It has been a very hectic day today. The unimaginable has happened, a fire started last night in the far East County, and it has raged west, crossing several freeways. At this point, the 15, 8, 57, 52, 805 and 163 are closed. The fire has crossed as far west as the 805. Just a little further, and it will reach the coast. There is another fire burning in the Southeastern part of the county, so we're essentially surrounded by fire. This morning, the sky was jet black with smoke. Now, it looks like mars with thick smoke filtering the sun. We saw flames from my house around 1PM.... they were towering above some local homes, likely over 100 feet tall.
Here in Burbank, at 6:15 AM, the sun rose and it was blood-red in color.... smoke in the east and the west, with the smell of charred wood in the air...
It's definitely a tragedy. However, your photos are brilliant Ben!
Love the sun shot. It looks like the one that had won a prize before. Do you still have it?
I regretted not taking my camera to work on Friday. The morning sky was blocked by an eerie iridescent orange and red haze. It looked downright martian. Until someone told me it was due to fires I was sure the apocalypse was nigh. The rest of the day the haze was more brown, but still glowing. Visibility was as bad as three to four blocks for good chunks of the day.
Today the smoke was so thick you could smell it; it was nauseous and both my wife and I felt a bit off and had headaches (the heat didn't help, either).
Mind you, we're fairly close to the ocean, so I can only imagine how much worse it is inland, where it's hotter and usually smoggier.
Nice captures, been watching this unfold from North Orange County. I've lived here most of my life, and I've never seen a firestorm like this. Sad thing is this is a long way from being over.
We've been lucky...till yesterday...the smoke from the fires in simi and the ones in san bernadino county were blowing to the east and west of us. Saw the clearest blue sky EVER in san fernando valley yesterday...today..the fires have crossed over the hill onto the san fernando valley side and...we're expecting the valley to get covered with thick smoke....hopefully not.
on the side note..really like your shots. Very nice treatment on em all.
John Wright wrote:
Ben, you never mentioned what part of town you were in. The shots I posted this morning were shot in North Park, south of University Avenue...
I'm in the Allied Gardens area.... not far from Mission Trails which went up in flames last night. I can't believe how horrible the air is this morning. I was outside for about a minute, and I already have a headache.
Oct 27, 2003 at 12:06 PM
John Smeets Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
I'm in Sabre Springs and the fires are pretty damn close to us. I posted one of my own shots in the WA and landscape forum, and I have a few more to post. I am hoping to take a few more today, as I am off work (like everyone else in San Diego). These are pretty surreal times in San Diego.
Nice shots, but I really hate to hear about all of the damage and the ongoing threats. News about the fires has really picked up here in the SE US in the last day or two, so we've become much more aware of the situation.
