Online Fire Tracking? 61
goatbar asks: "Being in San Diego, it is really frustrating to see the lack of information to the public about where the fires are. It seems such a simple thing to have an application where people can add info as to when and where there are fires. We would love to know when it's safe to go home, but with 3 TV stations out, it's hard to know. Seems like basic disaster service, right?"
Hah (Score:2)
Firefighters, stand back.
Re:Hah (Score:2)
He hasn't been sworn in yet. Gray Davis is still in charge. Sorry, I don't remember the date the changeover happens.
Re:Hah (Score:1)
Re:Hah (Score:2)
Re:Hah (Score:2)
In general, the tanker support wouldn't have mattered. It's been too windy for them to fly.
Re:Hah (Score:3, Interesting)
The bombers and water dropping helicopters fly within 50 - 100 feet of the ground to make their drops. Gusty wind conditions create an extremely unpredictable environment. A shift in the wind direction can obscure the flight path for the bomber and even a few moments of blindness could mean instant death.
This is despite the fact that gusty wind conditions render
When was the last controlled burn? (Score:1)
I have to appreciate Australian fire management: toss your cig into the brush and if it burns it was ready to. Like it or not fire is a part of the ecology there in California, too, and the longer you let it go between burns, the worse it will be. Oily bark, twigs and seeds accumulate and would normally burn away at intervals preventing build up to dangerous levels.
Fire code is too important to neglect, even for style. If
Re:Hah (Score:2)
This is Daryl Issa territory. Home to the recall, Pete Wilson, and manifest other horrors.
Funny how the rich white pigs in Scripps are burning it up.
Chula Vista and National City - with Democratic and non-white majorities, got no worry over the fires. 'Cept when the money is doled out county-wide - they'll get nothing again. Al paid-out to rebuild the 5-bedroom homes of retired naval officers outside Tierrasanta.
Re:Hah (Score:1)
Your partisanship in an issue that has nothing to do with politics has made me physically ill. Hopefully some day you'll have to suffer through the same thing.
Re:Hah (Score:2)
Fire Info (Score:2, Informative)
I'm in San Diego (Score:4, Informative)
Incidently, check my journal for my thoughts on the fire.
Re:I'm in San Diego (Score:2)
Re:I'm in San Diego (Score:1)
Well, the question was about the fires in San Diego. Hemet, as you know, is in Riverside County. In San Diego, there was a phone number that I gave in my previous post that was set up specifically to be a clearinghouse for fire information. Maybe it's time to lean on your county supervisors to set up something in your area.
Re:I'm in San Diego (Score:2)
Re:I'm in San Diego (Score:2)
I take it nobody mentioned to you that your copy of the newspaper is a pile of ash?
Actually, so is your front porch.
If I'm not there in 5 minutes to deliver the evacuation order, leave without me.
(Here, in BC, the Governer general gave some medals this weekend to a group of firefighters -- including one who had his own home go up in flames while he was fighting the fires elsewhere).
Not entirely on topic... (Score:1, Offtopic)
You guys all right?
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:1)
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:2)
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:1)
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:3, Informative)
The majority of the pictures are taken from Strawberry Peak which is in between Running Springs and Crestline.
Linkage [rockbandit.net]
I actually had a working photo gallery up with all the pics and descriptions, but it crapped out earlier today. Will try to get it back up and running...
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:2)
Re:Not entirely on topic... (Score:2, Informative)
San Diego (Cedar Fire) Pics (Score:2, Informative)
My friend (he lives in Poway -- about 5 miles from where the fire was last night) went out with a buddy and took some pictures [lickmewhereipee.com] in his area Sunday night. The one with the purple flames [lickmewhereipee.com] is my favorite. (BTW, that web site -- a hobby of his -- is in no way safe for work; as long as you don't go up to the parent directory you should be fine.)
I live about 10-12 miles from the Cedar fire, in Rancho Penasquitos. There's ash everywhere, and the sun was orange today (I he
Re:San Diego (Cedar Fire) Pics (Score:1)
Back on topic, I have found the US forest service webpages useful (that other posters have given), but I agree that it was generally hard to find information about where the fires actually were. I know, I'm in E
If you want me to take some specific pics... (Score:1)
Hey, if you want to email me [mailto] with an address, I'd be more than happy to drive on out there (as close as I can get) and take a "roll" of digital pictures to put up on my web site. I'm off all day tomorrow so let me know.
-B
Re:San Diego (Cedar Fire) Pics (Score:2)
I'm not trying to preach doom and gloom, but I think if a fire of that magnitude was anywhere near my house up here I'd go crash at a friend's place out of town for a few days. I can see the desire to try to save the
Re:San Diego (Cedar Fire) Pics (Score:1)
Honestly? I can't. Unless I have to I won't leave. My wife is the senior buyer for a company that got hit by the fires, so she pretty much has to go into work. (The chancellor has closed the university where I work.) And I have another reason for staying which I can't discuss here. But we're not in any real danger unless the winds head west for a while. We'll have some warning. If they call for "volunteer evacuations" w
I didn't risk my life, ... (Score:2)
I should have brought my tripod - everything's pretty shaky. But it does give you a good flavour for it.
The Chatsworth/Simi Valley Fire [amazing.com] as it nears Topanga Canyon Blvd.
D
Re:Fire webcam (Score:1)
To the folks in Southern Cali
Re:Fire webcam (Score:1)
Apparently my brain has some cross-linked files.
Re:Fire webcam (Score:1)
---
PD: I got this joke, it goes "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!"
Jahf: Criminy, I know you think you're funny, but I ate some soup this morning, and I can tell you it's not working.
The Chorus: Oh!, Woe to the human race, the gods have not been kind to men. Their lives are so short! And so miserable! Look. One of them makes a joke. But, another has recognised a fragmentary semblance of his life in the jest, and declares it in bad taste. How sad, how pathetic, the gods
Re:Fire webcam (Score:1)
Semi-realtime satellite image of fire status (Score:4, Informative)
http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/archive/cgb2003
From the site: "MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program
Welcome to the USDA Forest Service Remote Sensing Applications Center's (RSAC) MODIS Active Fire Mapping web site. Here you will find information on current large fires, active fire maps, and fire imagery as seen by the MODIS instrument on board NASA's EOS satellites, Terra & Aqua."
Also, the San Diego Union Tribune has a lot of good information at http://www.signonsandiego.com/ I think checking the web site of the local newspaper is probably the best way to keep up to date. They has links to lists of evacuated areas that are cleared for people to return.
James
Re:Semi-realtime satellite image of fire status (Score:2)
My biggest complaint is that the site takes a long time to load - too fsck'ing many ads when dealing with emergencies. I'd like to see a much leaner site with a short update on the fire and a link to the full blown website. What I'd really like to see is a much more detailed map showing where the firelines are in close to real time - the fire maps on the website's
Re:Semi-realtime satellite image of fire status (Score:2)
The good news is that none of them are threatening homes or other structures at the momemt, and no lives have been lost as a result of them.
Re:Semi-realtime satellite image of fire status (Score:1)
What would it take to get close to realtime satellite coverage of high-risk areas? If you can detect new fires within hours/minutes/seconds, you could send a quick response team with their airplane full of water and extinguish the fire before all hell brakes loose.
What kind of technology is being applied nowadays to detect forest fires when they are still small, or do the first reports come in long after it went out of control?
With the kind of media attention forest fire
Re:Semi-realtime satellite image of fire status (Score:1)
Fire is a normal part of most forests. Periodic small fires clear out underbrush, fallen leaves, and pine needles, reducing the amount of fuel available and making large fires less common. The small fires also rarely spread from the ground to the treetops, so large trees usually survived the fires.
Back in the early to mid 1900s, the Forest Service built an impressive network of fire watchtowers in the western fo
This isn't right! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This isn't right! (Score:2)
Re:This isn't right! (Score:1)
Heh - makes me think of this line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
King: Listen, lad: I built this kingdom up from nuthin'. When I started here, all of this was swamp! Other kings said it was *daft* to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em! It sank into the swamp. SO, I built a second one! That sank into the swamp. So I built a *third* one. That burned down, fell over, *then* sank into the swamp. But the fourth one......stayed up. And that's what you're gonna get, l
Any Fire Ground or Incident Control Radio Freq's? (Score:2)
Oh, and what type of radio system is used here?
Eg, conventional (eg through repeaters) or, say,
some trunked radio network(s)?
In any cause, are there any online scanners
that haven't got "fire-dotted" ( =
TIA
Re:Any Fire Ground or Incident Control Radio Freq' (Score:2)
www.arrl.org
here they are! (Score:4, Informative)
I use the "standing on my roof method" (Score:1)
That's what radio is for. (Score:2)
Radio is always a good option for emergencies - small, portable, lasts long on batteries, and even if the 'net and most tv stations go down, radio will still be working.
-Adam
"Basic Disaster Service"? (Score:1)
Look Harder... (Score:4, Informative)
Broad overview by the National forest Service [fs.fed.us]
Excellent PDF of California, updated more than daily [fs.fed.us]
Satellite imagery (Forest Service, very amazing) [fs.fed.us]
More satellite imagery (NOAA, false colored with fires highlighted) [noaa.gov]
National Interagency Fire Centers wildfire reports [nifc.gov]
Interactive (zoomable) airspace restrictions map [blm.gov]
And this is just the tip of the iceberg/what I happened to bookmark.
Anm
Re:Look Harder... (Score:1)
Sorry all, but the links are valid.
Straight up (Score:2)
First tip: Get an analog radio scanner. You won't need one of the fancy new digital models, most of the fire response stuff happens on older frequencies that are set aside for interagency response. I spent about $200 on a Radio Shack model two years ago. Look for a frequency chart, or
You aren't a real geek ... (Score:2)
Thanks! (Score:1)
The worst coverage out there was KOGO. One guy called in his porn site. Thanks... the fire got 3 miles from my house and 1.5 from my storage place. Not what I want to hear. Just figured that tons of people have hand help GPS units. It's easy to use
Great Fire SItes (Score:2)
Enjoy,
The JungleBoy