My Wife's cousin is in Magalia CA. That's the Paradise area where the Camp fire destroyed the town of Paradise, northern CA. Magalia was devastated to. He was in the Bay area when the fire started, his wife was at the hospital for a doctors appointment. They mandatory evacuation came while she was at the Hospital. She had just enough time to run home and grab the dogs, and a cat or two. She's a big cat lover, three of them wouldn't come out of hiding, so she had to leave them. Until last night they didn't know the fate of there homes, they have two there, their daughter and her two kids live across the street in one. They found out last night that both houses survived unharmed, only 6 or 8 homes in their circle survived. He has an early 70's Chevy stepside that he's owned since the 70's, and his Dad did a tour or two in Vietnam, came home and was killed in a helicopter crash shortly after, so he has his Dads flag, and a few other personal items in the home, he thought all that was gone. Thankfully they are ok. He was going to try and get into the house today, but wasn't sure he could. He was told earlier in the week that it might take 6 months to be able to move back in, and close to two years to rebuild if the house had been lost. I pray for the ones who lost everything, as well as the one's that lost their lives there, the death toll and the missing keeps going up. Won't be easy for anybody involved for awhile.

I'm sorry for everyone impacted by these fires. I was in Sacramento earlier this week and couldn't believe how thick the smoke was.
Regarding the burying of utility lines - that certainly needs to be reconsidered based on the # of fires in recent years and the # expected. It's Hobson's choice though - buried lines are vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters. Also the cost is enormous - average $1M per mile. Could easily triple your utility bill. 
Personally, I think the long-term solution is whole house batteries. They can be charged up from the grid during low-risk times and then the lines can be turned off during high-risk fire danger times, or at least turned on just for short periods. I know the battery tech is not there yet.

Santa Ana winds are a strange phenomena. 50 miles up the coast in Santa Barbara, it's been quiet all week. We had our turn in the barrel last year, and the year before… and the year before that. All indications point to utility lines as the source of our fires, and the current Paradise fire. It's time we bury our utility lines underground like most other industrial nations are doing.

Reminds me of the joke about Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell time-traveling to the present. Alexander Bell is handed an iPhone and he doesn't even know what it is. Edison is shown our power grid and says, "Yep, just like I left it."

Thanks to all those who have contacted us to check how we are doing. We're okay, but a lot of folks aren't.

Well, things got pretty exciting here in Agoura Hills, part of the fire zone in Southern California. 

The circled dot shows our home.

My office is in the lower right corner of the map that shows that unburned area of Agoura Hills. The fire was even closer there. A couple hundred yards East of our building is where the fire jumped the 6-lane 101 Freeway and tore its way down to Malibu. 

Around midnight Thursday, the sky was glowing red off the smoke. The wind was blowing like crazy. The fire crested the ridge not far upwind from us.  Embers were landing in the trees and tumbling down the street. Thick smoke, with the Sheriffs racing down our street on loudspeakers ordering a mandatory evacuation. Okay, now it's time to go. My wife had left a couple hours earlier, car packed with some of the irreplaceable items and family photos.

A couple streets upwind of us, two houses caught fire and were total losses.

The hills in every direction are black, all the vegetation and trees are gone.

A friend who lives near the famous Rock Store on Mulholland highway lost his family's home. The hillsides of the curvy roads in that area are all burned and the power lines are down. 

Now, with the mountains bare, we're likely to get mudslides when the rains come. 

On the plus side, we don't have hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. Just the occasional earthquake to shake things up. They say that earthquakes are the only natural disaster where you don't have any advance notice. And when it starts shaking, you never know if it's just going to be a little jiggle, or a grand slam. I've been in two big quakes here. 

Kudos to all the firefighters, first responders and pilots of the many water and/or fire-retardant-dropping planes and helicopters.

It seems that there is something about natural disasters that brings out the best in people. We are truly blessed.

the total loss of everything is devastating.  Hopefully these fires will subside and life can return to some kind of new normal.

Norm & Jesse Nelson lost 3 of their beautiful minis plus their home in the Shasta fire

Big AL

A '66 Mustang GT 350 rescued by the best of the best, AWESOME! 

So sorry for the loss, hope everyone can stay safe. Shot of fire workers going above and beyond as usual.