SoCal is Burning ...

It's been this bad and worse many times. In 2003 several separate fires finally merged to become one, with over 900,000 acres burned, over 1300 homes destroyed and several dead. And that was just the San Bernardino fire. There was also a very bad fire at the same time in San Diego. I think we have a long way to go this week to top 2003. Or 1998. or 1993.

I'm not trying to minimize the terrible nature of these fires; they are devastating. But this happens every year. Every October/November. Some years are worse than others, but we never go one year without at least one day like today, with multiple fires all over Southern California.

The amazing thing is the progress we've made in fire safety and structure protection. In the last several years, as I've watched fire coverage, I've been positive a house or street or neighborhood was doomed, and then the firefighters and the aircraft come in and do their magic and no homes are lost. There is footage from this afternoon that I was sure was going to be a hideous disaster - a Super Scooper flew in very low, wobbling and shaking as the pilot fought the wind, scraped the bottom of his plane on the treetops and still managed to dump his load in exactly the right place. I was sure he was going to crash. All the news reporters were certain he was going to crash. I'm sure it'll be all over the news tomorrow.

We have the best firefighters in the country here in Southern California. Bless them for the work they do, and I pray they all remain safe.

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Was it '03 or '04?

Regardless - that one was scary, it felt like all of SoCal was engulfed.

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That is the thing - normally you get Malibu - but not the other suburbs in and around Los Angeles at the same time. Especially in relatively dense areas like Canyon Country.

The one that is of greatest concern to me is the Canyon Country fire - that one looks completely out of control - 10 structures had been lost as of 6pm, and hopefully, this number will remain low.

But, as someone who has lived in LA for a long time, this seems like a high concentration of fires in and around Los Angeles. (The other fires were not quite so close to home).

Updated On: 10/21/07 at 11:36 PM

October 2003. I have a friend who lost everything in that fire. Two other friends had to evacuate, but did not lose their homes.

As of right now, all the fires are completely out of control. I doubt we'll hear any containment numbers much before Tuesday. The key thing firefighters are trying to do is to keep homes and structures from being destroyed, and of course keep people safe. They can do that without necessarily gaining any control over the fires, which of course is the ultimate goal. But the immediate goal is keep people and property safe.

And as I recall, in 2003, there were nine or ten separate fires burning on the first day of that fire storm. Some were large and went on to merge with others and some were very small and extinguished very quickly. The problem with so many fires in different places is the difficulty in allocating resources. We just don't have enough men or equipment to be in every place all the time.

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