Daily Archives: May 8, 2007

Well, my previous post went rapidly out of date in just an hour or so… The wind is up and blowing the flames in a way that makes them spread rapidly to new areas… and they’re now evacuating people from some of those houses… Electricity is gone from some homes… Gosh.

(Click for larger view.) Shot showing the rapidly moving edge of flames….Griffith Observatory off to the left there… the flames have since crawled West over toward the last major ridge before the canyon that leads to the Observatory.

Really sorry about the photo quality. It’s just my tiny little canon from about a mile away. I don’t have a digital SLR with a longer lens…

A number of my favourite trails have definitely gone. Dante’s view (a lovely garden/oasis in the park) sounds like it is either under threat or already gone… Apparently there are deer and coyotes running around confused, poor things. […]
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Ah, yes. In addition to the Jacaranda trees, the temperatures getting up to the 90s, the final exam of my undergraduate courses, and the days of confusion as I try to make the transition from mostly-teaching to mostly-research (I just blogged about it) I’ve had another reminder of the beginning of a long hot summer. Fire.

Click for larger. Flames and smoke of the Griffith Park fire today. You can see them clearly while carrying on with your business in the neighbourhoods near the park.

This time, it hit close to home. No, really. This afternoon a huge fire started raging in the hills of Griffith park (the one I live near, which I often tell you about). I could see flames licking skyward as I made my way home from the bus stop. Occasionally, a helicopter would fly over and dump a load of water on to the flames. (I just missed taking a photograph of a helicopter water drop for you, but a car came up behind me… I was standing in the middle of the road…)

Click for larger. Another picture showing proximity to some homes. You can just see the end of a plume of water from one of the helicopters.

It’s all very odd to see the lands where I regularly hike going up in smoke like that. I […] Click to continue reading this post →