Southern California Fires

“It looked like the end of the world.”

MITCH MENDLER, a San Diego firefighter, on the Southern California fires that have forced the evacuation of 250,000 people

As of this morning, there were 15 fires burning in Southern California: San Diego county, in the mountains, and circling Los Angeles. It is all a bit crazy. The sad news is that some of the recent fires were started purposefully, when firefighters and resources are already stretched thin.

Residents from Stevenson Ranch watch as a sky crane helicopter being used for the fire fighting effort scoops water from the 9th hole at the TPC Valencia golf course in Valencia, Calif.

Smoke rises from the Stevenson Ranch fire north of Los Angeles, in the background.

Smoke billows to the sky above where fires are spreading near houses in Stevenson Ranch, California. Fires today began near the Magic Mountain Parkway which is one of more than a dozen fires that have hit Southern California damaging hundreds of structures and forcing thousands of evacuations. Fire conditions are dangerous this year as a result of the driest season since records began 130 years ago.

As smoke rises from a new wildfire in North San Diego County near Fallbrook, Calif., an enormous cloud of smoke sits over the area in the background.

Smoke rises from a vehicle burned by wildfire driven by powerful winds in the Malibu Hills in Malibu, Calif. Wildfires fanned by fierce desert winds threatened thousands of Southern California homes Monday, as firefighters struggled to combat the blazes that rapidly engulfed the region, killing one and forcing thousands to evacuate.

Smoke rises from the Buckweed Fire, in the Santa Clarita, Calif. area is shown in the foreground, while the Ranch Fire near Piru in Ventura County, Calif. area is shown in the background. Both fires are northwest of Los Angeles.

I am fortunate that the mounts by my house are not involved with the current fires.