This is Not A Nuclear Attack
The Better Half and I were out shopping this afternoon. We paused briefly near the Torrance (California) Airport, Zamperini Field, where she took this photo of a massive brush fire in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, near La Cañada, about forty miles north.
The convective force of the fire is elevating the smoke that combines with atmospheric moisture to form this smoky cumulus build-up that resembles a nuclear cloud. Clickable image.
6 Responses to “This is Not A Nuclear Attack”
drjim on 29 Aug 2009 at 2207 #
The GF and I were going back to her place from downtown Long Beach, and as we got up into Signal Hill, we could SEE the fires burning up in the mountains. She’s lived here all her life, and can NEVER remember seeing the flames from Long Beach before.
I fired up my scanner as soon as we walked in the door, and the fire channels are still going strong.
Minstrel on 30 Aug 2009 at 0731 #
In the 1980’s I remember one time when the fires were going full on during Santa Ana winds. I can’t remember seeing flames during the day, but at night it was scary. It looked like the wall of fire was headed toward the city and nothing would stop it. Fortunately, the marine overcast came in the next morning and the firefighters got the much needed change in weather to help them stop the menacing flames.
God bless the first responders.
Linoge on 30 Aug 2009 at 1158 #
After surviving (and escaping) the 2007 fires in San Diego, I think I will be just as happy never having to go through that kind of thing, ever again. I still remember sitting on the porch of my apartment, watching the line of fire crawl across the hill out by Otay Lake…
That cloud is something else… Definitely one of those sights that makes you stop and look again, just to be sure.
Minstrel on 30 Aug 2009 at 1540 #
We remember the 2007 fires. It was sad to see all the damage done in the San Diego area.
We have lived here for a long time, and while there have been fires nearly every year, it just gets worse with all the new homes built on areas bordering or even within high fire risk areas.
TheGunGeek on 31 Aug 2009 at 0956 #
The plume brings back memories. At one job I had just recently started in the Gold Rush country up in the Sierra Nevada foothills we had all stopped working and were looking out the big picture window at one just like that about 5 miles away.
The house I had just moved into had very few bushes and trees since they had been burned out by a big wildfire a couple of years before. Seeing that smoke did not make for a very comfortable feeling.
That fire provided some informative video footage, though. A guy had hooked up sprinklers and misters on his house (complete with generator and well) to include sprinklers on his roof, and was watering his house down as the fire surrounded it. A news chopper got some great coverage of this one house in the middle of the fire. Water spraying everywhere, steam flowing freely, and the house not burning. Then, suddenly, the winds created by the fire flipped over a cushion from off of his lounge chair on the patio and it went up against the house. The newly exposed and dry bottom of the cushion burst into flame. Even with all kinds of water going all over the place, it was enough to catch the house.
Now, the house had to be at some ridiculously high temperature after being in the outdoor oven and all. It was probably on the verge of lighting itself up anyway. It went from being perfectly intact to being a heap of smoldering ashes in about 2 minutes. Nothing sticking up over about a foot high except for the appliances and some conduit.
Fortunately, the owner had evacuated when emergency crews came by. He just left the house hoping his system would work, and it almost did.
Minstrel on 01 Sep 2009 at 0701 #
Gold Rush Country - that’s where we’re headed next week for our vacation. I hope that we don’t get any wildfires!