13, 2008

Marek Fire at Dawn

My niece lives in an area of Sylmar, CA (upmost Northern part of Los Angeles) that was evacualted because of the Marek wildfire. 70-mph winds pushed the flames across the 8-lane Foothill Freeway. Here's her message:

Hi Billy!

My neighborhood was definitely in danger at 5:45am this morning when we had a mandatory evacuation. As we left at 6am I could see flames at the end of the development on treetops and the hillsides just outside the area of the houses! Very scary.

Marek Fire at Dawn
Originally uploaded by Noe M. Torres
But they seem to have tackled it and got it doused, according to the news. The news video shots from the air show the hillsides behind the houses to be black as coal right down to the edge of the houses. The bulk of the fire crisis seems to have moved west down the 118 to Porter Ranch and Chatsworth now... Still it's all only 5% contained, and they're expecting more 70mph winds tonight. I'm staying at Omie's in LaCanada and hope to be able to go home soon, but maybe not till Wednesday when the weather changes... Keep thinking the good thoughts...

Hugs, Melissa


Boy I sure hope her place stays intact!

More dramatic photos are up at my other niece's blog.

1 comment:

tangobiker said...

My niece left the following message (on Facebook):

Hi Billy.

All is well now. We got to return home and everything is intact. There isn't even much ash since the wind blew it all away, except the bits caught in the spider webs! Tiff posted some dramatic photos of the fire (taken by me and my neighbor) on her FB page - check them out!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1409245&id=720890145&ref=nf

Thanks for thinkin' the good thoughts! :-)

- Misty