500,000

awesome: fema is on the way. i don't know about you, but i'd welcome the return of the santa anas before i'd welcome fema. i mean, what are they going to do? stand around and be incompetent? that's what we need.

the fire down the street, known as the santiago fire, got worse today as a spot fire just sort of up and erupted. sunday night was a little hairy: we watched the flames burn their way across the foothills, north to south, as the winds kicked up a choking amount of dust and ash. didn't sleep much that night, mostly b/c the fire broke out about 30 mins. before sunset, crews were already stretched thin from the malibu and canyon country fires, little was known about the fire, and the conditions just seemed to deteriorate by the hour. things seemed to get a little better yesterday, as 30% containment was announced, but the fire kept spreading south and more and more communities were being evacuated. today, that spot fire caused a ruckus and the first in a series of homes in this fire were lost. b/c of this, the media attention ramped up and we finally got some aircraft relief. frankly, b/c of the lack of house fires, orange county has received little outside help; it's to be expected, especially considering the status of san diego, but still, if you live here, it sucks. it took an unfortunate turn of events for aid to get ramped up here.

speaking of san diego. shit. they're being eaten alive down there. last i heard, a half million people in california have been evacuated.

things are actually looking a lot better outside my window. what a difference aircraft makes. there's been a sizable plume of dark smoke just sitting there all day, accompanied by an eerie amber glow in the sky and raining ash, but now it's dissipated quite a bit (i had the day off, so i've just been chilling at the house). one good thing is that the santa anas have finally settled the fuck down. i usually like the santa anas, how they clean the atmosphere out and bring out the glory of this landscape, but this was ridiculous. i've never seen santa anas this intense, which was the general consensus at work yesterday, as well. i knew it was bad sunday morning when the mountains and foothills were obscured by dust. then i heard about malibu, canyon country, and santiago, and things just got worse by the hour. sunday will go down in infamy around here. shit, even yesterday. there is so much superstitious bullshit surrounding the santa anas-- that they bring out some sort of collective insanity, that they're the cause of all sorts of inexplicable preternaturalism, that they can even cause earthquakes-- but shit, yesterday seemed to bore this silliness out. my boss and i ran some errands around lunchtime and people were acing like they had done lost their fucking minds. erratic driving, on-the-corner proselytizing, general freakery, and a palpable tension, etc., all set against a backdrop of clobbering winds, dark walls of smoke, and a slow burning in your lungs. it was like a goddamned lynchian dreamscape by way of jodorowsky. today was no less weird, particularly w/ this amber glow hanging in the sky, and it was damned hot. i checked the temperature: 99 fucking degrees. in late october. yes, this is southern california, but shit, 99 fucking degrees w/ 8% humidity? we've somehow managed to find ourselves inside a furnace.

without a doubt, this is the most significant wildfire i've ever seen. i was born and raised here and nothing in the recesses of my memory can touch this. not even the laguna hills fire that went down when i was in junior high. i even noticed a few neighbors packing up and leaving. prompted me to make a half-assed plan myself; fortunately, i've not yet had to implement it.

btw, posted a few pix at teh flickr (i love how you don't have to lolify "flickr").